An Jung-geun

An Jung-geun (1879–1910) was a son of An Taehun and grew up in Haeju, in Korea’s Hwanghae region. He studied Confucian texts and later became a Catholic, taking the baptismal name Thomas. At Nampo in 1906 he established Samheung School and took over Don’ui School. Business and schooling offered ways to strengthen Korean society as Japan tightened its control after the 1905 protectorate treaty. [S01, S02]

He supported the national debt-repayment movement, then moved among Korean communities in the Russian Far East in 1907. He joined armed resistance and participated in campaigns across the Korean border, but defeat limited that effort. With associates he prepared an attack on former resident-general Itō Hirobumi. On 26 October 1909 he shot and killed Itō at Harbin railway station. An defended the killing as an act by a Korean resistance officer against a leader of Japanese expansion. [S01, S02]

Transferred to Japanese custody at Lüshun, he argued that he should be treated as a prisoner of war. A Japanese court sentenced him to death. In prison he wrote an autobiography and began an unfinished essay on East Asian peace, proposing cooperation among independent Korea, China and Japan against foreign domination. He was executed on 26 March 1910. His remembered assassination emerged from a broader career in education and organized resistance, while his prison writings set political independence at the center of regional cooperation. [S01, S02]