[81st Anniversary of Liberation] Crying "Flower of Hope" – Suwon's Young Boys Who Filled a Day for Liberation

On August 15, 1945, liberation came to Suwon. People poured into the streets. Hands holding the Taegeuk flag reached toward the sky and fluttered with shouts of "Mansei".

Yet not everyone who dreamed of liberation could share in that joy. There was a Suwon youth who tried desperately but ultimately could not be there that day.

Fifteen years before liberation, on May 4, 1930, a Children's Day event was held in Suwon.

"Let us not forget that we are the flowers of hope and the fruits of future happiness. "About 1,500 children and residents departed from a athletic field inside Suwon Hwaseong Fortress, marching through Maehwa Bridge, Jangan Gate, Jongno, and Paldal Gate.

Leading the procession were Kim Jang-seong and Hong Jong-geun, officials of the Suwon Youth League. The Suwon Youth League was an organization that advocated for youth rights, protection of young laborers, and literacy campaigns.

That summer, Hong Jong-geun came to Kim Jang-seong with a newspaper. It was an article about a manifesto incident that had been occurring nationwide following the Gwangju Student Independence Movement.

"Shouldn't we try it in Suwon too?" Kim Jang-seong nodded.

The date was set for October 12. It was the day of Hwaseong Academy's fall athletic meet, when many people gathered. Hwaseong Academy was the predecessor of today's Suwon High and Middle School.

The day before, on October 11, the two wrote the manifesto at Hong Jong-geun's house. It totaled 16 pages.

The message was clear: "Overthrow the oppressive rule of the Japanese Government-General of Chosen. "

In the early morning of the 12th, the two youths took to the streets. They posted manifestos at the intersection outside Paldal Gate, at Paldal Gate, Sugu Gate, utility poles around Hwaseong Academy, the Joseon Grain Company, and the Suwon Youth League athletic field.

As dawn broke, Suwon was in upheaval. Japanese colonial police monitored the athletic meet and searched social organization offices, Hwaseong Academy, and the homes of youth activists. Even as this happened, the two youths continued posting manifestos on utility poles and bulletin boards throughout the streets. Wherever they posted, people stopped to read the text.

Japanese colonial police arrested some 30 people affiliated with social organizations in the Suwon area. Yet those who actually wrote and posted the manifesto were neither renowned independence activists nor famous intellectuals. They were eighteen-year-old boys.

In November, the investigation reached Kim Jang-seong and Hong Jong-geun, and they were eventually arrested. Kim Jang-seong was imprisoned at Seodaemun Prison. Prison number 1672. Eighteen years old. His occupation: fish vendor.

In 1931, he was sentenced to one year imprisonment for violating the Public Security Law and transferred to Gimcheon Youth Prison.

Hong Jong-geun was released in January 1932 after serving his full sentence. However, Kim Jang-seong contracted illness in prison and was released through suspension of sentence execution with just 20 days remaining. But he soon passed away. He was nineteen years old. His comrades held his funeral as a "comrade's funeral" and buried him in Suwon Municipal Cemetery.

Thirteen years later, on August 15, 1945, the liberation Kim Jang-seong had longed for finally arrived. At Paldal Gate where he had posted manifestos, on the streets where people had gathered to read them, there was no longer any need to post manifestos. Yet Kim Jang-seong himself could not witness liberated Suwon.

The youth who had called himself a "flower of hope" on Children's Day picked up a brush himself that autumn, cried out for freedom against oppression and persecution, and passed away before the day of liberation he had dreamed of.

In 2010, the government posthumously awarded Kim Jang-seong the Order of Patriotic Service, Patriot Class.

Liberation Day did not arrive suddenly one day. Before that, there were people who took to the streets without knowing whether they would see liberation.

In Suwon, young boys like Kim Jang-seong and Hong Jong-geun were filling each day for the sake of liberation.