On July 4, 1896, the American legation compound was the center of attention in Seoul. The Sino-Japanese War had recently ended and John Sill, the American Minister to Korea, and his wife, Sally ...

It was formally annexed in 1910, the start of a 35-year struggle for independence. Yu would not have remembered a free Korea, and she died long before liberation in August 1945.

Both North and South Korea celebrate the day to mark their independence from Japanese colonial oppression in 1945. Close. ... The Korean War started in 1950 when the North invaded the South, and the ...