June 10 is the 95th anniversary of the June 10 Independence Movement against the Japanese imperialists who occupied Korea militarily and forced untold misfortunes and suffering upon the Korean people.

After the March First Popular Uprising in 1919, broad segments of the working masses including workers, farmers, youth and students actively joined the independence movement in Korea, reinforcing the trend towards the anti-Japanese struggle.

Facing a serious crisis of its colonial ruling system, the Japanese imperialists pretended to encourage the Koreans’ participation in politics by way of covering the silk veil of “cultural rule” over the bayonets of the previous “military rule” and drawing some pro-Japanese elements into the “advisory council” of the governor-general. Under the signboard of “promoting the expressions of public opinion” they sanctioned the publication of some newspapers and magazines in Korean alphabet and advertised as if an era of prosperity had begun.

However, only the term for the rule changed from “military” to “civilian” and there was no change in the true colours of the rule by governor-general. If any, the ruling method grew more cunning and vicious.

The Korean nation never tolerated the deception by the Japanese imperialists, waging a life-and-death struggle against the invaders.

The imperialists brutally oppressed the Koreans to stop their anti-Japanese movement and it inflamed anti-Japanese sentiment among the local people, finally leading to the June 10 Independence Movement in 1926.

The demonstration which began in Kyongsong spread across the country in no time including Inchon and Taegu, involving broad segments of people.

The June 10 Independence Movement was an explosion of pent-up anger and grudge of the Korean nation against the harsh colonial rule by Japan and a massive anti-Japanese patriotic struggle to establish national sovereignty.

The Japanese brutally killed many innocent Koreans to suppress the widespread demonstration.

Japan’s violent crackdown on the protesters on June 10 95 years back is only a single example of the unprecedented massacres of the Korean people it committed in the past.

During the decades-long military rule of Korea the Japanese imperialists forcibly drafted over 8.4 million Korean people, forced them into battlefields and construction sites and killed over one million of them. They also committed the class-A unethical crime of subjecting 200 000 Korean women to sexual slavery for their army.

Many years have passed, but the severe wounds inflicted by Japan still remain unhealed in the minds of the Korean nation.