The Shinheung Military Academy is an independence army training school, founded in West Jiandao, China, during the Japanese occupation of Korea. It was the cradle of the anti-Japanese armed resistance that had produced 3,500 independence military officers for about twenty years despite many difficulties.
In December 1910, six brothers, including Lee Hoe-yeong (1867–1932), left Seoul with their families in the bitter cold. Lee’s family was one of the top five wealthiest families in Korea and produced ministers and vice ministers for generations. In those days, many families in authority turned to pro-Japanese groups, receiving titles and money from the Japanese Empire, but the six brothers resolved not to beg for their life. They sold their entire property and established the Shinheung Military Academy in West Jiandao, China, with about 51 million dollars in today’s monetary value.
Although they could have enjoyed wealth and honor, the six brothers chose the independence movement and lived a precarious life, enduring harsh rejection from the locals and famine in the foreign land. They put all their efforts into the national independence without changing their mind to the end.
“Even if I can’t achieve my goal, I’ll be happy if I die while trying to achieve my goal.” Lee Hoe-yeong (arrested by the Japanese police in Shanghai and martyred after torture)