▲ This file photo shows the tombstones set up in 1996 to commemorate the six teachers and the principal killed by Japanese authorities in 1920, taken Aug. 17, 2026. (Yonhap)
▲ Park Hwan (R) and students who joined a tour program of historic sites overseas, led by the veterans ministry, pay tribute to the martyrs at Baedal school, who were sacrificed by Japanese authorities in 1920, near their tombstones in Tonghua County in northeast China on Aug. 17, 2026. (Yonhap)
▲ Park Hwan, a history scholar and a former history professor at the University of Suwon, provides a tour to students in front of the birthplace of Song Mong-gyu, a poet and independence fighter, in Yanbian, northeastern China, on Aug. 19, 2026. (Yonhap)
▲ Historian Park Hwan explains the historical background related to Song Mong-gyu, a cousin of renowned poet Yoon Dong-ju and an independence fighter himself, in front of Song's birth home in Yanbian, northeastern China, on Aug. 19, 2026. (Yonhap)

By Kim Hyun-soo

TONGHUA, China, Aug. 25 (Yonhap) -- A bus carrying South Korean high school students came to a stop at what seemed like the middle of nowhere after passing by acres and acres of cornfields in Tonghua County in northeast China.

Only after hacking the way through bushes to make sense of what was once an intact pathway did tombstones neatly lined up in the middle of the backwoods become evident.

"We are standing at the burial site of seven Korean independence fighters who died for the country's independence (from Japan's colonial rule) on Nov. 3, 1920," Park Hwan, a historian, told a group of high school students touring overseas historic sites in northeastern China.

The burial site was set up in 1996 to commemorate the six teachers and the principal belonging to an ethnic Korean school who were killed by Japanese authorities during Japan's massacre of Koreans living in the Gando region of Manchuria in 1920.

The ethnic school, established in Baedal village in Tonghua County, was founded and funded by graduates and founders of the Shinheung Military Academy, a training facility for independence activists in Manchuria designed to fight and resist Japan's 1910-45 colonization of the Korean Peninsula.

Authorities in Tonghua County and one of the descendants of the martyrs erected the tombstones to honor the sacrifices of the teachers and principal of the school.

High school students who joined the tour program, organized by the veterans ministry, were unable to reach the gravestones, as the path leading to the graveyard was shrouded in high grass and bushes, dampened by the drizzling rain.

Instead, they offered a silent tribute to the seven independence fighters at the entry of the graveyard some 15 meters away.

Park, a historian and former professor at the University of Suwon who took part in the program as a history narrator, said all seven martyrs had been awarded state honors for independence activists.

On Wednesday, the students toured around the birthplace of Yoon Dong-ju, a beloved Korean poet, in Longjing in Yanbian Prefecture, northeastern China.

Hesitating before making a sudden stop, Park gathered the students in front of a wooden gate hemming in a tile-roofed house with no visible signboard.

"You see the tiled-roof house there; this is the birth home of Song Mong-gyu," Park explained, referring to Yoon's cousin and a historian himself, who also devoted his life to the independence movement but was rarely remembered.

Song, who was born in Yoon's house in 1917, was an independence activist who sought to preserve and promote Korean national culture through literature and education during the Japanese colonial rule.

Arrested by Japanese police in 1943 for his involvement in a Korean nationalist student group in Kyoto, he died in Fukuoka Prison in March 1945 while serving a two-year sentence for violating the public security preservation law. He was awarded the Aeguk medal of the Orders of Merit for National Foundation by the South Korean government in 1995.

Though he was relatively less known than his cousin, historians believe Song likely had a great influence on Yoon during his lifetime.

"There is great probability that Song and Yoon had a great influence to each other," said Hwang Min-ho, a history professor at Soongsil University.

Experts said managing historic sites overseas is not easy and often not properly done but stressed the need to allocate more budget to manage historic sites in foreign lands.

"I think the most important thing is for more South Korean citizens to have interest and visit the historic sites overseas," said Seo Kyoung-duk, a professor at Sungshin Women's University.

Seo also pointed out that an appropriate amount of budget needs to be allocated and managed well to support and supervise the historic sites meaningful to Korean history.

Hwang of Soongsil University underscored the need to ramp up funding for the Independence Hall of Korea to ensure "systematic" supervision, as it is in charge of conducting on-site inspections of all historic sites related to Korea's independence movement overseas.

"The problem is the unreasonably deficient number of personnel capable of conducting inspections on-site," Hwang said, suggesting that it would be best to form a department dedicated to managing overseas historic sites under the veterans ministry.

The veterans ministry announced plans to conduct an on-site survey of all 1,032 overseas historical sites related to Korea's independence movement against Japan's colonial rule by 2028.

Under the plan, the ministry will conduct the inspection at 258 sites in China and Japan this year, followed by 413 sites in 2027 and the remaining 361 sites in 2028.

"Based on the findings, we plan to push to preserve the original form of individual historic sites and seek to install markers and create alternative facilities in consultation with local and municipal governments," the ministry said.

Standing in front of the birth home of Song Mong-gyu, Park urged students to remember the historic place, despite its humdrum appearance.

"There is no marker pointing to the house as that of Song Mong-gyu, but please remember that this was his birth home."

(END)

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