HOME > English Yun Bong Gil((in chinese Im Fong Kee) under the National Flag of Korea, April 29, 1932, he threw the bomb at Hongkew Park on the occasions of the Japanese Emperor’s birthday. On his chest is pinned the Oath made to the Korean patriotic Association, reading: “ I make this oath as a member of Korean Patriotic Association to kill the military leaders of the enemy who are invading China in order to redeem the independence and freedom of our country." A minute before the bomb explosion: the group of the dais at the celebrations of the Japanese Emperor’s birthday in Hongkew Park, Shanghai__ showing Mr. Murai(extreme left the group) making the speech Shotly before noon on Friday, April 29, when the Japanese national anthem was being sung by the large crowds(nearly all Japanese) attending the celebration at the Hongkew Park in Shanghai of the birthday of the Emperor of Japan The above is a picture taken of the Hongkew Park bombing incident, apparently within a minute or two after the bomb had been thrown. The actual moment when the group distinguished Japanese leaders were falling wounded or beginning to descend the steps: the scene of confusion just after the bomb placed on the front of the dais had exploded with fatal effect. Removing one of injured leader: Mr. Murai, Japanese Consul-General at Shanghai, who has wounded in the legs, being carried on a man’s back on the way to hospital. A perpetrator of the outrage under arrest: a party of soldiers hustling along the young Korean who had placed the bomb of the front of the dais and then darted backwards as it explosion (May 7, 1932, The China weekly review) Shotly before noon on Friday, April 29, when the Japanese national anthem was being sung by the large crowds(nearly all Japanese) attending the celebration at the Hongkew Park in Shanghai of the birthday of the Emperor of Japan, a Korean named Im Fung-fu placed a hand grenade on the platform where the leaders of the celebration were assembled, with the result that the following persons were injured, the nature of the injures being indicated: M. Shigemitsu, Japanese Minister to China: - Serious injures to theighs and legs. K. Murai, Consul General for Japan: - Wounds to left thigh. General Y. Shirakawa, Commander of the Japanese Army: - Bad injures left cheek, teeth, and body. Lt.Gen K. Uyeda, Commander of the 9th Division, Japanese Army: - Three toes amputated; injures left shoulder. Vice Admiral, K. Nomura, Commander of the Japanese Navy: - Loss of right eye.(Eye later removed entirely by operation) Dr. Kawabata, President of Japanese Residents’s associations: - Internal bleeding; chest wound. Injuries of most serious character resulting in his death at four o’clock the following morning. Mr. Tomono, Secretary-General, Japanese residents’s association: - Slightly injured. Japanese Sailor: Japanese photographer from Osaka Mainichi: - Slightly injures. (May 14, 1932, The China weekly review) According to a circular distributed to the press by a Korean who says his name is Kim Koo____ Yun Bong-Gil, the Korean who threw the bomb at the Hongkew Park on the occasion of the celebration of the birthday of the Emperor Japan, April 29, was born of a poor family in Yesan, Korea, in 1908. Both his parents are still living and he has a wife and two children. He was an infant prodigy. At the Age of 17, he opened an evening class and taught the poor farmer’s children for five years. When he saw that the economic and political oppression of the Japanese was driving the Korean to bankruptcy and death. He made up his mind to take revenge and thereupon left home. He was stranded on the way to Shanghai and held up at Tsingtao, where he worked at Japanese laundry owned by Kenjiro Nakahara. When he had saved enough money for his fare, He came to Shanghai last August. He earned his living by working in a local factory. Later he joined a vegetable store at Hongkew market, waiting all the while for a good chance. He recently became a member of the Korean Patriotic Association, which Kim Koo says he organized with the aim of furthering the salvation of Korea by applying force. Only those who are willing to make the supreme sacrifice are eligible for membership. A member is nominated and accept by Kim alone and he does not know even the names of other members. No meetings are held and the work is carried out in absolute secrecy. The aim is to redeem the independence of Korea by assassinating important Japanese figures and destroying Japanese administrative organs. Kim Koo says he is 37 year of age. He started his adventurous life in 1896, when he was 21. In that year Japanese soldiers, he says, murdered the Korean Queen in the Palace. He thereupon secretly planned to take revenge. He followed the perpetrator of the murder, Captain Tsuchita, to Anak, in the Province of Huanghai, Korea, and there killed the captain with his bare hands. Kim says he was at one time under sentence of the death and had been imprisoned on several occasions because of his connection with the Assassination of Prince Ito in 1909 and General Terauchi in 1911. he says Yun threw the bomb at Hongkew Park on his(Kim's) orders. The Japanese Consulate-General made the following announcement May 6 in connection with the Hongkew Park Incident. “Im Hokichi,(this being the Japanese rendering of name) native of 139 Kakiryori, Tokuyama village, Reizangun(Yesan), province of Chuseinamdo (Chungchongnamdo), Chosen, and at present residing in a boarding house on Rue Amiral, French Concession, Shanghai, who was born on May 19, 1907, entered Hongkew Park at about 7:45 AM, April 29, on the occasion of the joint civil and military celebration of the birthday of H.I.M, the Emperor of Japan which was held at the park that day. “At about 11:40 AM , while the attendants at the celebration were singing the Japanese national anthem, Im hurled from the rear of the platform, where distinguished personages were standing, a bomb which resulted in the injures to General Shirakawa, Vice Admiral Nomura, Lt.Gen Uyeda, Minister Shigemitsu, Consul-General Murai, Dr. Kawabata(who died subsequently from the wounds received) and Mr. Tomono." "The would-be assassin was caught immediately and taken to the gendarmerie headquarters for examination, following which an appeal was made for a preliminary court martial hearing." “ The bombs hurled by Im were two, one contained in a water flask like container and other in a luncheon container(bento-bako). The former was thrown on the platform and exploded, while the latter was placed on the ground." “ Through the confessions and statements made by the Korean, it was revealed that there were a number of others who had supported Im in the outrages, residing in the local French Concession, therefore, were requested to assist in the arresting of these.” (May 28, 1932, The Illustrated London News) Practically all the Japanese leaders at Shanghai were injured by a bomb, on April 29, 1932 during celebrations in Hongkew Park in honour of their Emperor’s birthday. Seven of them were standing on a dais erected for speech-making. A “Times" correspondent, describing the scene, writes: "The Japanese National Anthem was being played, when a youth was seen to step forward and place a cylinder on the front of the dais and then dart backwards. A dull explosion immediately followed, but it attracted so little attention that the music continued playing. However, Mr. Shigemitsu (Japanese Minister to China), General Shirakawa(the Commander-in-Chief at Shanghai), Admiral Nomura, General Ueda, Mr. Murai(Japanese Consul- General), and others were seen to collapse wounded and bleeding, while soldiers seized the youth and battered him. Subsequently, another bomb of the same pattern was found near the dais unexploded. The culprit seized proved to be a Korean. To-day’s proceedings were entirely under Japanese control and no Chinese visitors were present, and, as the guilty party was caught red-handed, no question of Chinese complicity arises.” Another injured official, Mr.T. Kawabata, President of the Japanese Colony, died next day. When the Sino-Japanese Armistice was signed at Shanghai on May 5, the document was taken to the hospital for the signatures of General Ueda and Mr. Shigemitsu, who shortly afterwards had the right leg amputated. On May 23 news came that general Shirakawa, who received a wound in the face and thirty in the body, had died of his injuries.