Assassination of Ito Hirobumi (1909) by An Jung-geun at Harbin

The assassination of Ito Hirobumi took place on 26 October 1909 at Harbin railway station in Manchuria, when the Korean independence activist An Jung-geun shot Japan’s most famous statesman. Ito had been Japan’s first prime minister and the first Japanese Resident-General of Korea. In Korea An is honoured as a national hero, while in Japan Ito is remembered as a founder of the modern state, and the event still shapes how the two countries see their shared past.

Background: Ito and Korea

Ito Hirobumi (1841-1909) was one of the leaders of the Meiji Restoration. He served four terms as prime minister from 1885 and was the chief architect of the Meiji Constitution of 1889.

After Japan’s victory in the Russo-Japanese War, Ito negotiated the 1905 treaty that made the Korean Empire a Japanese protectorate. As the first Resident-General from 1906 to 1909, he controlled Korea’s foreign relations and, from 1907, much of its government. In 1907 he forced Emperor Gojong to abdicate after Gojong sent secret envoys to the Hague Peace Conference, and the Korean army was disbanded. Ito resigned as Resident-General in June 1909.

An Jung-geun

An Jung-geun was born in 1879 in Haeju, Hwanghae Province, into a yangban (gentry) family. He became a Catholic, taking the baptismal name Thomas, and worked in education before turning to armed resistance. In 1908 he fought with a Korean “righteous army” against Japanese forces near the Russian border.

In 1909, in Russian Far East territory, An and eleven comrades formed a pledge to give their lives for Korean independence, each cutting off part of the ring finger of the left hand as a sign of commitment. When newspapers reported that Ito would visit Harbin, An and his associates prepared to intercept him.

The shooting at Harbin

Harbin was then a town built around the Chinese Eastern Railway, which was controlled by Russia. Ito arrived by special train on the morning of 26 October 1909 to meet the Russian finance minister Vladimir Kokovtsov, reportedly to discuss Manchuria and Korea.

As Ito walked along the platform inspecting a Russian guard of honour, at about 9:30 am, An stepped forward and fired several shots from a Browning pistol. Ito was hit three times. An also wounded three other members of Ito’s party, including the Japanese consul-general in Harbin. Ito was carried back onto his train and died about half an hour later.

An did not try to escape. He was seized by Russian guards and, according to many accounts, shouted “Korea hurrah” in Russian. As the shooting took place in the Russian railway zone, the Russians handed him to the Japanese authorities.

Trial and execution

An was tried with three accomplices by the Japanese district court of the Kwantung Leased Territory at Lushun (Port Arthur) in February 1910. He argued that he had acted as a soldier of the Korean righteous army, not as a private murderer, and set out fifteen reasons for his act, beginning with the 1895 murder of Korea’s Queen Min.

He was sentenced to death on 14 February 1910. In prison he wrote an autobiography and began an essay, “On Peace in East Asia”, which proposed cooperation between Korea, China and Japan; it was left unfinished. He also produced calligraphy that is still treasured in Korea and, in some cases, was kept by Japanese prison staff who admired him. He was hanged on 26 March 1910. His body was buried in Lushun and has never been located.

Aftermath

Ito received a state funeral in Tokyo in November 1909. Japanese authorities in Korea responded with arrests of suspected nationalists, and some Korean groups that favoured union with Japan, notably the Ilchinhoe, used the killing to petition for immediate annexation. Although some Japanese leaders had wanted to absorb Korea for years, the cabinet had approved annexation in principle in July 1909, and Ito had accepted it. The killing did not cause the annexation, but it was followed within a year by the Japanese annexation of Korea in August 1910.

Timeline

• 1905, 17 November: Korea becomes a Japanese protectorate; Ito becomes Resident-General in 1906.
• 1907, July: Emperor Gojong is forced to abdicate and the Korean army is disbanded.
• 1909, June: Ito resigns as Resident-General.
• 1909, 26 October: An Jung-geun shoots Ito at Harbin station.
• 1910, 14 February: A Japanese court at Lushun sentences An to death.
• 1910, 26 March: An Jung-geun is executed.
• 1910, 29 August: The annexation of Korea is proclaimed.

Legacy

In South and North Korea, An Jung-geun is celebrated as a patriot and martyr; a memorial hall stands in Seoul, and China opened a memorial at Harbin station in 2014. In Japan, Ito is honoured as a founding statesman and appeared on the 1,000-yen banknote from 1963 to 1986. The differing views of the two men remain a sensitive issue in relations between Japan and its neighbours.

Why it matters

The Harbin shooting was the most famous act of Korean resistance to Japanese rule before 1919. It turned An Jung-geun into a lasting symbol of the independence movement and highlighted the violence surrounding Japan’s takeover of Korea.