Kwak Nak-won was a Korean independence activist and the mother of Kim Gu.
20 Facts About Kwak Nak-won
2.
Kwak Nak-won joined her son in exile in the Republic of China and assisted him and her grandchildren in their resistance against the Empire of Japan.
3.
Kwak Nak-won gave birth to Kim Gu at age seventeen.
4.
Kwak Nak-won joined her son in exile in China between 1922 and 1925, as well as between 1934 and 1939.
5.
Kwak Nak-won is buried in the Daejeon National Cemetery, alongside her son.
6.
Kwak Nak-won had a significant impact on her son and was reputed to be tenacious and fiercely devoted to the independence movement.
7.
Kwak Nak-won was born on 26 February 1859, in Changyon County, Hwanghae Province, Joseon.
8.
Kwak Nak-won came from a lower class and poorly educated farming family that experienced discrimination from the local elite.
9.
Kwak Nak-won was determined to ensure her son would avoid a similar fate, and enrolled him in a local seodang to learn to read and write and prepare for the gwageo civil service examinations.
10.
Kwak Nak-won went with her son and worked as a housemaid in Incheon, providing occasion care for him in the form of meals and news from the outside world.
11.
Kwak Nak-won provided care for him at Seodaemun Prison after his 1911 arrest due to his activities in the New People's Association.
12.
Kwak Nak-won was hardly able to afford two meals per day, and for one birthday she received just two strips of phoenix oolong for tea.
13.
Kwak Nak-won's son carried out her request and bought two pistols as well as fifty fountain pens to distribute amongst the independence movement to facilitate communication.
14.
Kwak Nak-won died on 26 April 1936 at age 80 in Chongqing, Republic of China from pharyngitis.
15.
Kwak Nak-won died before ever seeing an independent Korea, which was liberated in 1945.
16.
In 1948, a bronze statue of Kwak Nak-won was created by a professor at Seoul National University.
17.
The statue depicts Kwak Nak-won wearing a hanbok and with a bowl in hand, preparing food for Kim during one or perhaps symbolically both of his stays at an Incheon prison.
18.
Kwak Nak-won was married to Kim Sun-yong until his death in 1901.
19.
Kwak Nak-won converted to Protestant Christianity around when her son converted in 1903.
20.
Kwak Nak-won was reportedly devout, and calmed herself through difficult periods by praying and singing hymns.