“If God were to ask me what is my greatest desire, I would reply without hesitation: 'Korean independence.' If He asked what is your second wish, I would say: 'My country's independence.' And if He asked what is your third wish, I would cry aloud with all my soul: 'The complete, total, and sovereign independence of our Great Korean Nation!'”

1. Ancestral Roots in Hwanghae and the Meaning of “Baekbeom”

Born in 1876 in Haeju, Hwanghae Province, Kim Gu (金九, 1876–1949) was born Kim Chang-am, a 31st-generation descendant of the Gu Andong Kim lineage. His ancestors had migrated to the northern frontier following royal political purges in the mid-Joseon era, living for centuries in rustic agrarian modesty.

Growing up witnessing the extortion of poor farmers by corrupt local magistrates, young Kim developed a fierce commitment to human dignity. At age sixteen, he joined the egalitarian Donghak (Eastern Learning) Peasant Movement, becoming the youngest regional district leader (*Jeopju*) during the 1894 rebellion, commanding thousands of peasant volunteers at Haeju Fortress.

Following the brutal assassination of Queen Myeongseong (Empress Myeongseong) by Japanese assassins in 1895, Kim struck down an undercover Japanese army officer at Chihapo in 1896 to avenge the royal murder. Sentenced to death, he was dramatically pardoned by King Gojong via Korea's first long-distance telegraph line hours before execution.

During his subsequent years as an educator and nationalist organizer, he chose the pen name Baekbeom (白凡). In his autobiography Baekbeom Ilji, he explained the moral philosophy behind this name:

“Baek (白) represents the Baekjeong (the lowest butcher caste), and Beom (凡) represents the Beombu (the common, unlettered laborer). I took this name so that even the humblest butcher and the most ordinary laborer of Korea might possess the patriotic conscience to love their country as much as I do. Only when the lowest common citizen rises in moral civic virtue can Korea become a truly free and independent nation.”

2. Pillar of the Shanghai Provisional Government (1919–1932)

Following the nationwide March First Independence Movement of 1919, Kim Gu fled across the Yellow Sea to the French Concession in Shanghai, joining the founders of the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea (대한민국 임시정부).

Refusing high administrative titles, Kim initially requested to serve as the government's humble Munji-gi (Gatekeeper and Police Chief), maintaining security and protecting cabinet officials. Over twenty-six years of unbroken exile, through extreme poverty where government leaders survived on single daily meals of boiled cabbage, Kim Gu's incorruptible devotion led him to be elected Premier and ultimately President (*Juseok*).

3. The Korean Patriotic Corps (Hanin Aegukdan) and Global Rebirth (1932)

By 1931, international indifference and factional despair threatened the survival of the Provisional Government. In response, Kim Gu secretly founded the Korean Patriotic Corps (韓人愛國團) to shock the conscience of the world:

  • Lee Bong-chang at Sakuradamon (Tokyo, Jan 1932): Threw a grenade at the imperial procession of Emperor Hirohito outside the Imperial Palace.
  • Yoon Bong-gil at Hongkou Park (Shanghai, April 1932): Detonated a bomb disguised as a water canteen at the Japanese emperor's birthday and victory celebration, killing General Shirakawa and high imperial commanders.

Yoon's heroic sacrifice electrified China. Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek met secretly with Kim Gu, pledging direct military, financial, and logistical backing to the Korean independence army and declaring: “A single Korean patriot has achieved what one hundred Chinese army divisions could not.”

4. The Korean Liberation Army and the OSS Eagle Project (1940–1945)

Relocating the Provisional Government to Chongqing during World War II, Kim Gu established the Korean Liberation Army (한국광복군) in September 1940 as the regular armed forces of the republic.

In 1945, Kim coordinated with Major General William J. Donovan of the American Office of Strategic Services (OSS) to launch the secret Eagle Project, training Korean airborne commandos in Shaanxi Province to parachute into Seoul and Busan to spearhead the domestic liberation offensive.

5. “My Wish” (Na-ui Sowon): The Cultural Manifest of Modern Korea

Appended to his autobiography in 1947, Kim Gu's philosophical essay “My Wish” (나의 소원 / Na-ui Sowon) articulated an enduring vision for Korean nationhood:

“I do not wish for our nation to become a military empire, for military power brings aggression and destruction. Nor do I wish for our nation to seek extreme material wealth that breeds arrogance and inequality. The only thing I desire without limit is the Power of a High Culture (높은 문화의 힘). For cultural power brings true happiness to ourselves, and radiates joy, peace, and enlightenment to the rest of mankind.”

6. Moral Conscience of the Republic of Korea

Until his tragic assassination in June 1949 as he fought courageously to prevent the permanent division of the Korean peninsula, Baekbeom Kim Gu stood as modern Korea's moral compass.

Today, the preamble of the Constitution of the Republic of Korea explicitly enshrines the legal, moral, and historical legitimacy of modern South Korea as descending directly from the Provisional Government that Baekbeom Kim Gu guarded through twenty-seven years of exile. His life remains the crowning modern testament of the Gu Andong Kim heritage of selfless national sacrifice.