Korean Language Society incident

In mid-1942, an investigation by the provincial police of Kankyōnan-dō led to the discovery of a female Korean high school student's diary. In her diary, she stated that she was punished at school for speaking Japanese, which led to the arrest of the teachers at her school.^[2] Consequently, in October 1942, Japanese police arrested members of the Korean Language Society in Keijō on charges of violating the Peace Preservation Law.^[3][4][2] Following torture, a confession was obtained that the Joseon Language Society was an organization dedicated to the independence of Korea from Japan. However, at that time, the society was engaged in researching the Joseon language, establishing spelling rules, and compiling a dictionary of the Korean language. Members did not engage in group activities that would violate the Peace Preservation Law.^{[citation needed]}

In the late 1950s, Korean linguist Lee Hee-seung (李熙昇) left a memoir. In the early 1970s, a new 'memory' was created in celebration of the 25th anniversary of liberation and the 50th anniversary of the Korean Language Society. In particular, the happening at Chonjin station, which was the beginning of the incident, was reconstructed to fit the status of the Joseon Language Society.^{[citation needed]}

• In 1936, the Japanese government in Korea passed the Chosun Ideological Crime Prevention Ordinance (조선사상범보호관찰령).
• In 1941, the Chosun Ideological Crime Prevention Ordinance was amended.
• In 1943, the 4th Joseon Education Ordinance policy abolished Korean language education, banned the use of Korean, and forced the use of Japanese.^{[citation needed]}

And from April 1939, the Japanese government in Korea abolished Korean language subjects in schools and proceeded to close Korean language newspapers and magazines.^{[citation needed]}

• In July 1942, Park Byeong-yeop was waiting for a friend at Chonjin station in Hongwon-eup, South Hamgyeong-do. He was questioned and taken into custody at the Hongwon Police Station. The Hongwon police searched his house, and the diary of Park Young-ok (his niece) was confiscated. This contained a phrase apparently showing that one of her teachers at Yeongsaeng High School 4 in Hamheung rejected the Japanese law to teach using only the Japanese language. Young-Ok Park and her friends Soon-Nam Choi, Soon-Ja Lee, Jeong Seong-Hee, In-Ja were arrested and interrogated. After enduring torture for several days, they finally incriminated two teachers, Kim Hak-joon and Jung Tae-jin, who had encouraged students to use Hangul, and had tried to inspire a sense of independence by telling stories such as the fall of Japanese imperialism, the revival of the Joseon people, and the story of the sacrifice of Gyewolhyang during the Japanese invasion of Korea in 1592. Both Kim Hak-joon and Jeong Tae-jin [ko] were members of the Korean Language Society.^[4]
• In September 1942, a student at Yeongsaeng Girls’ High School was arrested for talking in Korean by the Japanese police and interrogated.^{[citation needed]}
• On 1 October 1942, the police, having concluded that the Korean Language Society was an independence movement group, began to arrest members, including: Lee Yun-jae [ko], Choi Hyun-bae, Lee Hee-seung, Jeong In-seung, Kim Yoon-kyung, Kwon Seung-wook, Jang Ji-young. Eleven people, including Han Jing, Lee Jung-hwa, Lee Seok-rin, and Lee Geuk-ro [ko], were arrested in Seoul and sent to Hongwon, Hamgyeongnam-do.
• On 18 October 1942, Lee Woo-sik [ko] and Kim Beop-rin [ko] were arrested.
• On 20 October 1942, Jeong Yeol-mo was arrested.
• On 21 October 1942, Lee Byeong-gi, Lee Man-gyu, Lee Kang-rae, and Kim Seon-ki were arrested
• On 23 December 1942, Seo Seung-hyo, Ahn Chai-hong, Lee In, Kim Yang-soo, Jang Hyeon-sik, Jeong In-seop, Yun Byeong-ho, Lee Eun-sang were arrested separately
• Kim Do-yeon (金度演) on 5 March 1943, and Seo Min-ho (徐珉濠) on next day, respectively, and all were detained at the Hongwon Police Station.
• From the end of March to 1 April, Hyeon-mo Shin and Jong-cheol Kim were interrogated without detention.
• Kwon Deok-gyu and Ahn Ho-sang escaped arrest due to illnesses,
• By the end of March 1943, 29 people had been arrested and sentenced to all sorts of barbaric punishments. They were severely tortured, and 48 people had been interrogated.^{[citation needed]}
• Lee Yoon-jae, Han Jing died in prison, before completion of their trials.^{[citation needed]}

The 2019 South Korean movie, Mal-Mo-E: The Secret Mission, fictionalises the story of the creation of the first Hangul dictionary and the story of this incident of torture and imprisonment of key members of the Korean Language society, while apparently remaining close to the facts.^[7]