Kang In-guk (died 1933) was a Korean businessman who collaborated with Japan during and after its 1910 annexation of Korea. Kang was assassinated alongside General Kawaguchi Mamoru by Korean independence movement fighters at the wedding of his daughter Mitsuko (whose identity was assumed by his other, estranged, daughter, the Korean rebel Ahn Okyun) in Seoul in 1933.
Biography[]
Kang in 1911
Kang In-guk was a Korean businessman who was motivated solely by greed and capitalism, and he decided to collaborate with Japan after its 1910 annexation of Korea. Kang sought to acquire vast wealth by petitioning Governor General Terauchi Masatake to give him control over the silver mines of Korea, but their meeting was interrupted when a bomb went off, injuring the two men. Kang saved Terauchi's life by dragging him out of the building, and Kang was brought back to his home in one piece, now guarded by Imperial Japanese Army troops. He was shocked when he discovered that his wife was hiding Yem Sek-jin, the Korean Liberation Army terrorist who had carried out the attack, and he ordered for his wife to be killed by his Japanese guards. He also ordered for his two twin daughters to be brought back to him, but their wet nurse ran away with them. One of these daughters, Ahn Okyun, was raised to become a KLA fighter, and she was unaware of her father's identity. The other, Mitsuko, was raised as Kang's daughter, and she lived a spoiled life. In 1933, he planned to have her married to the son of General Kawaguchi Mamoru so that the Governor General of Korea would grant him a bigger title and more money.
Kang became a wealthy businessman due to his collaboration with Japan, and he donated ten airplanes to the Japanese military during its Invasion of Manchuria in 1931. The KLA plotted to assassinate Kang and the General Kawaguchi in Seoul on 7 November 1933 as Kawaguchi prepared to return to Japan, and as Kang inspected his aircraft factory. The assassination attempt failed, and Kang later confronted Mitsuko at Ahn's apartment, mistaking her for her twin sister, and killed her with his own pistol. Ahn returned to Kang's mansion under Mitsuko's identity, and the wedding ceremony proceeded the next day.
Death[]
Kang after being shot
Kang walked his daughter down the isle, and he asked her why she looked upset. She then asked him why she killed "her sister from Manchuria", and Kang was disturbed by this question, not giving a response. Before Ahn could carry out her plan to kill Kang and Kawaguchi with a pistol hidden in her bouquet, the wedding was ambushed by fellow Korean freedom fighter Chu Sang-ok, who fired on the guards from an elevator shaft. Kang hid in a nearby room, and Ahn, later joined by the contract killer "Hawaii Pistol", shot their way past the last guards. Ahn planned to kill her father with an Arisaka, but she was unable to kill him, despite her berating of him to his face. Kang reached for a dead guard's pistol, but the pistol was tied to the guard, and Kang was unable to retrieve it. Before Kang could shoot the pistol, Hawaii Pistol shot Kang dead, relieving Ahn of the pressure to kill her own father.