sinmun (황성신문, Capital Gazette), Choe wrote:"The modern age is the age of power in which the powerful survive while the weak perish. This competition continues until death. But why? Because the struggle to be a victor and a survivor never ends. But how? It is a competition of intelligence, physical fitness, material power, economic power, the power of idea and confidence, and of organizational power. Everywhere this competition is underway daily." Since Korea was annexed by Japan in 1910, for Choe the best way of preserving Korea was giving the Koreans a glorious history that would ensure that the Koreans are at least had the necessary mentality to survive in a harsh world. In 1919, Choe, together with Choe Rin, organized the March 1st Movement, a non-violent movement to regain Korean sovereignty and independence. For his drafting of the Korean Declaration of Independence, he was arrested by authorities and imprisoned until 1921. In 1928 he joined the Korean History Compilation Committee, which was established by the Governor-General of Korea and commissioned to compile the history of Korea. Here he sought to refute the Japanese imperialist interpretations of ancient Korean history by arguing that ancient Korea was not an impoverished backwater existing in the shadow of Japan, but rather the center of a vibrant civilization. Choe embarked on a re-examination of Korean history. Choe mostly ignored the Samguk Sagi, and instead chose to draw his history from Samguk Yusa, a collection of folktales, stories, and legends, previously disregarded by historians. A major theme of his scholarship was that Korea was always a major center of Asian civilization, instead being in the periphery. Choe claimed in his 1926 book Treatise on Dangun (단군논, Dangunnon) that ancient Korea had outshone both Japan and China. The status of legendary Emperor Dangun as one of the central figures of Korean history was largely due to Choe. Choe did not accept the Tan'gun legend as written, but he argued that the Tan'gun story reflected the shamanistic religion of ancient Korea, and that Dangun was a legendary figure based on a real shaman-ruler who lived sometime in the very distant past. In addition, Choe claimed that civilizations of ancient India, Greece, the Middle East, Italy, northern Europe, and the Mayas all had their origins in the ancient civilization of Korea. In 1937, Choe started to write articles supporting Japan's aggression against China. In 1939 he became a