His participation in the March 1st Movement led to his arrest and detention, along with tens of thousands of other Koreans. He is also famous for publicly rejecting the Japanese Imperial government's policy of pressuring Koreans to legally change their surnames into Japanese.[6] In 1922 Cho established the Korean Products Promotion Society with the objective of achieving economic self-sufficiency[7] and that Koreans could obtain solely home-produced products. Cho intended the Society to be a national movement supported by all religious organizations and social groups, particularly ordinary Koreans.[8] Due to the Korean Products Promotion Society, his strong non-violent resistance, and leading by example rather than political or social authority, Cho gained respect even from critics, and earned him the title “Gandhi of Korea”.[9] Despite this record, his encouragement of Korean student enlistment in the Japanese army earned him a mixed reputation with some of his fellow nationalists.[10]