---
node: an_jung_geun
type: person
slug: an_jung_geun
title: "An Jung-geun"
lead: "An Jung-geun (1879–1910) was a Korean independence activist who shot and killed Ito Hirobumi, Japan's elder statesman and first Resident-General of Korea, at Harbin railway station in 1909. He was executed at Lushun prison the following year."
published: 2026-07-09
updated: 2026-07-09
image_file: an_jung_geun.jpg
image_source: "https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:An_Jung-geun.JPG"
image_author: "Unknown author"
image_license: "Public domain"
---


## Who they were

A Korean independence activist from a yangban family, and a Catholic with the baptismal name Thomas. He worked first as an educator, then became a commander in the righteous-army resistance after the Korean army was disbanded in 1907.

## What they did

On October 26, 1909, he shot and killed Ito Hirobumi — Japan's elder statesman and first Resident-General of Korea — at Harbin railway station. At trial he argued that he had acted as a lieutenant general of the Korean independence army, and he enumerated Ito's offenses against Korea, the "fifteen crimes" recorded in his statement. He was executed at Lushun prison on March 26, 1910. In prison he produced calligraphy and the unfinished treatise "On Peace in East Asia", proposing Korean-Chinese-Japanese cooperation.

## Legacy

He is honored as a patriot-martyr in both Koreas and commemorated in China, where a memorial hall stands at Harbin. In Japan he is seen as the assassin of a founding statesman.