Finding Descendants of Independence Activists Using U.S. Draft Registration Cards

On the 11th, marking the 100th anniversary of the establishment of the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea, citizens visiting the Seodaemun Prison History Hall in Seoul are looking at commemorative photos of key figures of the Provisional Government before their return to Korea and photos of independence activists who were released from Seodaemun Prison. Photo by Moon Honam munonam@

[Asia Economy Yang Nak-gyu, Military Specialist Reporter]A project is underway to find descendants of independence activists in the Americas using Korean conscription registration cards created by the U.S. government during the Japanese colonial period.

On the 8th, the Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs announced that it is collecting and analyzing over 1,500 conscription registration cards of Koreans in the Americas created by the U.S. federal government.

The conscription registration cards were created under the "Selective Service Act" approved by the U.S. Congress in May 1917, targeting foreign males aged 18 to 45 residing in the United States. The Ministry confirmed that conscription registration cards of Korean men residing in the U.S. during 1917?1918 and 1940?1945 are held at the U.S. National Archives. They commissioned Professor Brandon Palmer Costal of the University of Carolina, a member of the Overseas Historical Materials Collection Committee, to collect these records, recently gathering 1,589 conscription registration cards of Koreans in the Americas.

The conscription registration cards include not only birth dates and addresses but also family relationships, occupations, and educational backgrounds, which is expected to help find descendants of independence patriots in the Americas who have not received medals due to unclear family relations.

According to the Ministry, among the 16,410 independence patriots who have received government awards so far, 332 were independence activists in the Americas, of whom 178 have not been able to receive medals because their descendants have not been found. During the analysis of these conscription registration cards, information on Jeong Deung-yeop, who received the Presidential Citation in 2017, and Park Gi-byeok, who received the Patriotic Service Medal in 1998, was also confirmed.

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