Seodaemun Prison History Hall

Seodaemun Prison (西大門刑務所, Korean: 서대문형무소) was established in 1908 under the name Gyeongseong Gamok (京城監獄) by the Empire of Japan as part of its colonial infrastructure on the Korean Peninsula. Constructed on a site in what is now Seodaemun-gu, Seoul, it was one of the first modern prison facilities in Korea and would become the most notorious detention center operated by the Japanese Government-General of Korea.

The prison was built to hold approximately 500 inmates, but its population grew dramatically as Japanese colonial rule intensified. Following the March First Movement (三・一運動) of 1919 — a massive peaceful protest demanding Korean independence — the prison became severely overcrowded, housing roughly 3,000 detainees at once. The facility was repeatedly expanded over the following decades. The name was changed to Seodaemun Prison (西大門監獄) in 1912 and then to Seodaemun Hyeongmuso (西大門刑務所) in 1923.

Among the most prominent prisoners was Yu Gwan-sun (柳寛順), a 16-year-old student who organized independence demonstrations in her hometown of Cheonan during the March First Movement. Arrested and sentenced to three years' imprisonment, she continued to protest from within the prison and was subjected to severe torture. She died in custody on September 28, 1920, at the age of 17. Other notable inmates included Kim Ku (金九), later chairman of the Korean Provisional Government, and Ahn Chang-ho (安昌浩), a leading independence activist and educator. The prison also held Kim Dae-jung and Moon Jae-in, who would later become the 8th and 12th Presidents of South Korea, respectively, though they were imprisoned during the post-liberation authoritarian period.

After Japan's defeat in 1945, the prison held approximately 2,980 inmates. It continued to operate under successive South Korean governments, serving as a detention facility during the Korean War and the authoritarian regimes that followed. The prison was finally decommissioned in 1987, with inmates transferred to the Seoul Detention Center in Uiwang, Gyeonggi Province.

On August 15, 1992, Seodaemun Independence Park (서대문독립공원) was opened on the prison grounds. On November 5, 1998, the site was formally inaugurated as the Seodaemun Prison History Hall (서대문형무소역사관). Eleven of the original 98 buildings have been preserved as historical monuments, including the main gate, underground detention cells, torture chambers, the execution building with its trap-door gallows, a corpse removal tunnel, guard towers, and several cell blocks. The museum features detailed exhibitions on the independence movement, the lives of prisoners, and the methods of torture and execution employed by the colonial authorities. It stands today as one of Korea's most important memorial sites, a powerful reminder of the human cost of colonial oppression and the courage of those who resisted.