[100 Years Ago Today] October 12, 1926 – Eleven Days After the Colonial Palace-Office Opened and “Arirang” Premiered, a Tuesday in Gyeongseong

1. A Tuesday After Two Openings

Good evening. As you wind down your day, picture Gyeongseong, today’s Seoul, on Tuesday, October 12, 1926. A caveat first: we could not locate the newspaper pages of that exact day, so we will not invent weather, prices or street scenes. What we can verify is what surrounded it. Eleven days earlier, on October 1, two very different doors opened in the same city. The colonial government’s enormous new headquarters inside Gyeongbok Palace held its completion ceremony, and a few streets away, at the Korean-owned Danseongsa theater, a silent film called Arirang began its run.

2. Korea Under Colonial Rule

The Government-General building took about ten years to build, from a groundbreaking in June 1916, and cost roughly seven million yen according to Korea’s national archives. To make room, Gwanghwamun gate was moved eastward and other palace structures were demolished. Officials moved in on January 4, 1926; the formal ceremony came in October.

Tuesday is our day for law and order. For this date we found no court record, so we offer the surrounding pattern. On June 10, the funeral day of the last emperor Sunjong, independence demonstrations broke out. On August 10, Kang Dal-yeong and 43 others were arrested, and a separate case named Kwon O-seol and 61 others under the Peace Preservation Law. October’s calm sat on top of those arrests.

3. East Asia in Turmoil

In China, the Nationalist Northern Expedition was sweeping north. One source says Wuchang, the last of the three Wuhan cities, fell on October 10, the fifteenth anniversary of the 1911 Wuchang Uprising. Only one source gave that date, so treat it with care. The campaign would reshape China within two years.

4. The World Stage

In the United States, a board-track car race was recorded at Rockingham Park in Salem, New Hampshire, on October 12. A trivia source lists The Son of the Sheik as a popular film, though that source is approximate. We found no major world event pinned to this exact date.

5. Colonial Parallels

We did not research comparison material for this date and will not guess. The general point holds: in many colonies of the 1920s, culture became a quiet stage for identity, and Arirang is Korea’s example. A silent film about a young man and a village, reportedly made on a Korean-owned stage, became the first great box-office hit in Korean cinema.

6. Person of the Day

Na Un-gyu (1902-1937) wrote, directed and starred in Arirang. Reports say the film played to tearful crowds on Jongno. We could not verify attendance figures or any detail of what he did on October 12.

7. Understanding Daily Life

Silent films in Korea were narrated live by a performer called a byeonsa, who read the story aloud while the picture flickered. Cinemas such as Danseongsa were among the few places where large numbers of Koreans gathered. Beyond that, we have no verified description of the street on this Tuesday.

8. Century Mirror

The colonial headquarters was demolished in the 1990s and Gwanghwamun was restored. October 1, 2026 marked the hundredth anniversary of Arirang’s release, and its melody is still sung. Today, Korean films reach screens worldwide; a century ago, one silent film made a single Seoul street weep.

9. Tomorrow’s Preview

Tomorrow is Wednesday, October 13, our day for schools and youth. Good night, and see you at 10:10.

Note: We could not read the October 12, 1926 newspapers directly. Sources: National Archives of Korea (Government-General building), reports on Arirang’s premiere, Seoul District Court prosecutors’ records.