'He always stood tall': Granddaughter recalls independence fighter Kim Seung-ok of Gochang

"It has been more than a decade since our homeland was taken from us, and yet we have not awakened to the discomfort of lying on a bed of thorns — how could we escape the suffering of today? The slight pain is like wind over dewdrops on a blade of grass, yet the longing to reclaim our lost land, as constant as a river flowing east, never wavers." (Excerpt from a prison essay by Kim Seung-ok)

Eighty-one years have passed since Korea was liberated from Japanese colonial rule. It can feel like a distant chapter of history, yet the freedoms Koreans enjoy today were made possible by the sacrifices of those who risked their lives for independence. To keep that memory alive, Liberation Day events are held across the country every Aug. 15. This year, to mark the 81st anniversary, the Seoul Metropolitan Government has invited nine descendants of independence patriots to take part in a bell-ringing ceremony Saturday.

Among them is Kim Gyu-seong, 75, granddaughter of independence activist Kim Seung-ok (1889–1962), known by his pen name Ilwoo. Speaking on Friday, the day before Liberation Day, Kim said she wept the moment she received the invitation. "The tears just burst out," she said. "I feel so grateful — it is as if the most important event of my life has come to me because of my grandfather, whom I have never once forgotten."

Kim was born in 1951 in a rural village in Gochang-gun, North Jeolla Province, the granddaughter of Kim Seung-ok. Three generations of the family lived together under one roof until Kim Seung-ok died in 1962.

"When I think of my grandfather from my childhood, I always picture him sitting upright in white clothes, like a crane, reading something," she said. "He was strict, but he was such an important figure in the community that people were constantly coming and going from our home."

Kim Seung-ok could not stand by while Japan occupied his country. In 1919, at the age of 30, he formed a blood-oath alliance with two like-minded comrades, pledging to fight for independence. Less than a month after the March First Movement erupted, on March 21 of that year, he distributed independence declarations and copies of the "Song of Korean Independence" to villagers, then led a procession of more than 100 people in a demonstration. Japanese police arrested him, and he endured severe hardship in prison.

"My grandfather was tortured — they pulled out all his finger- and toenails — and afterward he could barely write," Kim said. "But I was told that even in the Japanese courtroom, he flipped over a table and demanded to know what crime it was to call for his own country's independence, scolding the Japanese judge." She added that thinking of everything her grandfather had endured gave her the strength to push through more than 30 years as a civil servant. "There was nothing I couldn't overcome," she said.

After serving a year and a half in prison, Kim Seung-ok returned home convinced that education was the key to preventing the country from being subjugated again. He co-founded the Gochang Youth Association with fellow activists and took a leading role in eradicating illiteracy. Particularly passionate about women's education — insisting that "women must be awakened" — he established Gochang Girls' High School (now Gochang Jayu High School) in 1945. Until his death in 1962, he sought neither position nor power, living a life of frugal integrity while devoting himself to independence and the education of his people.

"Everyone was poor in those days, and our family was no different," Kim said. "But I inherited my grandfather's blood — a life of integrity and hard work — and that is what has allowed me to live without shame. I think that is the greatest legacy he left me."

Kim grew up in rural Gochang but went on to university — rare for women of her generation — and became a nurse. In 1973 she passed the Seoul Metropolitan Government civil service exam, moved to Seoul and spent her career serving patients at Seoul Children's Hospital, a tuberculosis hospital and public health centers.

Kim Seung-ok never applied for official recognition as an independence patriot during his lifetime, saying "a merit proclaimed is no merit at all." It was only after his descendants filed the application on his behalf that he was officially recognized in 1991.

When Kim Seung-ok died in 1962, Gochang-gun honored his legacy with a public funeral. He was posthumously awarded the Order of Merit for National Foundation — Patriotic Class in 1991 and was interred at Daejeon National Cemetery.

"Every year on Liberation Day and on the anniversary of my grandfather's passing, I visit the cemetery with my family," Kim said. "I have never once forgotten him, and I always make the effort to keep his memory alive."

After retiring from the civil service, Kim taught at a university and served as secretary-general of the Korean National Council of Women. Next year, she plans to take on a new challenge: enrolling as a university student herself.

"I want to go from being the one who teaches to being the one who learns again," she said. "I want to study history — and I think that through studying history, I will be able to feel my grandfather's presence and remember him all over again. I look forward to that."