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Koreans bow to heroes of the 1930s

A statue of a Korean man with a grenade in his right hand, winding up for the throw, looms over Hyochang Park in Seoul. The bronze figure, dressed in a Western-style suit and knee-length overcoat, is Lee Bong-chang, known for his attempt to assassinate Japanese Emperor Hirohito by throwing a grenade at his horse carriage in 1932.

Korea was a Japanese colony from 1910 until Tokyo's World War II surrender in 1945, and Lee was part of a group who fought the occupation.

Hirohito escaped the attack unharmed, and Lee was captured and hanged. Lee is interred at Hyochang Park along with Yun Bong-gil and Baek Jeong-gi, two others who violently resisted the Japanese.