100 Years Ago Today · Evening Edition

Thursday, October 7, 1926 · Gyeongseong · 10:10 PM KST (1:10 PM UTC)

“As you wind down your day, reflect on a century of history.”

1. Hook Opening

Six days earlier, a vast new stone building opened in front of the old Joseon royal palace. On the same day, a silent film made Seoul audiences weep. This evening, October 7, 1926, a Thursday, we look at the week after both events. A caveat first: I could not locate a newspaper page dated October 7 itself. Weather and prices for the day are unconfirmed, so I leave them out. This is a “rotation” edition (Thursday: labor and economy), built from verified facts around the date.

2. Korea Under Colonial Rule

On October 1, 1926, the Japanese Government-General of Korea held the completion ceremony for its new headquarters inside Gyeongbokgung Palace. Construction began in 1916, finished in December 1925, and offices moved in on January 4, 1926. The cost is cited at about seven million yen (National Archives of Korea). To make room, the palace’s Heungnyemun gate and its corridors were demolished and the main gate, Gwanghwamun, was moved eastward.

Work on this scale needed many stonecutters, bricklayers and day laborers. Specific wages or headcounts for this date are not documented in the sources I found, so I do not invent them.

3. East Asia in Turmoil

Across the Yellow Sea, the Nationalist Northern Expedition was marching on the Wuhan cities. Hankou and Hanyang fell quickly, but Wuchang held out for weeks behind its walls and fell on October 10, 1926, the 15th anniversary of the 1911 Wuchang Uprising. So on October 7 the city was still under siege.

4. The World Stage

In Italy, one chronology lists October 7 as the date the Great Fascist Council was formed. I flag this as single-source and needing cross-checking. In the United States, Father Charles Coughlin had begun weekly radio sermons on October 3. In Moscow, Bulgakov’s Days of the Turbins opened at the Moscow Art Theatre on October 5.

5. Colonial Parallels

Monumental government buildings were a common tool of imperial rule. A headquarters planted on a former royal ground says who holds power. Comparable stories exist elsewhere in colonized Asia, such as New Delhi’s imperial capital in British India, which was inaugurated in 1931. I mention this only as a general comparison, not as a documented link to October 7.

6. Person of the Day

Na Un-gyu (1902-1937) wrote, directed and starred in Arirang, which opened October 1, 1926, at Seoul’s Danseongsa theater. It was a silent film, yet audiences reportedly sang the folk song aloud and wept as it ended. It became Korea’s first major box-office hit and later reached theaters across the country. Whether crowds were still queuing on October 7 is not confirmed.

7. Understanding Daily Life

A fair picture of Seoul that week holds two things at once: a new seat of colonial power, and a popular film that gave ordinary people a shared song. Beyond that, I found no verified detail of daily routines for this specific date, and I would rather leave the gap than fill it with guesses.

8. Century Mirror

The colonial headquarters was demolished in the 1990s. A century on, Arirang is still sung, while the building that opened the same day is gone.

9. Tomorrow’s Preview

Tomorrow is Friday, October 8, 1926, two days before Wuchang falls. Good night, and see you at 10:10.

Sources: National Archives of Korea (Government-General building overview); accounts of the opening of Arirang; scholarly overviews of the Northern Expedition; a general October 1926 chronology. No newspaper page dated October 7 was located.

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