Learn about Korean Freedom Fighters with TV series, Mr. Sunshine

미스터 션샤인 or Mr. Sunshine is a Korean historical romance TV series that premiered in 2018. It was written by Eun-sook Kim and directed by Eung-bok Lee. The story is based in the early 1900s in Hanseong during the ending of the Joseon Dynasty. Although this show is a mere TV series, it brought to light the era just before Japan had imperialized Korea. The plot of the show goes on as Eugene Choi, the child of runaway slaves that has escaped to America and become an American soldier. He returns to the Kingdom of Joseon to an era of struggling resistance against Japanese oppression where he comes to face his past.

Throughout the show, they show historical events such as The Battle of Ganghwa which was a battle between the United States and the Joseon Dynasty. The Battle of Namdaemun was a battle fought between the Korean army and the Japanese army that was depicted as a whole on the show. They also touch upon the Korean Annexation Treaty signed in 1910 by a fictional character based off of the historical man named Yi Wan-Yong.  Besides these scenes, the drama shows the brutality of the Japanese oppression in the beginning of the annexation and it only got worse from that point onward. This show heavily relies on the historical context of the Righteous Army who were informal militia who fought against the Japanese occupation. The Righteous Army included the lower class to government officials and Buddhist warrior monks. They were created after the murder of Empress Myeongseong. Although they did not have the equal military weapons at first and did not have protective uniforms most of the time,  the ambition they carried to protect their nation is what drove them to lay down their lives. They had leaders such as Jong-sik Min, Ik-hyeon Choe and Dol-seok Shin. Dol-seok Shin was a commoner who was able to lead his troop of soldiers with numbers over 3,000. Imprisoned Ik-hyeon Choe refused to eat and died a martyr. They were gravely massacred and fled into the mountains but set up bases in Manchuria and Siberia. They had also fled to the United states where In-hwan Jang and Myeong-un Jeon assassinated Durham Stevens, a pro Japanese diplomat who was involved in the Japanese imperialization of Korea. The Righteous Army played a huge role in Korea’s road to independence.

The drama depicts fictional members of the Righteous Army. Eugene Choi, the Korean born American solider, is not historically real. The same can go with Ae-shin Go, the main female lead, who joins the fight to free her nation. Although these characters are fiction, they represent the strength the Korean people had. From ordinary people like Dong-he Lee the baker or Sung-hoon Park the blacksmith to nobility shown in Ae-shin Go, they all took up the battle for the fight against the Japanese occupation. This Drama brought to the global scale interest in these Freedom Fighters and interest into the history of how Korea gained its independence from Japan .

Written by: Samantha Garcia. From New York , United States . Current 4th year student at John Jay college of Criminal Justice .Pursing an International Criminal Justice B.A and a minor in Psychology. Intern at VANK (Voluntary Agency Network of Korea ) .