Since Korea with its indigenous national culture, heritage and history, lost its sovereignty to Japanese Imperialists, Koreans carried out long and painful struggles against Japanese Imperialism. Under the new ideological trend of the principle of self-determination of the people announced by President Wilson of U.S.A just after World War I, thirty-three men including Sohn Byung-hee gathered at Tapgol Park in Seoul on March 1,1919 and read the Declaration of Independence, which led to a massive national independence movement against Japan throughout the country, following the announcement of the February 8 Declaration of Independence by the Korean students in Tokyo, Japan.

Through the progressive spirit for independence and the firm belief for equalitarianism against the imperiallism, the Sam-il Independence Movement established a firm basis of self-determination in the areas of economy, education and culture, and changed the world's looking at the Korean people with a new perspective.