한국독립운동과 權基玉의 飛翔

Independence Movement in Korea and Gwon Giok’s Flight as a Pilot

Giok Gwon (hereinafter called as Gwon) was born into a poor family but made an effort to continue studies. She was informed about independence movement while she attended at Sungeui Girls’ School. Later, she marched for the 1919 3·1 Independence Movement of Korea, and was imprisoned for it. She was under surveillance of Japanese Police due to her involvement in communicating with other independence movement activists, fund raising and bond sales for independence of Korea, bombing Japanese exploitation offices such as Pyeongyang Police Station, etc. Therefore, she had to flee to China. She entered Unnam Aviation Academy to become the first Korean woman pilot, and later joined Chinese Aviation Academy to fly for the independence of Korea. She was framed as espionage to Japanese Colonial Rule, which resulted to losing her license. However, she participated in Korea Patriotic Women’s Association and proposed an organizational structure of Korean aviation corps and strategic plan. Gwon overcame the female image of feudalism where obedience and sacrifice are considered to be women’s virtue and nature. She had an ambitious dream and made a bold decision. She started to study continuously in poverty, and continued her studies by seeking asylum in China. Her willingness and challenge should be highly appreciated, in that she ended up becoming a pilot through countless trials and errors. On the other hand, Gwon made a flight in early 20th century when Korea was colonized by Japanese. Therefore, with her individual goal of anti-feudalism and anti-imperialism, it is mean ingful that she was the first Korean woman pilot. Gwon worked hard to realize anti-imperalism that can take down Japanese Colonization Rule, not to mention anti-feudalism that proposed a way of overcoming the oppression on women. Therefore, as the first woman pilot, she overcame biases against women. Not only because she was flying for the independence of Korea but also because she wanted to live a meaningful life, she is being recognized as an independent activist and a modernized Korean.