[100 Years Ago Today] October 30, 1926 – Five Days Before Korea

Hook Opening – Saturday Evening, October 30, 1926

Good evening. It is Saturday, October 30, 1926, in Gyeongseong, the city we now call Seoul. A month ago, a silent film called Arirang opened at the Dansungsa theater. Today, its story still lingers on Jongno Street, the city’s busiest avenue. Meanwhile, the new headquarters of the Japanese colonial government stands in front of Gwanghwamun, the old palace gate. In five days, Koreans will hold their first celebration of their own alphabet. A film, a building and a few letters: that is the story tonight.

Editor’s note: we could not locate the original newspaper pages for this exact day, so this edition sticks to confirmed facts and does not guess at the weather or prices.

Korea Under Colonial Rule – The Building That Hid a Gate

Korea had been a Japanese colony since 1910. In 1926 the Government-General of Korea, led by Governor-General Saitō Makoto, finally had its own monumental headquarters. Construction began in 1916, the building was finished in December 1925, and offices opened on January 4, 1926. A grand completion ceremony followed on October 1, 1926, timed to Colonial Administration Day. The cost, according to Korea’s national archives, was 6,751,982 yen.

The price was paid in heritage. Gwanghwamun, the main gate of Gyeongbokgung Palace, was moved eastward. Heungnyemun, the palace’s inner gate, along with its corridors, a stream and a stone bridge, was torn down. For Koreans, the old royal approach was now closed behind a colonial office. We do not know what happened inside that building on this particular Saturday, only that it loomed over the city.

East Asia in Turmoil – Armies on the Yangtze

In China, Chiang Kai-shek’s National Revolutionary Army was in the middle of the Northern Expedition against regional warlords. It captured Wuchang on October 10, the fifteenth anniversary of the 1911 uprising that began there. One newspaper index entry dated October 30 reports that the warlord Sun Chuanfang’s troops had retaken Nanchang, but this rests on a single line and needs further checking. On October 28 in Rome, Pope Pius XI consecrated six Chinese bishops, the first Chinese Catholics raised to that rank in centuries.

In Japan, the first Wakatsuki cabinet governed while Emperor Taishō, in poor health, left public duties to his son Hirohito, the regent. The emperor would die on December 25. Back in Korea, the shock of the June 10 independence demonstrations had not faded; a police sweep on August 10 had arrested Kang Dal-yeong and 43 others, with some sixty still sought.

The World Stage – London, Managua, Detroit

In London, the Imperial Conference had been in session since October 19. Out of it would come the Balfour Declaration: Britain and its dominions would be “autonomous Communities… equal in status.” On the same day in Nicaragua, President Emiliano Chamorro resigned and handed power to Senator Sebastián Uriza. And in Detroit, the famous magician Harry Houdini lay in a hospital with a ruptured appendix. He would die the next day, October 31.

Colonial Parallels – Equal Status, For Some

The Balfour Declaration is the sharpest contrast available. In London, delegates from Canada, Australia, South Africa and the Irish Free State were negotiating equality with Britain. Meanwhile a colony like Korea had no seat at any table. Ireland, which had won its own state after years of struggle, shows how fast the political map could change, but Korea’s path was blocked. Equality was being defined in 1926, and it was defined for some peoples and not for others.

Person of the Day – Na Un-gyu

Na Un-gyu wrote, directed and starred in Arirang. The film opened at Dansungsa on October 1, 1926, and is remembered as the first great hit in Korean cinema. Later accounts say the narrator, called a byeonsa, was often stopped by police when his commentary grew passionate, and that audiences wept and sang the folk song as the film ended. The theater’s owner, Park Seung-pil, was Korean. The film itself is lost: no print survives today.

Understanding Daily Life – A Saturday on Jongno

We cannot reconstruct this Saturday hour by hour, and we will not invent it. What we know is the shape of the city. Gyeongseong was divided: Japanese-owned theaters clustered around Chungmuro, while Korean-owned houses such as Dansungsa stood along Jongno. Newspapers connected the city to the world. In 1926 the Korean-language Dong-A Ilbo sold about 29,901 copies, the Japanese-language Chōsen Shinbun about 25,428, and the Keijō Nippō about 24,919.

The alphabet celebration was coming too. The Korean Language Research Society, with a magazine publisher called Sinminsa, would hold the first “Gagyanal” on November 4, at the restaurant Sikdowon. They chose the date from a royal chronicle noting the completion of Hunminjeongeum in the ninth lunar month of 1446, which fell on November 4 in 1926.

Century Mirror – What Lasted

A hundred years later, the film is gone, yet Korean cinema marks its centenary. Gagyanal became Hangul Day, celebrated every year on October 9. The colonial headquarters was demolished in the 1990s, and Gwanghwamun has returned to its place. Today, when the world watches K-dramas and K-pop, it is worth remembering the Saturdays when a language and a story were kept alive in a theater and a restaurant hall.

Tomorrow’s Preview

Tomorrow is Sunday, October 31. In Detroit, Houdini will die at Grace Hospital. In Gyeongseong, preparations will continue for Gagyanal. Join us tomorrow evening at 10:10 PM KST.

Sources: Korea National Archives (Government-General building), Kyunghyang Shinmun and Seoul Shinmun reports on Dansungsa, Korean accounts of Gagyanal, Wikipedia (October 1926; 1926 Imperial Conference; Northern Expedition). Original newspaper pages for October 30, 1926 were not located.