Overview
To honor the achievements of Shin Ik-hee, the maritime independence activist who devoted himself to the independence of our nation and the development of democracy, a statue was erected in Cheonho-dong under the supervision of Gangdong District Office. Shin Ik-hee, a student from the Haegong Province, was born in Gwangju, Gyeonggi Province in 1894. After graduating from Hansung Government Foreign Language School in 1910, he entered the Faculty of Political Science and Economics at Waseda University in Japan in 1912, where he organized the Hakuyukai (Student Association), an integrated organization for international students, published the official journal Hakjigwang, and promoted national spirit and independence ideology. He returned to Korea in 1913 and opened the Dongmyeong Training Center in his hometown to spread new culture and enlightenment ideas, and in 1919, he distributed the Declaration of Independence and led the independence demonstrations. That same year, to escape an arrest order from the Japanese police, he fled to Shanghai and participated in the establishment of the Provisional Government, serving as Deputy Minister of the Interior, Secretary-General of the State Council, Acting Minister of Foreign Affairs, and Minister of Home Affairs, before returning to Korea upon the liberation of his homeland. After returning to Korea, he served as a Supreme Council member of the Democratic Party and Speaker of the National Assembly, and in 1956, as the Democratic Party's presidential candidate, he devoted himself wholeheartedly to realizing democracy but died of a cerebral hemorrhage on a train while leaving.