It was a nationwide patriotic resistance to liberate Korea from the Japanese imperialists' rule and win the sovereignty of the Korean nation.

After occupying Korea early in the 20th century the Japanese imperialists turned the whole of Korea into a large prison without bars through a mediaeval military rule.

The Korean people's pent-up grudge and resentment against their heinous colonial rule finally burst into a nationwide anti-Japanese resistance on March 1, 1919.

The massive anti-Japanese demonstration first started in Pyongyang which then developed into a nationwide resistance.

The patriotic youth and students and people stood in the van of the demonstration. They waged fierce fighting, defying the riot Japanese cavalry police and the military police, chanting slogans "Japanese and their army, out of Korea!" and "Long live the independence of Korea!"

With the struggle as a momentum, the demonstration rapidly spread to Seoul and other parts of Korea and even to overseas Koreans' communities in Manchuria, Shanghai, Maritime Province of Russia, Hawaii and other places.

The Korean people, who had keenly realized how miserable the lot of stateless people was, joined the uprising in all parts of the country irrespective of job, religious belief, age and sex.

The participants in the uprising stormed and destroyed the ruling organs of the Japanese imperialists and punished aggressors and traitors to the nation without mercy.

Within the three months after the start of the uprising, more than two million people of all social strata joined it and by the end of the year the number of demonstrations and seditions totaled over 3,200.

The uprising dealt telling blows at the Japanese imperialist aggressors and demonstrated the strong independent spirit, indomitable stamina and ardent patriotism of the Koreans all over the world.