Gando Massacre

In revenge for Bongo-dong and Cheongsan-ri, Japanese troops raided Korean villages in Jiandao, massacring residents and burning homes, schools and churches. It is also called the Gyeongsin massacre.

Defeated at Bongo-dong in June 1920, Japan staged the Hunchun Incident in October, paying bandits to attack its consulate at Hunchun, and used it as a pretext to send a large force into Jiandao. When that force was routed again at Cheongsan-ri, it turned its revenge on the Korean community.

From October 1920 to the following spring, claiming to destroy the independence army’s bases, the troops attacked Korean villages indiscriminately, massacring residents and burning homes, schools and churches. The Provisional Government’s newspaper Dongnip sinmun reported more than 3,600 killed. As 1920 was a gyeongsin year, it is also called the Gyeongsin massacre.

Losing their bases, the independence forces moved north to Mishan, formed the Korean Independence Corps under Seo Il and crossed into Russia, where they suffered the Free City Incident of 1921.