An Jung-geun, Patriot and Thinker안중근 의사

On October 26, 1909, at a railway station in Harbin, Manchuria, a 30-year-old Korean named An Jung-geun shot and killed Ito Hirobumi — Japan's most powerful elder statesman and the first Resident-General who had overseen Korea's loss of sovereignty. An acted as a lieutenant general of a Korean volunteer army and insisted at trial that he was a soldier, not an assassin, listing the reasons Korea's independence had been stolen.

What makes An remarkable to Koreans is not only the act itself but what came after. Imprisoned at Lushun (Port Arthur), he spent his final months writing 'On Peace in the East,' an unfinished essay proposing that Korea, China, and Japan cooperate as equals — a vision of regional peace written by a man awaiting execution. He was executed on March 26, 1910, five months before Japan formally annexed Korea. His remains were never recovered, a lingering sorrow in Korea.

Today An is honored as 'Uisa' — a title of deep respect for a righteous martyr. In Seoul, a dedicated memorial hall stands on the slopes of Namsan, on the site where a Japanese colonial shrine once stood — a deliberate, quiet reversal of history. Visiting it alongside a walk up Namsan gives you both a city view and a window into the Korean idea of principled sacrifice.