Lee Bong-chang (; August 10, 1900 – October 10, 1932) was a Korean independence activist. In Korea, he is remembered as a martyr due to his participation in the 1932 Sakuradamon incident, in which he attempted to assassinate the Japanese Emperor Hirohito with a grenade.
Early life
Lee was born on August 10, 1900, in Hyochang-dong, Yongsan District, Seoul, Korean Empire. He was born into the Jeonju Yi clan, to father Lee Chin-ku. He had an older brother, Lee Pŏm-t'ae.
His family was so poor that as soon as he graduated from elementary school, he began working. Around 1917, he worked in a shop owned by a Japanese person, but was fired in 1919. In 1920, he worked as an apprentice railroad engineer. However, as an ethnic Korean, he received poor pay and was not promoted for years. He decided to move to Japan to seek better opportunities, and resigned from his job in April 1924.
In September 1924, he founded and led an anti-Japanese resistance group.
Move to Japan
He and his brother arrived in Osaka, Japan in November 1925. He worked at an ironworking factory and was taken in by a Japanese family. He also took on the Japanese name . He had hoped to receive better treatment as a "New Japanese" () person, but was instead initially discriminated against. However, he learned to blend in and lived relatively comfortably.
In 1928, Lee heard that the new Japanese Emperor Hirohito was to be coronated in November of that year. He thought that, as a New Japanese, he should see the face of his Emperor, and decided to go to Kyoto to see the ceremony. However, while there, he was arrested and detained for eleven days because he had a letter from a friend in his pocket that had Korean writing on it. This experienced shocked him. He reflected on what "New Japanese" even meant, and decided that he was really a Korean.
Lee decided that if a proper leader for the independence movement emerged, he would follow them. But he gradually abandoned this idea, as he worked and lived in Japanese society. He distanced himself from everything Korean, including his relatives. He obtained work as a soap wholesaler by February 1929, by lying that he was Japanese to the store owner. But one day he witnessed a Korean customer being scolded for being unable to speak Japanese fluently. He suddenly felt ashamed that he had done nothing but watch as it had happened. He moved to Tokyo in October 1929 and worked odd jobs, then returned to Osaka in November 1930 and could not find work.
After this, he decided to join the independence movement. He wanted to stop pretending to be Japanese and going by pseudonyms, and to embrace being a Korean. On December 6, 1930, he boarded a ship in Chikko, Osaka, and departed for Shanghai, one of the hubs for independence activists in exile.
To Shanghai and the independence movement
Lee arrived in Shanghai on December 10, 1930. He wanted to become economically stable before joining in with the independence movement. After spending two to three days in an inn, he went out to find work. But even after a month of searching, he could not find anything and was nearly completely broke. He stayed in the house of a Japanese tailor for free. Meanwhile, he asked around for information on where the Korean Provisional Government (KPG) could be, in hopes that they could help him find a job. He eventually learned from a ticket inspector the location of the (SKRA), which happened to be secretly harboring the KPG at that time.
In early January 1931, he visited the office of the SKRA and asked to join the KPG. But he unintentionally used a Japanese term for the group, which made them suspect that he was a spy. Prominent KPG member Kim Ku heard the commotion and came down to investigate. Kim introduced himself using a pseudonym. Lee repeated his story, but Kim too viewed Lee with suspicion. Kim gave vague and noncommittal answers, and agreed to speak with him again another day.
A few days later, Lee visited the office again, this time bringing noodles and alcohol. A few Koreans there sat down with him. After the drinking started, he raised his voice and asked the table: "If it's so easy to kill the Japanese emperor, why haven't Korean independence activists done it yet?" The table responded skeptically and coldly, asking "If it's so easy, why haven't you done it?" Lee replied, "One day when I was in Tokyo, I heard that the Emperor was going to visit Hayama, so I went to go see him. He passed right in front of me, and I immediately thought, 'What if I had a gun or bomb with me right now?'"