100 Years Ago Today

Thursday, September 30, 1926 · Evening Edition

10:10 PM KST (1:10 PM UTC) · 10:10 – As the clock smiles, reflect on a century of history

Hook Opening: The Night Before

As you wind down your day, picture Seoul on the night of September 30, 1926. Tomorrow, the colonial government will dedicate a vast new headquarters that took ten years to build. Tomorrow, a small film called Arirang will open at a Seoul theater. Tonight sits between the two. One is a monument to imperial power. The other will become something the empire never planned: a song and a story the whole peninsula would carry for a century.

A note on sources: we could not locate the original front pages of September 30 itself. What follows rests on records from the days and weeks around it. Where we found no confirmation of weather, prices or wages, we say so and do not invent details.

Korea Under Colonial Rule

The Government-General of Korea’s new building was begun in 1916 and completed in 1926. German architect Georg de Lalande was commissioned for the basic design. The dedication ceremony was set for October 1, the date the colonial authorities marked as “Administration Commemoration Day,” an annual celebration of Japan’s rule. For Koreans, the date commemorated the loss of their own country.

Press freedom was under strain. The Chosun Ilbo was in the middle of a censorship case over a column, “Hoengseol Suseol,” published August 22. Columnist Choi Won-sun was charged under the Peace Preservation-type security law, and publisher Kim Chul-joong under the newspaper law. Reports say the Seoul District Court sentenced Choi to eight months and Kim to six on September 8. The Dong-a Ilbo had itself been suspended indefinitely earlier in 1926 for printing a congratulatory message on the March First Movement’s anniversary.

Thursday is our day for labor and the economy. The record we could confirm is from January 1926: about 170 workers at the Mokpo oil-pressing factory struck, asking that a 12-hour day be cut to 10 hours and that wages under one won rise 50 percent, and those above one won rise 40 percent. In July, an ironworkers’ union formed in Busan. Organized labor was spreading, plant by plant.

East Asia in Turmoil

Korea’s 1926 was shadowed by grief. Emperor Sunjong, the last monarch of the Korean Empire, died in April, and on the day of his funeral, June 10, crowds shouted for independence in the streets of Seoul. Three months later the courts were still busy: communist-party cases and the newspaper case sat side by side on the Seoul docket.

Across the Yellow Sea, China was fractured. On September 5 in Wanxian (Wanhsien), on the Yangtze in Sichuan, British gunboats fired on the city after Chinese troops seized two British steamers. Accounts of the death toll run as high as nearly 1,000, with more than 1,000 buildings destroyed. Foreign gunboat power on Asian rivers was a daily fact of the age.

The World Stage

On September 8, Germany joined the League of Nations and took a permanent Council seat, returning to parity with the other European powers less than eight years after the Great War. On September 25, Henry Ford announced a five-day, eight-hour workweek for his factories, a move part welfare and part strategy: workers with free time would buy cars, travel and entertainment.

Colonial Parallels

Empires were being questioned everywhere. In Ireland, dominion status was four years old and de Valera had founded Fianna Fáil in May 1926 to press further. India was heading to general elections in November 1926 under British rule that ordinary Indians had little say in. In the Philippines, an American governor-general, Leonard Wood, presided over a legislature that kept asking for independence. In each case, the colonized argued over how, and how fast, to speak back. In Korea the room for speaking was smaller than almost anywhere, which is part of why a silent film would matter so much.

Person of the Day: Na Un-gyu

Na Un-gyu wrote, directed and starred in Arirang, a black-and-white silent film opening October 1 at the Dansungsa theater. Newcomer Shin Il-seon made her screen debut in it. Films of the era were narrated live by a byeonsa (a narrator who spoke the story beside the screen), so every showing was a live performance. We have no confirmed detail on what Na was doing on this particular evening, and we will not guess.

Understanding Daily Life

Verified daily details from September 30 are scarce, so here is only what the surrounding record supports. A ten-year construction project was reaching its ceremony, so offices and streets around the new building were likely busy. A theater was preparing a premiere. Working days at factories like Mokpo’s ran 12 hours. Prices, weather and wages for the day are not confirmed in the sources we found.

Century Mirror

Today, Arirang is a folk song sung around the world and a touchstone of Korean cinema history, while the building dedicated the same day is gone. Modern K-culture, from film to song, still stands on ground that Na Un-gyu and his audiences helped clear. (The film itself survives only in part, as far as we could confirm.)

Tomorrow’s Preview

Tomorrow is October 1, 1926. Two ceremonies, one of empire and one of cinema, take place on the same day. Good night, and join us again.

Sources: The Korean Today’s September 1926 series; Korea’s National History (contents.history.go.kr); Encyclopedia of Korean Culture; Korean Film Archive; Wikipedia “September 1926” and “Wanhsien incident.” Original September 30 issues not located.