ON MARCH 1, 1919, KOREANS from throughout the peninsula con gregated in Pagoda Park in the capital city of Seoul to attend the national funeral of the last reigning Korean monarch, King Kojong, who had passed away earlier in the year. On that same afternoon, a young Korean Protes tant man read aloud a formal Declaration of Independence in the middle of Pagoda Park as Korean leaders simultaneously presented the written doc ument to Japanese colonial officials. Upon the completion of the public reading, the large assembled crowd repeatedly chanted in unison," Taehan Tongnip Mansei!(Long Live Korean Independence!)," setting off waves of similar protests against Japanese rule throughout the Korean peninsula that lasted for months. Over two million Koreans from all walks of life partic ipated in the nonviolent demonstrations, which subsequently became known as the March First movement. The Japanese, taken completely by surprise by the massive scale of the carefully orchestrated uprising, bru tally repressed the demonstrations. Japan's powerful military police force arrested, imprisoned, tortured, and killed thousands of Koreans. 1 Japan's harsh response to the March First movement necessitated that organized resistance against Japanese colonial rule would have to be co ordinated and maintained in the Korean diaspora. Japanese repression, in particular, prevented the establishment of a base in Korea that could act with national authority. As a consequence, in April 1919, Korean nation alist leaders throughout the diaspora formed the Korean Provisional Gov ernment of the Republic of Korea (KPG) in Shanghai, China. Created as a government-in-exile, the KPG represented a systematic effort to institu tionalize a sovereign political entity that could be recognized as a legiti mate actor within the international system of nation-states. From its conception and inception, the KPG reflected the transnational, diasporic nature of the Korean nationalist movement. As a government-in exile, the KPG struggled for power from outside the boundaries of its