Maria Kim
Maria Kim was a Korean independence activist during the period of Japanese colonial rule. Her birth name was Kim Jin-sang and she also went by the name Kim Geun-po.
She was commemorated in a poem by fellow independence activist Yi Gwangsu. In 1968 she was posthumously awarded Korea's the Order of Independence Merit, and in 1992 was designated the Independence Activist of the Month for the month of July.
Biography
Early life
Maria Kim was the third child born to Yun-bang Kim and Mong-eun Kim, landowners in Jangyeon county in South Hwanghae province. Her father, Yun-bang, started attending church at an early age was an educational pioneer, establishing an elementary school in his hometown. He was Presbyterian and helped form the Sorae Presbyterian Church and had Maria baptized when she was young. However, he died while Maria Kim was young. Maria Kim later graduated from Sorae Normal School, the school that her father established, but soon afterward her mother also died, so she was left in uncle's care.Maria Kim's household is well known for its nationalistic consciousness. Her uncle, Seo Byeong-ho and his son, Seo Jae-hyeon were independence activists within the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea, and Maria Kim was also the niece of independence activist Kim Sun-ae, who was the wife of Kim Gyusik. Her uncle Pilsun Kim, who graduated from Severance Medical School, would later become a close associate of Roh Baeng-in, Yu Dong-yeol, Yi Dongyeo, and Kim Kyu-sik, who formed the provisional oppositional government. Thus while attending Yeondong Women's School, Maria Kim was influenced by the nationalistic consciousness of her uncle's household.
In 1910 Maria Kim graduated from Yeondong Women's School and worked at both Yeondong and Sophia Women's School. In 1914 she departed as an exchange student to Japan, traveling to Tokyo via Hiroshima, and enrolled at Tokyo Women's Academy. While in Tokyo, Kim was mentored spiritually by an American Christian missionary named Miss London.
Korean independence activism
February 8, 1919
In 1919, shortly before graduating from Tokyo Women’s Academy, Kim actively participated with others, like Hwang Aedeok, in the independence movement that followed the promulgation of the February 8 Declaration of Independence, a statement drafted by Korean foreign exchange students in Japan. Kim was one of many students who gathered outside of the Korean YMCA in Tokyo, Japan, and demonstrated against the Japanese murder of King Kojong and the annexation of Korea. She was arrested by Japanese police and tortured for 8 hours before being released.Declaration of Independence
When Kim left Tokyo after graduation she returned to Korea. She hid a copy of the February 8 Independence Declaration and brought it with her. This February Independence Declaration inspired the Korean Declaration of Independence. Both declarations also are similar because they were made for the same international audience and were anchored by the same concept of self-determination.March 1, 1919
When the March 1st Movement broke out later the same year, Kim participated in anti-Japanese protest. Leading up to the March 1st protest, she organized female students and teachers and mobilized their participation. For her involvement, she was subsequently arrested and detained. During this period, she was subjected to torture, and she suffered health problems throughout her life as a result.Korean Patriotic Women's Association
After being released from prison in August 1919, she united various women’s groups together to create the Korean Patriotic Women’s Association. She was elected president and under her leadership, the groups went from raising funds for male leaders to working to doing their own independence work. They published booklets containing pictures of the independence movement and distributed them to other nations. They collected facts and information on the happenings of the independence movement. Additionally, women of the group volunteered, taught, and were nurses, further adding to society. One of the Association’s members betrayed them and reported the group to Japan. More than 1000 women were arrested, including Kim.Maria Kim was sentenced to three years’ imprisonment for her involvement in the Korean Patriotic Women’s Association. While in prison she led prayer meetings so powerful that reportedly, “the sound of praise echoed in the prison”. Because her permanent lesions from torture she was granted medical leave, and with the help of American missionaries escaped to Shanghai. In Shanghai, she became the representative of Hwanghae province and enrolled in Nanjing’s Jinling College.