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♦︎ Danjae Shin Chae-ho, Baekbeom Kim Gu, and Simsan Kim Chang-suk are often cited as the most staunch anti-Japanese fighters who looked up to the sky with no shame. However, Simsan is less well known than Danjae or Baekbeom. He is called the last scholar of this land. Born in 1879 in the Uiseong Kim clan village of Sawol-ri, Seongju-gun, Gyeongsangbuk-do, as a descendant of Yeongnam Confucian scholars, Simsan Kim Chang-suk maintained his integrity and chastity without a moment of hesitation while experiencing the turbulent modern history of Korea until he passed away at the age of 84 in 1962. While participating in the independence movement, he was severely tortured by the Japanese, and became crippled and lived his entire life as a squat. He did not recognize the colonial rule of Japan itself, so he ignored their laws and refused to appeal or be represented by a lawyer. His conviction was that he would rather die than beg for his life in vain. Such beliefs continued even after liberation, and through the national unification movement and the anti-dictatorship movement, he stood firm against the dictatorships including the Syngman Rhee regime, and suffered greatly as a result. Having dedicated even his two sons to the independence movement, he lived in extreme poverty in his later years, moving from shabby inns and hospitals on the outskirts of Seoul without even having enough money for hospital expenses, and ended his eventful life in a hospital in 1962. Simsan Kim Chang-suk lived with the spirit of a scholar who did not compromise with any injustice while he was alive, and because of this, he walked a difficult path. Through his life, we encounter the national spirit in the history before and after liberation, and the figure of the last scholar as an intellectual who puts into practice what is desperately needed in our times. KBS People of Modern History Episode 29 - The Last Scholar, Simsan Kim Chang-suk (broadcast on January 30, 2004) http://history.kbs.co.kr/