King Sejong: The Creation of the Korean Language
Annexation
Emperor Meiji forced King Gojong, the tenth king of the Joseon dynasty, to abdicate the throne, giving the crown to his heir, Sunjong. Sunjong ruled for three years before Korea was annexed by Japan in 1910, during World War II. When Korea was annexed, Japan forced Korea to give up Hangeul and forced the people to learn Japanese. While it was annexed, there was a small group of Koreans called the Korean Language Society, a group that preserved Hangeul and taught it to others in secret. They greatly appreciated King Sejong’s work and thought that it needed to be kept alive. If Japan found out, they would be executed, and many of them were. It is because of them that Hangeul survived and was able to be reinstated when Korea regained independence in 1945.
"Nevertheless, the sacrifice and thirst for independence outweighed the fear of imprisonment, and nothing unifies people regardless of class status more than a universal language."
~ Leah Dietle (Former student at Slippery Rock University, Pennsylvania, were she got a bachelor's degree in professional writing)
Left: Directors and the members of the dictionary staff Korean language reserach society, Seoul Korea. Anonymous. 1949. Arcadia, 2022
Seodaemun prison was built by the Japanese when Korea was annexed. Construction began in 1907 and the prison was opened on October 21, 1908 under the name Gyeongseong Gamok. The prison was made to hold Korean liberation activists during the Japanese colonial period.
