A Korea Heritage Service worker showcases "Sourcebook on Korea-Japan Relations," donated by a Korean American collector in May, during a press event at the National Palace Museum of Korea in central Seoul, Wednesday. Yonhap By Kwon Mee-yoo Over a century after being seized by Japanese military police, documents written by leaders of Korea's independence movement have been retrieved and returned home, arriving just in time to commemorate the nation’s Liberation Day. The Korea Heritage Service (KHS), in cooperation with the Overseas Korean Cultural Heritage Foundation, unveiled at the National Palace Museum of Korea in central Seoul, Wednesday, several cultural artifacts representing Korea’s fervent struggle for independence from Japanese colonial rule.
The collection features two hand scrolls titled "Documents Related to Righteous Armies at the End of the Korean Empire," which were recovered from Japan in July with support from a lottery fund. These scrolls include nine documents authored by members of the Thirteen Provinces Alliance of Righteous Armies, such as Heo Wi and Yi Gang-nyeon, as well as four letters written by Yu Jung-gyo and Choe Ik-hyeon. The documents were confiscated by Japanese military police and later assembled into two handscrolls by a Japanese officer in 1939.
They have now been returned from Japan, providing new insights into the organized resistance efforts during the Japanese occupation. The "Sourcebook on Korea-Japan Relations," a four-volume set p.