총선거 5월 10일 (General Election, May 10): 총선거로 독립문은 열린다 (The General Election Opens the Independence Gate)
A colour lithograph poster for the 10 May 1948 election shows a crowd holding up ballots and marching through the Independence Gate towards the government building, under crossed Taegukgi flags. The gate and flags carry the message: 'The general election opens the Independence Gate', 'Voting is the duty of a patriotic citizen', 'Abstaining is the nation's shame'. National symbols and virtue words stand in for any account of what is on the ballot.
- Date
- 1948
- Period
- Cold War
- Made by
- South Korean election publicity under the U.S. Army Military Government in Korea (issuing office not printed on the poster)
- Region
- East Asia
- Country
- Korea Under US Military Government
- Medium
- Poster
- Issuer type
- State
- Regime
- US Army Military Government in Korea
- Leader
- William F. Dean
- Audience
- Domestic public
- Purpose
- Mobilize or secure compliance
- Theme
- Elections and party politics
- Event
- South Korean General Election 1948
- Techniques
- TransferGlittering generalities
- Source
- Unidentified Source blurred: contractors, cutouts, buried disclosure
- Source
- Wikimedia Commons (National Folk Museum of Korea, KOGL Type 1), retrieved September 29, 2026
- Rights
- KOGL Type 1 (Korea Open Government License, attribution only), per Commons file page
Anonymous, 1948. National Folk Museum of Korea (국립민속박물관), via Wikimedia Commons; KOGL Type 1 (http://www.kogl.or.kr/info/licenseType1.do).
Text on the object
총선거 5월 10일 [on the arch:] [총]선거로 독립문은 열린다 [under the arch:] 중앙정부수립 [left margin:] 기권은 국민의 수치 [right margin:] 투표는 애국민의 의무 [bottom left:] 국회선거 [small figure of a woman with a bowl, top right: no text; part of the sheet there is torn away]
General election, 10 May. [Arch] The general election opens the Independence Gate. [Under the arch] Establishment of the central government. [Left] Abstaining is the nation's shame. [Right] Voting is the duty of a patriotic citizen. [Bottom left] National Assembly election.
The first syllable on the arch is damaged and is read as 총 from the Commons description ('총선거로 독립문이 열린다'); the sheet has tears at the top right and right edge.
