National Debt Repayment Movement

[2] According to the Encyclopedia of Korean Culture, offering loans under difficult terms was used as a strategy to deprive Korea of its sovereignty, as well as to prepare construction of infrastructure that would benefit Japan.

At that time, Kwangmunsa was a publishing company that was dedicated to spreading reform-minded Silhak writings to protect the nation's sovereignty.

This was the result of not only our soldiers gladly risking their lives and jumping into bloodied battlefields, but also of the commoners at home who made and sold shoes [for military funds].

...Ah, is it really reasonable for us, in our country's darkest hour, to just stand and gawk at our extremely worried emperor and impending doom, meanwhile not a one of our twenty million citizens makes a plan to change things?

The national debt is now thirteen million won, and is tied to the survival of our Korean Empire... [I]f we fail to pay it, we lose the country.

[1] Also in the same article, they advocated for abstaining from smoking tobacco, a widespread habit at the time, in order to raise money.

It was covered in newspapers across the country, especially by the historic The Korea Daily News, run by Yang Gi-tak and Ernest Bethell.

[2] According to one story of uncertain veracity, one day robbers accosted an official who they discovered was transporting funds for the movement.

[1] In Seoul, Kim Sŏng-hŭi (김성희; 金成喜) established the National Debt Repayment Association (국채보상기성회; 國債報償期成會) on February 22.

However, one estimate by South Korean historian Jeong Jin-seok (정진석) put the peak money raised at 160,000 to 190,000 won (in 2022 around ₩4 to 4.75 billion or around US$3 to 3.5 million[1]).

Bethell invested part of the funds into shares of the American mining firm Collbran-Bostwick Development Company, and lent money to a French hotellier in Seoul named Martin.

[1] The National Debt Repayment Association had their own discussions on what to do with the money, including building schools or a bank, but their plans did not come to fruition, and they eventually were forced to shut down in August 1910.

...The blood, sweat, and tears (고혈; 膏血) that these donations embodied were all for naught, as they fell into the hands of the Japanese.