Hawai'i Contributors to the Defense of An Chunggŭn, 1909-1910

Abstract

On October 26, 1909, An Chunggŭn assassinated Itō Hirobumi, the former Japanese resident general of Korea, in Harbin, China. An was arrested, tried, and sentenced to death by a Japanese court and executed on March 26 (March 25 in Hawai‘i), 1910, in Ruisoon prison in China. When Koreans in Hawai‘i heard about the assassination of Itō and An’s trial, they collected funds for his defense from December 1909 through March 1910. During that four-month period, 1,595 Koreans contributed $2,921 (equivalent to $60,000 in 2001) in donations of 25 cents to $15. The list of donors is included in Daedong wein An Chunggŭn jon (Biography of the Great An Chunggŭn), which was published in August 1911 in Honolulu.