Cha(Park) Kyung-shin: She worked as a covert agent for the Korean Provisional Government in Shanghai, China.

While she was studying at the women’s theological seminary in  Yokohama, Japan  in 1919, she was active in February 8 Declaration in Tokyo and she thought it would be a high moment to declare Korea’s independence by uniting the Koreans. She and Mary Kim secretly returned to Korea to join other women leaders to rally around 50 members to sign for the March First Independence Movement. Even though she was sought by the Japanese police, she organized a youth nursing corps and she was arrested at once by the Japanese police on her way to China and later released. In August of 1920, she went to the Korean Provisional Government in Shanghai. She was acting as a covert agent in and out of China and Korea to render assistance for Dosan Ahn Chang Ho. In 1921, she collected independence funds in collaboration with the women’s group of Korean National Association and on October 26, she delivered the collected military funds to the Provisional Government. Due to her hard work to deliver the secret supply of independence funds around, she was once hospitalized at a Red Cross hospital in Shanghai in 1921.In 1924, she returned to America and continued to work for the independence movement. She became president of the Korean Women’s Patriotic League as well as a member of Korean National Association. She founded a Korean Language School in Los Angeles and she became the first principal.  After she left the school, she proceeded to San Francisco to be in charge of the Patriotic League activities from 1932 through 1939. This Women’s Patriotic League was active in supplying all the independence and relief funds. Ever since her returning to the U.S. in 1924 and until Korea was liberated, she was hugely active in delivering the funds for the independence movement and for women’s education. She passed away on September 28, 1978 in Los Angeles, California.  In 1993, the South Korean government posthumously recognized her with the Order of Merit of National Foundation / Patriotism Award for her unsparing dedication and contribution to the Korean independence movement.

▶ Cha, Kyung-shin and her husband Park, Jae-hyung with their newly purchased new car. (1920)