Gyeongseong, three days past Chuseok on the lunar calendar. The festival crowds had thinned, and the city had settled back into its ordinary rhythm. In front of Gwanghwamun, the new Government-General building was receiving its final touches — its completion ceremony now just seven days away. At the Gyeongseong District Court, spectators were once again gathering for the day’s proceedings.

Korea Under Colonial Rule

Ten years of construction on the new Government-General headquarters were finally drawing to a close. Ground had been broken in 1916; a cornerstone ceremony followed in 1920, a ridge-beam ceremony in 1923. Seven days from this date, the building’s completion would be marked to coincide with the colonial regime’s so-called “Administration Commemoration Day.” The budget had swelled from an original 3 million yen to 6,751,982 yen — more than double the initial plan. Gwanghwamun Gate, displaced to make room for the project, had already lost its original place. [Source: Government-General building construction records]

At the same hour, inside the Gyeongseong District Court, the trial connected to what is known as the Second Korean Communist Party incident continued. Proceedings involving Kang Dal-yŏng and other defendants had been running for several days, while Kim Ch’ŏl-su and comrades who had evaded arrest were reportedly working through September to rebuild the organization. Reporters and spectators reportedly crowded the courthouse, though the specific testimony heard on this particular day is not confirmed by available sources. [Source: Korean History Database, Korean Communist Party records]

The exact weather and rice prices in Gyeongseong on this day are not confirmed. It is known, however, that the colonial government was in the second year of its “Plan to Increase Rice Production,” pushing to expand output across the peninsula.

Korea and the Peninsula

While the Gyeongseong courtroom was occupied with the Communist Party case, in the southern port of Mokpo, workers were organizing on their own terms. A strike by workers at the Mokpo oil-pressing factory, underway since early that year, had now stretched past eight months, demanding higher wages and shorter working hours. Company inducements and police intervention had shaken the union’s leadership, but reports suggest that efforts to form trade unions across occupations in Mokpo’s labor community continued into that autumn. [Source: Research on the Mokpo labor movement]

The struggles of this distant port city likely occupied no more than a small corner of the newspaper page, yet set beside the rising government building in the capital, the two scenes captured the two faces of colonial Korea in 1926.

East Asia in Turmoil

Across China, General Chiang Kai-shek’s National Revolutionary Army was pressing forward with its Northern Expedition. Having already taken the major Jiangxi cities of Jiujiang and Nanchang by mid-September, his forces operated amid continuing tension with foreign gunboats patrolling the Yangtze River. For Korea, sharing a border with Manchuria, developments in China’s civil conflict were never simply distant news.

The World Stage

Across the Pacific in Philadelphia, news that would echo around the world was just breaking. The night before, on September 23, more than 120,000 spectators packed Sesquicentennial Stadium in pouring rain to watch champion Jack Dempsey defend his title against challenger Gene Tunney over ten rounds. Tunney won by unanimous decision — the first time Dempsey’s heavyweight crown had changed hands. The news would likely have reached Korean and Japanese newspapers within days, though whether it appeared in the Korean press on September 24 itself is not confirmed. [Source: Philadelphia historical records, world sports history archives]

Colonial Parallels

The scene playing out in Gyeongseong’s courtroom — political dissidents tried under colonial law while a monumental administrative building rose nearby — echoed patterns visible across the empires of the 1920s. In British India, the colonial government likewise combined grand public works with the suppression of nationalist organizing. In Ireland, the fight over which institutions represented legitimate authority continued to simmer years after independence. Colonial rule, wherever it was practiced in this era, tended to pair visible monuments of power with quieter, less visible courtrooms.

Understanding Daily Life

In the morning hours, rumors about the new building’s opening likely circulated along Jongno street, though the specifics of anyone’s individual day are not documented. Government clerks may have begun preparing for their move to the new offices; near the courthouse, teahouses and bookshops may have buzzed with talk of the Communist Party trial. Such scenes are drawn from general patterns of the period rather than confirmed for this specific date.

By dusk, those finishing their day’s work dispersed into the alleys. In Mokpo, factory workers under gaslight may have been planning their next meeting; in Gyeongseong, those leaving the courthouse may have picked up an evening paper. Neither scene can be confirmed in detail from available sources.

Century Mirror

The colonial government spent ten years raising a single brick building. In its shadow, a courtroom tried people for their beliefs, while at a distant port, workers held out for eight months to shorten their day by two hours. A century later, we take the eight-hour workday — something scarcely imaginable to them — entirely for granted.

Tomorrow: September 25, 1926, Saturday — six days before the completion ceremony in Gyeongseong. See you again this evening.