[War & Business] The Birth of "Children's Day"

Photo of Sofa Bang Jeong-hwan [Image source=Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs]

[Asia Economy Reporter Hyunwoo Lee] The first country in the world to establish "Children's Day" is Korea. Although the "International Children's Day," commonly known to have been established on June 1, 1925, is often mistaken as the earliest Children's Day in the world, Korea's Children's Day actually began three years earlier, on May 1, 1922. Japan also follows Korea's precedent after World War II by celebrating Children's Day on May 5.

Today, Children's Day is mainly commemorated from a humanitarian perspective to prevent child abuse within families and indiscriminate wars and labor mobilization occurring worldwide. However, in 1922, the establishment and celebration of Children's Day itself was part of the independence movement. Hidden within this history is the life story of So-pa Bang Jeong-hwan, the son-in-law of Son Byeong-hui, an independence activist and one of the 33 national representatives.

Bang Jeong-hwan, due to his poor family circumstances, once worked as an employee at the Land Survey Bureau of the Japanese Governor-General of Korea early in his career. However, he quit in protest against the Japanese land survey project and devoted his life to the independence movement as an educator. Especially after the March 1st Movement in 1919, he judged the Japanese strengthening of so-called "Naeseon Ilche (內鮮一體)" ideological education targeting children born after Korea's annexation by Japan in 1910 under the pretext of "cultural rule" as very dangerous.

In particular, the Japanese tried to exploit Korea's Confucian culture, where children strictly obeyed their parents and elders, and the concept of "children" emerged in opposition to this. Bang Jeong-hwan advocated that children under 12 should be respected as equal individuals to adults and that their independence and national consciousness should be awakened to prevent the spiritual invasion by Japan.

Every time he traveled nationwide to perform storytelling for children over 1,000 times, Japanese high-ranking police officers followed him to monitor his activities for this reason. However, it is said that even Japanese officers often cried while listening to his storytelling. Miwa Wasaburo, a Japanese officer who monitored Bang Jeong-hwan's lectures, even praised him by saying, "If Bang Jeong-hwan were Japanese, he would have become a prominent figure."

Although Bang Jeong-hwan passed away at the young age of 31 due to overwork, the Children's Day he created is celebrating its 99th anniversary this year. We hope that the spirit of his pen name "So-pa (Small Wave)," chosen to change the world's perception of children like gentle ripples, will continue to be inherited in the future.