Gwon Dong-jin (權東鎭, December 15, 1861 – March 9, 1947) was one of the Thirty-three National Representatives of the March 1st Movement, a Korean independence activist, and a politician. His family seat was Andong (安東), and his art names were Aedang (愛堂) and Udang (憂堂). In the late Joseon period he wa
Born~Died Dec 15, 1861 ~ Mar 9, 1947Last edited Oct 15, 2026, 2:51 PM
Gwon Dong-jin (權東鎭, December 15, 1861 – March 9, 1947) was one of the Thirty-three National Representatives of the March 1st Movement, a Korean independence activist and politician from Korea. His family seat was Andong (安東), and his art names were Aedang (愛堂) and Udang (憂堂). In the late Joseon period he was a military officer, and his Cheondoist religious name was Silam (實菴).
Major career
In the late Joseon period, Gwon served as magistrate of Haman and as a major in the Joseon Army before joining the Enlightenment Party (開化黨) and taking part in the reform movement of the late Joseon period. In 1882, during the Imo Incident, he fled to Japan together with Son Byong-hee and others. While in Japan, on the recommendation of Son Byong-hee, he joined Cheondoism and became a dosa (道師). In October 1895, at the time of the Eulmi Incident, he took part in the assassination of Empress Myeongseong and then fled to Japan. He lived in exile in Japan until 1907.
He also took part in establishing the Daehan Hyeophoe (大韓協會) founded by Nam Gung-eok, and served as its director of industry. During the March 1st Movement of 1919 he led the independence movement as one of the Thirty-three National Representatives, and was arrested by the Japanese police and imprisoned for three years. After his release, in 1927 he took part in organizing the Singanhoe and was elected its vice president. Later, he was implicated in the Gwangju Student Movement and imprisoned again for one year. After liberation in 1945, he became the leader of the Shinhan Minjok Party and worked as a right-wing politician.
Biography
Early life
Birth and military service
His registered family origin was Chungcheong , and he was also born in Goesan, Chungcheong. He spent his early childhood for a time in , , and later grew up in Sungin-dong (崇仁洞), . In his childhood he studied at Pilun Hakdang together with , , , and others. Later, his registered domicile was moved to Sungin-dong, .
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As a child he moved to Hanseong, graduated from the Joseon Army Military Academy, and held office as a military officer before joining the Enlightenment faction. He served as chamsa of Geomundo (巨文島僉使), magistrate of Haman County (咸安郡守), and major in the army (陸軍參領), and then joined the Enlightenment Party and took part in reform movements. When the Imo Incident broke out in 1882 (Gojong 19), he fled to Japan in exile.
He was once sent to Japan as a government-funded foreign student, where he studied army administration for three years and toured Tokyo and other places to inspect Japanese institutions and culture.
Involvement in the assassination of Empress Myeongseong
At the time of the Eulmi Incident, he was one of the Korean action group that, together with Japanese ronin and Korean guides, acted to kill Empress Myeongseong. According to Gwon Dong-jin, besides himself and his elder brother Gwon Hyeong-jin, Jeong Ran-gyo, Jo Hui-mun, Yi Ju-hoe, Yu Hyeok-ro, and others also took part as direct actors in the assassination of the queen.3
In October 1895, immediately after the Eulmi Incident, he fled to Japan together with Oh Se-chang, Jeong Ran-gyo, and others to escape harm.4 However, he soon returned to Korea secretly.
On June 1, 1900, the Chamjeong (參政) of the State Council, Kim Seong-geun (金聲根), submitted a memorial calling for the impeachment of persons involved in the Eulmi Incident, and Gwon was also named as a participant. On June 4, the Minister of Justice acting in the post of Chanjeong of the State Council, Min Jong-muk (閔鍾默), also submitted a memorial impeaching him.
Social movements and exile
After a long period of exile in Japan following the Eulmi Incident, he met Son Byong-hee, leader of Cheondoism. Having joined Cheondoism, he organized the Jinbohoe together with Son Byong-hee and Oh Se-chang, who shared his ideals, and continued the enlightenment movement.
Meanwhile, during his exile, Gojong asked the Japanese government to return the exiled Enlightenment figures to Joseon. When Japanese special envoy Itō Hirobumi visited Korea in March 1904, Gojong proposed that exiles be expelled overseas or detained in border areas, and obtained agreement.5 The persons designated by Gojong were fourteen people, including Yi Jun-yong, Park Yeong-hyo, Yi Gyu-wan, Yu Gil-jun, Cho Hui-yeon, Jang Bak, Yi Beom-rae, Yi Jin-ho, Jo Hui-mun, Gu Yeon-su, Yi Du-hwang, Shin Eung-hui, Gwon Dong-jin, and Jeong Ran-gyo. However, Japan did not carry out the disposition of exiles it had promised to Gojong.5 Because of the refusal of the Japanese government, he narrowly escaped.
In mid-April 1904, Gojong requested the Japanese Legation in Korea that fourteen political refugees of Korean origin, including Gwon Dong-jin, Park Yeong-hyo, Yu Gil-jun, Jang Bak, Cho Hui-yeon, Yi Du-hwang, Yi Jin-ho, Gu Yeon-su, Jeong Ran-gyo, Yi Gyu-wan, Yi Beom-rae, and Shin Eung-hui, be expelled from Japan, and that the other exiles be repatriated. The Japanese minister to Korea reported this to the Japanese foreign minister on April 14, but the Japanese government refused to repatriate them.
Social organizations and media activities
At the time of the Protectorate Treaty of 1905, he carried out a campaign against the treaty, which failed. On June 3, 1906 (Gwangmu 9), together with Yun Chi-so, Kim Seong-su, Sin Sang-woo, Kim Pil-su, and more than ninety others, he contributed his own money to establish Dongdeok Girls' School, and was selected as one of the founding trustees of Dongduk Girls' High School. On June 16 of that year, when Cheondoism leaders Son Byong-hee, Oh Se-chang, and others launched the newspaper Manseybo (萬歲報), he took part as a contributor while in Japan. However, the paper was closed on July 1 of the following year, 1907.
On September 6, 1907 (Yunghui 1), when persons implicated in the Eulmi Incident were pardoned, he was granted amnesty by special order of Emperor Sunjong, together with Kim Hong-jip, Chong Byong-ha, Cho Hui-yeon, Yu Gil-jun, Jang Bak, Yi Du-hwang, Yi Beom-rae, Yi Jin-ho, Jo Hui-mun, and others. After returning home in September 1907 (Yunghui 1), he was appointed Buchan-ui of the Chuchwiwon and Magistrate of Gyeongheung (慶興府尹), but resigned shortly afterward.
In November 1907 he established the publishing house Bomungwan (普文館). Also in November 1907, he took part as one of the founders of the Daehan Hyeophoe (大韓協會) of Nam Gung-eok, and afterward served as its director of industry (實業部長).
After the annexation of Korea by Japan
After the annexation
After the annexation of Korea by Japan, he devoted himself to Cheondoist missionary work. In November 1918 he visited Osaka (大阪) in Japan, read the principle of self-determination and the Fourteen Points on national self-determination of US PresidentWoodrow Wilson, as introduced in the Osaka newspaper Maeil Shinbo (每日新報), and resolved to carry out a more concrete independence movement. After returning home, in December of that year, together with Oh Se-chang and Choi Rin of the Cheondoist side, he proposed holding a Korean independence demonstration, consulted with Son Byong-hee, and also sent people to the Christian side.
In the March 1st Movement of 1919, he led the movement as one of the Thirty-three National Representatives. The early plan of the March 1st Movement, in which national representatives would be elected from various sectors and the Declaration of Independence would be drafted and announced, is said to have come from the discussion among four Cheondoist figures: Son Byong-hee, Oh Se-chang, Gwon Dong-jin, and Choi Rin. They decided on, first, the popularization of the independence movement; second, the unification of the independence movement; and third, the nonviolent character of the independence movement. And to carry this out as a national movement, they sent people to other religious bodies and obtained the cooperation and support of Christian, Buddhist, and Confucian religious organizations, deciding to form a pan-religious body while composing the national representatives from representatives of each religious order and social organization.
The March 1st Movement
In early February 1919, he met with Choi Nam-seon, Choi Rin, and others, held repeated meetings, and prepared the site of the demonstration and printed materials. Then, having seen the declaration of independence that Choi Nam-seon and others had printed, which stated that "The independence of Korea accords with the trend of the times and is a legitimate exercise of the common right of survival of mankind, and cannot be stopped or suppressed by anything; therefore the Korean people must express their will for independence to the last person and the last moment, and join forces to free themselves from the oppression of Japanese imperialism," he first actively endorsed its purpose together with Son Byong-hee, Oh Se-chang, and others.
He also criticized the militarist policy of Japan's imperialism, its policy of discriminating against Koreans, and racial discrimination; reviewed the letter to be sent to US PresidentWoodrow Wilson, the petition actively supporting and endorsing the principle of self-determination, and the draft opinion paper to be submitted to the delegates of the Paris Peace Conference of France including the group of Kim Kyu-sik who had attended the Paris Peace Conference, and agreed with it. Then, as representative of the Cheondoists together with Son Byong-hee, Oh Se-chang, and others, from February 25 to February 27 he convened Cheondoist representatives, informed Im Ye-hwan (林禮煥), Na In-hyeop (羅仁協), Hong Gi-jo (洪基兆), Kim Wan-gyu (金完圭), and others who had come up to Gyeongseong to attend the closing report of the Cheondoist prayer meeting and the national funeral, of the plan for the independence demonstration, and obtained their signatures on the signature sheet of the national representatives.
At about 2 p.m. on March 1, 1919, he signed as one of the Thirty-three National Representatives at Taehwagwan (泰華館) in Insa-dong, Gyeongseong. At that time, four people living in the regions, Kil Seon-ju (吉善宙), Yu Yeo-dae (劉如大), Kim Byeong-jo (金秉祚), and Chung Chun-su (鄭春洙), did not attend, and twenty-nine people gathered, and Gwon Dong-jin also signed and affixed his seal as one of them. As one of the national representatives, he shouted three cheers of "Mansei" calling for Korea's independence, and was arrested by a member of the Police Bureau of the Japanese Government-General of Korea who arrived at the scene, detained at the Metropolitan Police Headquarters (警視廳摠監部), and then imprisoned at Seodaemun Prison. Because of this incident, he was imprisoned at Seodaemun Prison and was tried during his imprisonment. After the final trial, in 1920 at the Gyeongseong High Court of Appeals he was sentenced to three years for violations of the so-called Public Security Act and Publication Act, and after serving his sentence he was released in 1923.
Independence movement
In March 1926, at his residence in Dangju-dong, Jongno-gu, Gyeongseong, he advocated carrying out a pan-national movement uniting nationalists and communists. In May 1926 the communists and radical nationalists organized the Kukminddang and planned a major national independence movement, intending to elect Gwon Dong-jin as its party leader, but the plan failed because of the advance arrest by the police of the Japanese Government-General of Korea through an informant. After this, he became a focus of attention of the Police Bureau of the Japanese Government-General of Korea.
In February 1927 he actively took part in organizing the Singanhoe (新幹會), the gathering of domestic national movement forces that encompassed left and right factions. Yi Sang-jae was elected its president, and Gwon Dong-jin served as vice president. In November 1929, when the Gwangju Student Movement broke out, he planned to expand the demonstrations nationwide, and was taken into custody together with Cho Byeong-ok, Heo Jeong-suk, and others. Singanhoe sent a fact-finding team to Gwangju to investigate the disorder caused by Japanese students, and after reporting the results, pushed forward to hold a mass rally. As a vice representative of Singanhoe, he was scheduled to deliver a speech on December 13, but because of an informant's report he was again arrested by the Jongno Police Station in Seoul, and while serving his sentence he was tried and sentenced to one year in prison, serving the year at Seodaemun Prison. The Japanese Government-General of Korea, in documents on persons under close surveillance, described him as follows: "Five shaku four sun in height, with a long face and dark skin. He has a mole the size of a five-jeon copper coin on his left eyebrow. He dreams of Korean independence and there is concern he may run movements for it."6
Around the Pacific War
After the 1930s he devoted himself to Cheondoist missionary work. When Cheondoism split into the old and new factions and fell into conflict, he joined the new faction of Cheondoism together with Yi Jong-rin and others.
On April 2, 1938, when the new faction of Cheondoism selected Park In-ho as its new leader (Chunam) at Gyeongunjeong in Gyeongseong, he was elected as the Cheondoist chief representative elder.7
Later life
After liberation
After the liberation of August 15, 1945, he entered politics, took a position supporting the Provisional Government, and worked as a right-wing politician. On August 16 he was asked to participate by the Committee for the Preparation of Korean Independence, but declined. In September, when the Korean Democratic Party was founded, he was elected its leader together with Syngman Rhee, Kim Gu, Oh Se-chang, and others, but declined. In November he was elected adviser of the Seoul Shinmun.
In September he took part in the National Mass Rally Preparatory Committee and joined the movement to welcome the Shanghai Provisional Government, and on October 16, when Syngman Rhee returned to Korea, he went to Gimpo Airport and welcomed him. He then led the Provisional Government welcome preparatory committee as its chairman and received the officials of the Provisional Government.
On December 1 he took part as chairman of the Provisional Government Welcoming Preparatory Committee in the welcoming ceremony for the Provisional Government. The welcoming ceremony at Seoul Ground began with Yun Bo-seon as moderator. Then came an opening address by Oh Se-chang, the reading of the welcoming address by Yi In, and three cheers of "Mansei" led by Gwon Dong-jin. The welcoming address was delivered to Kim Gu through Gwon Dong-jin, Kim Seong-su, and Yi In.8
On December 23, 1945, at 2 p.m., he took part in the memorial rally for martyred patriots hosted by Kim Gu.9 He was elected vice chairman of the memorial rally for martyred patriots.9 When Kim Gu opposed the Moscow Three-Power Conference and pushed a strong anti-trusteeship movement, he became a member of the National Mobilization Committee against Trusteeship Opposition, formed on December 30.10 He was soon elected chairman of the National Mobilization Committee against Trusteeship.10
Final years
Afterwards, as an elder of the right-wing nationalist camp, he took part in the anti-trusteeship movement, and on December 16, 1945, he founded the Shinhan Minjok Party (新韓民族黨) and served as its leader. The Shinhan Minjok Party, together with An Jae-hong's National Party, took part in the founding of Kim Gu's Korean Independence Party.
On February 14, 1946, he was elected as one of the Chief Political Committee members of the Emergency National Assembly.11
In 1946, when the US Army Military Government gathered anti-trusteeship forces including the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea to form the provisional legislative body, the Representative Democratic Assembly of South Korea (commonly called the Democratic Assembly), he was commissioned as a member, but by then he was already an elderly man of 86 and died the following year. Together with Syngman Rhee, Kim Gu, and others who had returned, he was active as a leader of the right. When the Shinhan Minjok Party merged with the Korean Independence Party, he took part in the merger, but after his death, over whether to join the US-Soviet Joint Commission, it differed in opinion with Kim Gu and others and again separated from the Korean Independence Party.
Yi Yeon-bok, Daehan Minguk Imsi Jeongbu 30nyeonsa (Guk-hak Jaryowon, 2006), p. 91 ↩
Gwon Dong-jin (權東鎭, December 15, 1861 – March 9, 1947) was one of the Thirty-three National Representatives of the March 1st Movement, a Korean independence activist and politician from Korea. His family seat was Andong (安東), and his art names were Aedang (愛堂) and Udang (憂堂). In the late Joseon period he was a military officer, and his Cheondoist religious name was Silam (實菴).
Major career
In the late Joseon period, Gwon served as magistrate of Haman and as a major in the Joseon Army before joining the Enlightenment Party (開化黨) and taking part in the reform movement of the late Joseon period. In 1882, during the Imo Incident, he fled to Japan together with Son Byong-hee and others. While in Japan, on the recommendation of Son Byong-hee, he joined Cheondoism and became a dosa (道師). In October 1895, at the time of the Eulmi Incident, he took part in the assassination of Empress Myeongseong and then fled to Japan. He lived in exile in Japan until 1907.
He also took part in establishing the Daehan Hyeophoe (大韓協會) founded by Nam Gung-eok, and served as its director of industry. During the March 1st Movement of 1919 he led the independence movement as one of the Thirty-three National Representatives, and was arrested by the Japanese police and imprisoned for three years. After his release, in 1927 he took part in organizing the Singanhoe and was elected its vice president. Later, he was implicated in the Gwangju Student Movement and imprisoned again for one year. After liberation in 1945, he became the leader of the Shinhan Minjok Party and worked as a right-wing politician.
Biography
Early life
Birth and military service
His registered family origin was ChungcheongGoesan, and he was also born in Goesan, Chungcheong.1 He spent his early childhood for a time in Pocheon, Gyeonggi Province, and later grew up in Sungin-dong (崇仁洞), Hanseong. In his childhood he studied at Pilun Hakdang together with Yun Chi-so, Yi Jong-hun, Prince Uichin, and others.2 Later, his registered domicile was moved to Sungin-dong, Gyeongseong.
As a child he moved to Hanseong, graduated from the Joseon Army Military Academy, and held office as a military officer before joining the Enlightenment faction. He served as chamsa of Geomundo (巨文島僉使), magistrate of Haman County (咸安郡守), and major in the army (陸軍參領), and then joined the Enlightenment Party and took part in reform movements. When the Imo Incident broke out in 1882 (Gojong 19), he fled to Japan in exile.
He was once sent to Japan as a government-funded foreign student, where he studied army administration for three years and toured Tokyo and other places to inspect Japanese institutions and culture.
Involvement in the assassination of Empress Myeongseong
At the time of the Eulmi Incident, he was one of the Korean action group that, together with Japanese ronin and Korean guides, acted to kill Empress Myeongseong. According to Gwon Dong-jin, besides himself and his elder brother Gwon Hyeong-jin, Jeong Ran-gyo, Jo Hui-mun, Yi Ju-hoe, Yu Hyeok-ro, and others also took part as direct actors in the assassination of the queen.3
In October 1895, immediately after the Eulmi Incident, he fled to Japan together with Oh Se-chang, Jeong Ran-gyo, and others to escape harm.4 However, he soon returned to Korea secretly.
On June 1, 1900, the Chamjeong (參政) of the State Council, Kim Seong-geun (金聲根), submitted a memorial calling for the impeachment of persons involved in the Eulmi Incident, and Gwon was also named as a participant. On June 4, the Minister of Justice acting in the post of Chanjeong of the State Council, Min Jong-muk (閔鍾默), also submitted a memorial impeaching him.
Social movements and exile
After a long period of exile in Japan following the Eulmi Incident, he met Son Byong-hee, leader of Cheondoism. Having joined Cheondoism, he organized the Jinbohoe together with Son Byong-hee and Oh Se-chang, who shared his ideals, and continued the enlightenment movement.
Meanwhile, during his exile, Gojong asked the Japanese government to return the exiled Enlightenment figures to Joseon. When Japanese special envoy Itō Hirobumi visited Korea in March 1904, Gojong proposed that exiles be expelled overseas or detained in border areas, and obtained agreement.5 The persons designated by Gojong were fourteen people, including Yi Jun-yong, Park Yeong-hyo, Yi Gyu-wan, Yu Gil-jun, Cho Hui-yeon, Jang Bak, Yi Beom-rae, Yi Jin-ho, Jo Hui-mun, Gu Yeon-su, Yi Du-hwang, Shin Eung-hui, Gwon Dong-jin, and Jeong Ran-gyo. However, Japan did not carry out the disposition of exiles it had promised to Gojong.5 Because of the refusal of the Japanese government, he narrowly escaped.
In mid-April 1904, Gojong requested the Japanese Legation in Korea that fourteen political refugees of Korean origin, including Gwon Dong-jin, Park Yeong-hyo, Yu Gil-jun, Jang Bak, Cho Hui-yeon, Yi Du-hwang, Yi Jin-ho, Gu Yeon-su, Jeong Ran-gyo, Yi Gyu-wan, Yi Beom-rae, and Shin Eung-hui, be expelled from Japan, and that the other exiles be repatriated. The Japanese minister to Korea reported this to the Japanese foreign minister on April 14, but the Japanese government refused to repatriate them.
Social organizations and media activities
At the time of the Protectorate Treaty of 1905, he carried out a campaign against the treaty, which failed. On June 3, 1906 (Gwangmu 9), together with Yun Chi-so, Kim Seong-su, Sin Sang-woo, Kim Pil-su, and more than ninety others, he contributed his own money to establish Dongdeok Girls' School, and was selected as one of the founding trustees of Dongduk Girls' High School. On June 16 of that year, when Cheondoism leaders Son Byong-hee, Oh Se-chang, and others launched the newspaper Manseybo (萬歲報), he took part as a contributor while in Japan. However, the paper was closed on July 1 of the following year, 1907.
On September 6, 1907 (Yunghui 1), when persons implicated in the Eulmi Incident were pardoned, he was granted amnesty by special order of Emperor Sunjong, together with Kim Hong-jip, Chong Byong-ha, Cho Hui-yeon, Yu Gil-jun, Jang Bak, Yi Du-hwang, Yi Beom-rae, Yi Jin-ho, Jo Hui-mun, and others. After returning home in September 1907 (Yunghui 1), he was appointed Buchan-ui of the Chuchwiwon and Magistrate of Gyeongheung (慶興府尹), but resigned shortly afterward.
In November 1907 he established the publishing house Bomungwan (普文館). Also in November 1907, he took part as one of the founders of the Daehan Hyeophoe (大韓協會) of Nam Gung-eok, and afterward served as its director of industry (實業部長).
After the annexation of Korea by Japan
After the annexation
After the annexation of Korea by Japan, he devoted himself to Cheondoist missionary work. In November 1918 he visited Osaka (大阪) in Japan, read the principle of self-determination and the Fourteen Points on national self-determination of US PresidentWoodrow Wilson, as introduced in the Osaka newspaper Maeil Shinbo (每日新報), and resolved to carry out a more concrete independence movement. After returning home, in December of that year, together with Oh Se-chang and Choi Rin of the Cheondoist side, he proposed holding a Korean independence demonstration, consulted with Son Byong-hee, and also sent people to the Christian side.
In the March 1st Movement of 1919, he led the movement as one of the Thirty-three National Representatives. The early plan of the March 1st Movement, in which national representatives would be elected from various sectors and the Declaration of Independence would be drafted and announced, is said to have come from the discussion among four Cheondoist figures: Son Byong-hee, Oh Se-chang, Gwon Dong-jin, and Choi Rin. They decided on, first, the popularization of the independence movement; second, the unification of the independence movement; and third, the nonviolent character of the independence movement. And to carry this out as a national movement, they sent people to other religious bodies and obtained the cooperation and support of Christian, Buddhist, and Confucian religious organizations, deciding to form a pan-religious body while composing the national representatives from representatives of each religious order and social organization.
The March 1st Movement
In early February 1919, he met with Choi Nam-seon, Choi Rin, and others, held repeated meetings, and prepared the site of the demonstration and printed materials. Then, having seen the declaration of independence that Choi Nam-seon and others had printed, which stated that "The independence of Korea accords with the trend of the times and is a legitimate exercise of the common right of survival of mankind, and cannot be stopped or suppressed by anything; therefore the Korean people must express their will for independence to the last person and the last moment, and join forces to free themselves from the oppression of Japanese imperialism," he first actively endorsed its purpose together with Son Byong-hee, Oh Se-chang, and others.
He also criticized the militarist policy of Japan's imperialism, its policy of discriminating against Koreans, and racial discrimination; reviewed the letter to be sent to US PresidentWoodrow Wilson, the petition actively supporting and endorsing the principle of self-determination, and the draft opinion paper to be submitted to the delegates of the Paris Peace Conference of France including the group of Kim Kyu-sik who had attended the Paris Peace Conference, and agreed with it. Then, as representative of the Cheondoists together with Son Byong-hee, Oh Se-chang, and others, from February 25 to February 27 he convened Cheondoist representatives, informed Im Ye-hwan (林禮煥), Na In-hyeop (羅仁協), Hong Gi-jo (洪基兆), Kim Wan-gyu (金完圭), and others who had come up to Gyeongseong to attend the closing report of the Cheondoist prayer meeting and the national funeral, of the plan for the independence demonstration, and obtained their signatures on the signature sheet of the national representatives.
At about 2 p.m. on March 1, 1919, he signed as one of the Thirty-three National Representatives at Taehwagwan (泰華館) in Insa-dong, Gyeongseong. At that time, four people living in the regions, Kil Seon-ju (吉善宙), Yu Yeo-dae (劉如大), Kim Byeong-jo (金秉祚), and Chung Chun-su (鄭春洙), did not attend, and twenty-nine people gathered, and Gwon Dong-jin also signed and affixed his seal as one of them. As one of the national representatives, he shouted three cheers of "Mansei" calling for Korea's independence, and was arrested by a member of the Police Bureau of the Japanese Government-General of Korea who arrived at the scene, detained at the Metropolitan Police Headquarters (警視廳摠監部), and then imprisoned at Seodaemun Prison. Because of this incident, he was imprisoned at Seodaemun Prison and was tried during his imprisonment. After the final trial, in 1920 at the Gyeongseong High Court of Appeals he was sentenced to three years for violations of the so-called Public Security Act and Publication Act, and after serving his sentence he was released in 1923.
Independence movement
In March 1926, at his residence in Dangju-dong, Jongno-gu, Gyeongseong, he advocated carrying out a pan-national movement uniting nationalists and communists. In May 1926 the communists and radical nationalists organized the Kukminddang and planned a major national independence movement, intending to elect Gwon Dong-jin as its party leader, but the plan failed because of the advance arrest by the police of the Japanese Government-General of Korea through an informant. After this, he became a focus of attention of the Police Bureau of the Japanese Government-General of Korea.
In February 1927 he actively took part in organizing the Singanhoe (新幹會), the gathering of domestic national movement forces that encompassed left and right factions. Yi Sang-jae was elected its president, and Gwon Dong-jin served as vice president. In November 1929, when the Gwangju Student Movement broke out, he planned to expand the demonstrations nationwide, and was taken into custody together with Cho Byeong-ok, Heo Jeong-suk, and others. Singanhoe sent a fact-finding team to Gwangju to investigate the disorder caused by Japanese students, and after reporting the results, pushed forward to hold a mass rally. As a vice representative of Singanhoe, he was scheduled to deliver a speech on December 13, but because of an informant's report he was again arrested by the Jongno Police Station in Seoul, and while serving his sentence he was tried and sentenced to one year in prison, serving the year at Seodaemun Prison. The Japanese Government-General of Korea, in documents on persons under close surveillance, described him as follows: "Five shaku four sun in height, with a long face and dark skin. He has a mole the size of a five-jeon copper coin on his left eyebrow. He dreams of Korean independence and there is concern he may run movements for it."6
Around the Pacific War
After the 1930s he devoted himself to Cheondoist missionary work. When Cheondoism split into the old and new factions and fell into conflict, he joined the new faction of Cheondoism together with Yi Jong-rin and others.
On April 2, 1938, when the new faction of Cheondoism selected Park In-ho as its new leader (Chunam) at Gyeongunjeong in Gyeongseong, he was elected as the Cheondoist chief representative elder.7
Later life
After liberation
After the liberation of August 15, 1945, he entered politics, took a position supporting the Provisional Government, and worked as a right-wing politician. On August 16 he was asked to participate by the Committee for the Preparation of Korean Independence, but declined. In September, when the Korean Democratic Party was founded, he was elected its leader together with Syngman Rhee, Kim Gu, Oh Se-chang, and others, but declined. In November he was elected adviser of the Seoul Shinmun.
In September he took part in the National Mass Rally Preparatory Committee and joined the movement to welcome the Shanghai Provisional Government, and on October 16, when Syngman Rhee returned to Korea, he went to Gimpo Airport and welcomed him. He then led the Provisional Government welcome preparatory committee as its chairman and received the officials of the Provisional Government.
On December 1 he took part as chairman of the Provisional Government Welcoming Preparatory Committee in the welcoming ceremony for the Provisional Government. The welcoming ceremony at Seoul Ground began with Yun Bo-seon as moderator. Then came an opening address by Oh Se-chang, the reading of the welcoming address by Yi In, and three cheers of "Mansei" led by Gwon Dong-jin. The welcoming address was delivered to Kim Gu through Gwon Dong-jin, Kim Seong-su, and Yi In.8
On December 23, 1945, at 2 p.m., he took part in the memorial rally for martyred patriots hosted by Kim Gu.9 He was elected vice chairman of the memorial rally for martyred patriots.9 When Kim Gu opposed the Moscow Three-Power Conference and pushed a strong anti-trusteeship movement, he became a member of the National Mobilization Committee against Trusteeship Opposition, formed on December 30.10 He was soon elected chairman of the National Mobilization Committee against Trusteeship.10
Final years
Afterwards, as an elder of the right-wing nationalist camp, he took part in the anti-trusteeship movement, and on December 16, 1945, he founded the Shinhan Minjok Party (新韓民族黨) and served as its leader. The Shinhan Minjok Party, together with An Jae-hong's National Party, took part in the founding of Kim Gu's Korean Independence Party.
On February 14, 1946, he was elected as one of the Chief Political Committee members of the Emergency National Assembly.11
In 1946, when the US Army Military Government gathered anti-trusteeship forces including the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea to form the provisional legislative body, the Representative Democratic Assembly of South Korea (commonly called the Democratic Assembly), he was commissioned as a member, but by then he was already an elderly man of 86 and died the following year. Together with Syngman Rhee, Kim Gu, and others who had returned, he was active as a leader of the right. When the Shinhan Minjok Party merged with the Korean Independence Party, he took part in the merger, but after his death, over whether to join the US-Soviet Joint Commission, it differed in opinion with Kim Gu and others and again separated from the Korean Independence Party.