Hongkou Park Incident

Hongkou Park Incident
Hongkou Park Incident
Chinese name
Chinese	虹口公园爆炸事件
Literal meaning	Hongkou Park Bombing Incident
Hanyu Pinyin
Transcriptions
Standard Mandarin
Hanyu Pinyin	Hóngkǒu Gōngyuán Bàozhà Shìjiàn
Korean name
Hangul	훙커우 공원 사건
Hanja	虹口公園事件
Literal meaning	Hongkou Park Incident
Revised Romanization
Transcriptions
Revised Romanization	Hungkeou Gongwon Sageon
McCune–Reischauer	Hungk'ŏu kongwŏn sagŏn
Japanese name
Kanji	上海天長節爆弾事件
Revised Hepburn
Transcriptions
Revised Hepburn	Shanhai Tenchōsetsu Bakudan Jiken

Hongkou Park Incident
Hongkou Park Incident
Part of the Korean independence movement
	Hongkou Park shortly after bomb detonation (April 29, 1932)
Location	Hongkou Park, Shanghai, Republic of China; 31°16′22″N 121°28′42″E / 31.272836°N 121.478425°E
Planned by	Korean Patriotic Organization; (Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea);
Commanded by	Kim Ku
Objective	Assassinate prominent Japanese military and colonial personnel
Date	April 29, 1932; 11:40 am
Executed by	Yun Bong-gil
Outcome	Attack succeeds, Yun captured and executed, Republic of China begins supporting the Korean Provisional Government
Casualties	Yoshinori Shirakawa (killed); Kawabata Teiji [ja] (killed); Kenkichi Ueda (injured); Mamoru Shigemitsu (injured); Kichisaburō Nomura (injured); Kuramatsu Murai [ja] (injured); Tomono Mori (injured); A Japanese reporter (injured); An unnamed sailor (injured);
	Location of attack relative to present day Shanghai

The Hongkou Park Incident was a bombing attack on military and colonial personnel of the Empire of Japan at 11:40 am on April 29, 1932. It occurred at Hongkou Park (now "Lu Xun Park"), Shanghai, Republic of China, during a ceremony that honored the birthday of the Emperor of Japan, Hirohito.

The attack was planned and conducted by the Korean Patriotic Organization, a militant arm of the Korean Provisional Government (KPG). The KPG was a government in exile for Korea formed in Shanghai in 1919 after the Japanese colonized Korea in 1910. It was motivated by advocacy for the independence of Korea from the Empire of Japan.

The attacker, Yun Bong-gil, was given two homemade bombs for the attack. He set off the first bomb on the main stage of a rally, which killed Japanese General Yoshinori Shirakawa and head of the Japanese Residents' Association of Shanghai Kawabata Teiji [ja] and blew a hole in the stage. A number of other Japanese people were wounded, with injuries ranging from severe to minor. Minister to China Mamoru Shigemitsu and Lieutenant General Kenkichi Ueda each lost a leg, and Admiral Kichisaburō Nomura lost an eye. A reporter and sailor also received minor injuries. Yun attempted to set off the second bomb in order to kill himself, but the bomb did not go off. The crowd began beating him, and likely would have beat him to death if he had not been pulled away by Japanese soldiers. After being interrogated for information, he was tried and sentenced to death in a single trial on May 25. He was transferred to Japan in November, and executed on December 19.

As a result of the attack, Japanese and French police began interrogating Koreans in the cities, and members of the KPG went into hiding. The attack earned the KPG the respect of Chinese leader Chiang Kai-shek, who began sheltering and funding them. Yun is now viewed as a martyr in both South Korea and China. A number of monuments to him exist in both countries.