Historical Review--Korean Characteristics--Football between
Japan, China and Russia--Ill-advised Movements--Unrest
and Excitement--Korea Allied to Japan--Japanese in
Korea--Po an Whai--Kaiwha--Railroad Extension--Japanese
Protectorate--Petition to President Roosevelt--Removal of
American Legation--Education in Korea--Righteous Army--True
Civilization.
Before making a brief review of events which have taken place during
the five years that have elapsed since the previous chapters were
written, let us look a little further at the character of the Korean
people so that we may understand them perhaps somewhat better and judge
them a little more fairly as we scan their actions in reference to the
conditions that follow.[5]
[5] I have to thank Mr. Homer B. Hulbert for many of these facts and
dates, having refreshed my memory by frequent reference to his “History
of Korea” and “The Passing of Korea.”
Although through the influence of their progressive Queen the country
had been opened to foreigners in 1882, and although missionaries had
been there since 1884, the impression made upon the people as a whole
was very slight, owing to the lack of newspapers and other means of
appeal to the public, and though in the capital a few progressionists
had begun to feel the need of reform, the nation as such was still in
a kind of stupor under the baleful charm of the example of China, and
the influence of her classics and her civilization. Shut up for long
centuries in complete seclusion--even Japan had been open twenty years
to the stimulating influences of the civilization of the West--still
Korea in her belated “Morning Calm” slept on; while Japan had been up
and catching her worms with the “Rising Sun,” and the first rude shock
which startled her from this slumber and made her begin to look about
was the defeat of China by her little neighbor.
Coincidentally with the rapid march of political events, the Gospel
was making advances with constantly increasing momentum and where the
Spirit of the Lord is there is liberty of thought and action, and
to-day, stung into life by the sharp lash of adversity, Korea is awake,
wide awake, to sleep no more, for her Macbeth has effectually murdered
sleep.
The Koreans have been frequently spoken and written of as listless,
dull, stupid, lazy, an inferior race; but I submit this has been said
mainly by travellers who did not know them, or by those who were their
enemies and had an object in making the world think them worthless,
or by those who had contented themselves with looking merely on the
surface and had not studied them with a wish to know them at their
best. There is a certain excuse for these views, if one observes only
the rough coolies in the ports or the idle worthless “boulevardiers”
who lounge about the streets of Seoul, or live by sponging on the
generosity of some relative better off than themselves. But such a
class can be found almost anywhere, even among the most advanced
European nations.
To the writer it seems that there is a close parallel between the
Irishman and the Korean. Both are happy-go-lucky, improvident,
impulsive, warm-hearted, hospitable, generous. Take either in the midst
of his native bogs, untutored, without incentive--he is thoughtless,
careless, dirty; drinking, smoking and gambling away his time with
apparently little ambition for anything better. Remove this same man,
be he Irishman of Great Britain, or Irishman of the East--Korea--place
him in a stimulating environment, educate him, instil the principles
of Protestant Christianity, give him a chance to make a good living,
and a certainty that he may keep his own earnings, and you will not
find a better citizen, a more brilliant scholar, a finer Christian.
Look at the men of North Ireland and tell me if this is not so? Look at
the Christian Korean, self-supporting, independent, sober, faithful,
industrious, eager to study. Hear the testimony of the missionaries of
all denominations.
Hear the testimony even of the foreign mining companies, who avow the
Koreans are the best workmen of any nationality they have employed.
Hear the testimony of the American planters in Hawaii, who say that the
Koreans are the best workmen, the most sober, well-behaved, cleanly,
domestic, peaceful and thrifty they have ever used, far superior to the
Japanese, who are quarrelsome and unstable--or even the Chinese.
Witness the young Koreans who have graduated from our American colleges
and medical schools side by side with Americans, often carrying away
the honors.
Let us keep these facts in mind and remember that if Korea has been
caught in the toils and has allowed her country to be usurped, she was
caught napping. The whole nation was still in the bogs, and twenty-five
years behind the rest of the world, in a time when a thousand years
is as one day and one day as a thousand years. When China, the Titan,
found herself helpless in the hands of the new régime, what could be
expected of little Korea when she suddenly awoke to find herself shut
in a trap with a foreign army in her capital and foreign guns at her
palace gates?
The most brilliant speaker at the great international conference in
Tokio two years ago was unanimously by Japanese newspapers conceded
to be a Korean, and an American told the writer that the grandest
sermon he had ever listened to--and he had heard John Hall and the
great Western divines--was preached in Korea by another Korean. The
writer also recalls at this moment still two others who are capable of
carrying any audience along enraptured, and whom she would not hesitate
to rank with the best, most inspiring public speakers she has ever
listened to.
We know many Koreans who have been given opportunity, environment,
advantage, who have ability, energy, initiative and resource equal to
that of the foremost Americans and Europeans. They are not, perhaps,
_par excellence_, fighters like the Japanese or merchants like the
Chinese. They have not the volatility and headlong impulsiveness of the
one nor the stolid conservatism of the other, but they are the equals
if not the superiors of either. Which of the three evolved an alphabet
and a constitutional form of government?
This is the conscientious opinion of one who has known them for
twenty years, closely, in every-day contact, through all sorts of
circumstances, in city and country, and it is an opinion almost
the opposite of that which was formed during the first years of
acquaintance with them. It is the result of the developments of
character seen in individuals and the nation. That they are friendly,
hospitable, long-suffering, patient, any one who studies them without
prejudice for a short time will admit, but those of us who know
them best know that they have brilliant gifts and a high grade of
intellectuality. The old simile of the rough diamond is a good one
to apply to Koreans who seem perhaps worthless stones to the ignorant
careless observer, but, when polished, they shine as brilliant jewels
for the Redeemer’s crown.
Considerable space has been given to this question of Korean ability
because much has been made of the other side, as an excuse for what
might be thought otherwise inexcusable, and because it is right that
the public should know they are not unworthy of its sympathy and
interest. Nor should they be called cowardly because taken unaware by
the rapid succession of cataclysmic political events which have whirled
them along during the last few years. The “Morning Calm” is forever
gone.
Korea has for many years been in a diplomatic way a sort of football
between Japan, China and Russia, and in 1903 affairs were rapidly
culminating toward the Russo-Japanese war. Yi Yong Ik, the Korean
prime minister, who had then lately returned from Port Arthur and was
zealously pro-Russian, like most of the court and officials, now began
a series of attacks on Japanese interests.
Koreans had always regarded their neighbors on the East with the
distrust which their not infrequent invasions warranted, and they
believed that Russia, while she might invade, would not seek to
Russianize; while she might plunder, would not colonize, or interfere
at least more than incidentally or occasionally with personal right or
private concerns as the others were almost certain to do.
Whenever trouble seemed brewing between Japan and other powers,
whatever may have been the reason, the Korean government at least
almost invariably went with the other side, and at this time Korea and
her royal family counted a long score of injuries and wrongs from Japan.
The murder of their Queen, the cutting of the top-knots, and the
hard and burdensome laws enacted at that time, the indignities the
Emperor had suffered in practical confinement and the insults heaped
upon the dead Queen could not be forgotten. On the other hand Russia
had sheltered and protected the King on his escape, had favored his
complete freedom of action even while he resided in her Legation,
and when patriotic Koreans had complained that Russian influence was
becoming too great, had withdrawn all the causes of complaint, removed
her bank, and the obnoxious officials, favored the departure of the
King to his own palace and left everything in the hands of the Koreans.
Such conduct, whatever its motive, could not but excite gratitude,
and add to this the degree of certitude with which nearly the whole
East awaited the speedy defeat of the Japanese by mighty, all-powerful
Russia, it is not hard to see why the Korean government were so
strongly pro-Russian.
This, then, by way of partial explanation of the attitude of Yi Yong
Ik and the Korean court and government and in fact of a great many of
the Korean people, though just here it may be said that multitudes of
the Koreans with all the Americans and Europeans, except perhaps the
French, were pro-Japanese, believing that they would prove the saviors
of Korea from all-absorbing Russia, that reform and progress, good
government and order would follow in their train, and warm were our
good wishes and hearty the delight with which we witnessed Japanese
successes at the opening of the war.
This attitude of the Korean government continued without change from
the beginning to the end of the war, and now was the time when they
might venture to show their real feeling and attempt some reprisals
upon Japan.
First of all, then, the minister took the ill-advised measure of
forbidding the use of the notes of the Japanese bank in Seoul, causing
a run which came very near wrecking it. As the Japanese were in a
position to retaliate, this resulted in apologies and withdrawals by
the native government, but left a debt uncancelled for the Japanese to
remember by and by.
The Russians were next given a concession to cut timber along the Yalu
and soon after, on their asking the privilege of the use of the port of
Yengampo in using this concession, it was granted.
As is well known, Japan and the foreign powers now urged the opening
of this port to all foreign trade, Russia opposing, and the Korean
government steadily refused. When, in addition, they soon after refused
also to open Wi Ju in accordance with the objections of Russia, it
became quite evident that war alone would ever make Russia retire from
Korean soil.
In October, Japanese merchants in Korea began calling in outstanding
moneys and from this time on the Koreans were in daily, hourly
suspense, awaiting the war which could bring, in any event, nothing
but disaster and loss, the only thing which they might hope for, being
a degree less of distress, humiliation and misery, in one case than
the other. Their country was to be the spoil of war, as well as its
probable seat, and devastation, rapine and bloodshed loomed darkly
before them. The action of the Korean pawnbrokers, refusing to lend
money at this time, added to the general distress, for many of the
poor are obliged to pawn some of their belongings in the fall, in
order to provide fuel and clothing for the winter, and it was now
feared that an uprising against all foreigners would take place, so
great was the excitement and discontent. Guards were called to the
different Legations to protect their countrymen, and missionaries and
others were warned to come in from the country. “There was a great
deal of disaffection among the poorly paid Korean troops in Seoul. The
Peddlers’ Guild were threatening and capable of any excess and the
unfriendly attitude of Yi Yong Ik toward western foreigners except
French and Russians was quite sufficient reason for these precautionary
measures.”[6]
[6] Hulbert’s “History of Korea.”
It was at this time that an American vessel was sent to a northern port
with a message from the Legation to the missionaries to come to Seoul,
but while a few, for various very good reasons, did this, most of these
devoted men and women decided to remain and brave what war might bring
in order to encourage, help and comfort the native Christians.
The same unrest and excitement which were evident in Seoul, were felt
in the country and a serious movement began in two southern provinces
where it was reported that a formidable insurrection was brewing.
Reports came from the north as well of the banding together of the
disaffected, and many wealthy natives in Seoul began removing their
valuables and families to the country.
And now the distraught and corrupt government took another step at the
bidding of Russia, and quite in keeping with the traditions of the East
and the self-defensive, evasive diplomacy of the weak. They announced
a neutrality which seemed from subsequent developments to have been
a mere pretense in order to keep Japan out. While this neutrality was
being insisted upon the Japanese announced the arrest of Koreans at
different times, said to be carrying messages from the Korean Emperor
and his government to Russia, asking for aid in the form of troops and
ammunition of war. This is not at all unlikely, yet such are the dark
ways and devious devices of the East, that it would have been quite
as possible for those who wished to make an excuse to prove that the
neutrality was a mere pretense, to have made it, if necessary. There
is nothing more certain, however, than that at that time the Korean
government was at heart wholly pro-Russian, of whatever overt acts she
may or may not have been guilty in breaking her neutrality. Whatever
were the facts, a most laudable excuse for the direct invasion of her
neighbors’ soil was now presented to Japan.
The beginning of 1904 was marked by the making of Japanese military
stations every fifteen miles between Fusan and Seoul and the sending
of a well-known Japanese general to Seoul as military attaché to the
Japanese Legation. Notices were posted in the city assuring Koreans
that their property and personal rights would be respected, promising
immediate justice if any complaint were made, and from this time on
Chemulpo harbor was blocked. Korean students had previously been
recalled from Japan and now the Japanese began rapidly landing troops
in two southern ports of Korea. After the battle of Chemulpo, which
soon took place, the Japanese landed all their troops further north and
work was rapidly pushed on the Seoul-Fusan railway and also begun on
the road to Wi Ju.
On February 23d a protocol was signed by Japan and Korea, by virtue
of which Korea practically allied herself with Japan. She granted
the latter the right to use her territory as a road to Manchuria and
engaged to give them every possible facility for prosecuting the war.
On the other hand, Japan guaranteed the independence of Korea and the
safety of her imperial family. It was, of course, on Korea’s side a
case of necessity, though many Koreans really accepted the Japanese
as their friends and believed they would preserve their independence.
However, willy-nilly, there was nothing to do under the circumstances
but to acquiesce for the time being, though the government and court
were still assured that Russia would undoubtedly be the ultimate
victor and the Russians were continually making use of corrupt Korean
officials who served only to complicate affairs with Japan.
It is more than doubtful whether this protocol, backed by arms, wrung
out of the unwilling Koreans, was ever worth the paper on which it was
written, even to keep up appearances to a people so unsophisticated at
that time as the Koreans. The Japanese were ready at almost any moment
during the war to enforce it and punish its violation, and the native
government were very likely quite as ready to avail themselves of every
opportunity which might offer to break it openly, could either Russia
or China have been depended on to assist. But let us not forget that
these were the acts of a corrupt government and not of the people,
and that their sprightly neighbor had long odds, thanks to the almost
forcible opening of their country thirty years earlier.
Mr. Hulbert says, “The Japanese handled the situation in Korea
with great circumspection,” which they certainly did. The expected
punishment did not fall on the pro-Russian officials. The perturbation
of the court was quieted and Marquis Ito was sent with friendly
messages to the Emperor. The northern ports of Wi Ju and Yonganpo were
opened and soon Yi Yong Ik who was a large factor in the conspiracies
against Japan was invited to visit that country. The Japanese soldiers
were remarkably orderly and well behaved, a great contrast in this
respect to the Cossacks and Russian guard who had been at the Legation,
who conducted themselves most outrageously, so that they won the hate
and fear of the whole native community, and the disgust and horror of
all western foreigners.
The Japanese soldiers, we are told by Mr. Hulbert, all belong to the
upper middle classes. “No low class man can stand in the ranks,” and
this being the fact, the wide difference between their behavior and
that of the colonists can be well understood. Suffice it to say that
in the main they did great credit to their country and their conduct
reassured the Koreans and won for them as a rule tolerance and often
real good will.
However, the reforms which the pro-Japanese had so hopefully expected
did not come. The monetary affairs about which the Japanese had
complained as being so bad were not altered when they came into power,
and in addition they now began to demand all sorts of privileges which
became no small hardship to the Koreans. In Fusan the Japanese Board of
Trade asked their government to secure the maritime customs service,
permission for extra territorial privileges, the establishment of
Japanese agricultural stations, etc.
In the meanwhile the tide of Japanese immigration was daily rising
higher and higher as to quantity, but the friends of Japan would
certainly like to think that the people who came could have represented
only her worst classes. This is not the place, nor are missionaries
the people to animadvert upon them or their conduct; nor perhaps did
it seem possible with the war on their hands at first, and a hostile
native people to keep in check later, for the few Japanese officials
to look into the cases brought before them, and deal out justice to
their own offending countrymen. But I do say that had they been able to
do so, their task in Korea would be an easier one to-day, for Koreans
are a long-suffering people. Moreover, when loud complaints concerning
the Koreans’ unwillingness to yield to “legally constituted authority”
(?) are heard, let the reader bear in mind that this same “legally
constituted authority” seldom, if ever, so far as the writer is aware,
has protected the Korean in his rights, or made him safe and inviolate
in his home, when a home was left to him. We are not accusing the
Japanese. They have undertaken a difficult task, in which older and
more civilized, more Christian nations have failed, and when we look
at Poland and elsewhere, we do not see that they are more to be blamed
than the illustrious examples they have followed, but we do say, “Do
not judge the Korean too hardly if he rises in self defense to do what
he can to make reprisals on invaders and to defend his own rights.”
In connection with the laying of the railroads, large tracts of some
of the best land in the country were practically confiscated, and in
Seoul large blocks of the most valuable property in the city were taken
at a merely nominal price, and hundreds of people lost practically all
they had in the world. In the north, where soldiers were quartered on
Koreans, many of the women, whose custom it is never to be seen by
strangers, fled to the mountain recesses at a most inclement season and
incurred untold suffering. Still the Koreans bore all these trials with
remarkable patience and few complaints.
Many, however, of the malcontents and those who had suffered loss
joined the robbers, and large bands made frequent and destructive raids
upon the smaller towns and villages, adding to the general distress of
the poor people who actually had no one to look to but the missionaries
and Americans whom they regarded as their only friends, who could do
little enough, alas, to help, but who could point them to God who
pities the helpless, and bid them hope in Him.
Although many of the best Koreans who had trusted in the Japanese had
been disappointed to see none of the promised reforms, great was their
added anger and alarm when on the seventeenth of June the Japanese
authorities made the suggestion “that all uncultivated land in the
Peninsula as well as all other national resources should be open to
the Japanese. The Koreans now indeed raised a storm of protest. The
time was unpropitious. Koreans recognized that the carrying out of this
would result in a Japanese protectorate, though the latter had probably
not believed the Koreans capable of following out the logic of this.”[7]
[7] Hulbert’s “History of Korea.”
They however, not being prepared at that time to carry matters
to extremes, after repeated attempts at a compromise, at length
temporarily dropped it.
The Koreans, in order to oppose the encroachments of the Japanese,
had organized a society “for the promotion of peace and safety” (Po
an Whai) and many exciting discussions took place as to how to defeat
the purposes of the Japanese, while continually a stream of memorials
poured in to the Emperor, beseeching him not to yield to the demands
of the invaders. The latter, therefore, forcibly broke in on one of
the meetings and carried leading members to the police station, and
at other times raided the meeting-place, arrested other members and
confiscated their papers. They further warned the Korean government
that these doings must be firmly put down, and insisted that those who
kept on sending memorials against the Japanese must be arrested and
punished. The position of the Emperor at that time, as ever since,
was certainly not an enviable one, and then if ever was it true that
“uneasy lies the head that wears a crown.” Indeed the poor Korean
Emperor’s crown was sitting very loosely just then and there seemed no
way in sight to keep it from rolling quite away.
Japanese troops in Seoul were increased at this time to six thousand.
The members of the Po an Whai, on the other hand, sent circular letters
throughout the country. News spreads in a marvellous way in Korea,
faster than by mail, almost as by telegraph the human wireless flies
from mouth to mouth, from hand to hand, and thousands of members were
enrolled in every province.
In August Japanese military authorities asked for six thousand coolies
to work on the railroad at handsome wages, but the report got out that
these men were to be on the fighting line. Perhaps they distrusted
their employers, but, whatever the reason, only two thousand men could
be obtained and there were frequent bloody fights in the villages when
the effort was made to force men to work.
The tide of public opinion was now running high against them on account
of the waste land measure and the violation of the right of free
speech, which had hitherto rarely been interfered with by their own
government in spite of all its faults.
The Po an Whai still continued to carry on its propaganda, so the
Japanese started another, called the Il Chin society, protected
by Japanese police and having only such members as were properly
accredited by them; and following this another society was organized
as the Kuk Min or National People’s Club. Although their plans were
good, having no means whereby to carry them out they were laughed at by
some, but nevertheless they served to strengthen and unify patriotic
feeling, develop progressive ideas, and sow broadcast through the land
a general desire for advance and reform; to bid the people awake to the
dangers threatening them and to stir up a general spirit of inquiry as
to the best method to strengthen their country and finally deliver her.
Perhaps not much wisdom was wasted here. The members were all more or
less ignorant of such things, of almost anything, in fact, but Chinese
classics, but nevertheless a beginning must always be made, and this
was at least something.
And now in connection with the societies and the universal cry of
“Kaiwha”--progress--one began to see everywhere a distressing admixture
of foreign and native dress. Koreans had been for some time cutting
their hair. Now hundreds were wearing foreign caps and shoes which with
their own long white coats gave the painfully ridiculous appearance of
some one going abroad in night attire, having stopped only for foot and
head gear. Some wore no coats at all but very gaily colored foreign
vests, with their baggy white trousers below. The transition stage in
the dress of eastern peoples is sad to a degree to the foreigner who
loves them and holds their dignity and respectability dear as his own.
The more he cares for the people the more bitterly does he resent the
harrowing and pitiful variety of incongruities evolved by the natives
in their zealous efforts to imitate the foreigner.
Thus progress and pro-Japanese societies--names by some considered
synonymous--multiplied, but the poor common people were as sheep
without a shepherd, a prey to the wolves and robbers on all hands.
During that summer the Japanese made their first suggestions that
Korea should recall her foreign representatives and that all Korean
diplomatic business be transacted through the Japanese Legation. This
was not, however, pushed at this time, but was simply a forecast of
what was in store.
A little later a Mr. Stevens,[8] an American citizen, was nominated by
them as adviser to the Korean foreign office. This was a move of great
discernment, for Americans have always been particularly favored by the
Korean court and people from the Emperor to the coolie, and the advice
of an American would meet a far readier hearing at that time than that
of a Japanese. This man, being the Japanese appointee and dischargeable
only by them, was more than likely, as it chanced, to advise Koreans
according to the wishes of the Japanese, indeed, for what other purpose
could his patrons have placed him there?
[8] On March 23, 1908, a Korean member of the Religious Army attempted
to assassinate Mr. Stevens at San Francisco, wounding him so seriously
that he died a few days later.
In accordance with this advice the Korean Emperor disbanded and
dismissed most of the fifty thousand troops he then had under arms, as
he was reminded they were a needless expense. The Japanese had assured
Korea’s independence and a small body-guard was all that was needed.
About this time, partly in response to the fast growing feeling of the
Koreans themselves that one of their heaviest drawbacks was a lack
of knowledge of Western sciences, a number of foreigners, including
nearly all the missionaries, formed an educational association of
Korea, their object being to prepare text-books for Korean schools.
A little later a large number of Koreans also founded an educational
society which did not attempt to do with politics but gathered together
those who believed education must be one of the important factors in
putting Korea on her feet.
In September, 1904, the twentieth anniversary of the founding of
Protestant Missions was celebrated.
The Seoul-Fusan Railroad was completed during this year and the
Seoul-Wi Ju Railroad well under way, and although they were put through
in the interests of the Japanese, missionaries cannot but believe that
unconsciously they were the agents of the Almighty making straight
paths for His own kingdom. The missionaries of the Cross were, with the
Japanese troops, the first people to use these roads while they were
still in construction.
As the year advanced Japanese kept at work gathering the material
resources of the country. The offices of the high Japanese officials
were said to be literally besieged by their insistent countrymen who
had no doubt come to Korea to make a great fortune one and all under
the ægis of their own victorious troops and there is little doubt that
the task of these officials, between their own rapacious nationals
on the one hand and the Koreans who must be kept quiet for a time at
least, till the army had done with Russia, was not too easy. Fishing
rights along the whole coast were demanded and given, and next trading
and riparian rights were seized.
The signing of the treaty of peace with Russia was the signal for a
still more active policy in Korea, and then immediate steps were taken
for the establishment of a protectorate.
It is a well understood and by a certain class of politicians well
practised proverb that “To the victor belong the spoils,” and had Japan
simply seized Korea at this time, it would neither have surprised
nor greatly shocked the world at large, or the readers of universal
history. But the somewhat clumsy attempt to place the Koreans in the
position of suing for this, was on the part of the usually astute
Japanese a strange proceeding. It seems as incredible that they could
have expected to hoodwink the world as it was unnecessary. They
may have wished to produce a certain impression, to create a given
effect on the large party among their own best people who desired the
practical independence of Korea to be preserved and faith kept with
them. Whatever their reasons, the sheep’s clothing was inadequate, and
the grim fact was only too patent to those who were concerned to know
about the matter.
Early in the autumn of 1905 the Emperor had been approached with the
suggestion of a protectorate. He was willing to recognize Japanese
predominance in Korea, even acquiesced in Japanese advisorships, but
when it came to turning the whole country over he refused. He knew that
if he remained firm it could not be done without arousing indignation
and perhaps some interference in his favor. He determined to lodge a
protest at Washington, turning naturally, as all Koreans do, first to
America and England, but England’s treaties with Japan were so sweeping
that he knew it would be useless to look there. America’s treaty,
however, has the following clause, “That if either of the contracting
parties is injured by a third party, the other shall interfere with
her good offices to effect an amiable settlement.” This could not
be done through the regular channel of the Foreign Office, as the
before mentioned American agent of the Japanese was in charge there. A
personal and private letter was therefore sent direct to the President,
asking him to investigate and help. This message was carried by an
American resident, but the Japanese, probably surmising what was being
done, hurried on the completion of their plans. Marquis Ito was sent to
Seoul with definite instructions. Korea was to be induced or forced to
sign away her existence “voluntarily” (?).
Though many conferences with the Cabinet took place, there was no
result. The Koreans stood fast for the treaty of 1904 in which Japan
guaranteed independence. Not a member of the Cabinet consented. It
is unnecessary to go into all the painful details, but at last by
surrounding the Cabinet and the palace with soldiers, by having
previously secured the consent of two or three men who were venal,
after repeated efforts and long discussions, show of armed force and
having forcibly removed Han Kyu Sul, the strong Prime Minister (without
whose signature no measure can be legally passed) they managed to gain
a majority of one, and the seal being illegally fixed by the envoy,
the fact was declared accomplished and the authorities immediately
announced in Washington that Korea had voluntarily entered into an
agreement granting Japan a protectorate. The American government almost
immediately recognized Japan’s claim and removed the Legation from
Seoul. The petition of the Emperor arrived in Washington before action
had been taken, but though its arrival was announced to the President,
it was not received till too late.
“For twenty-five years American representatives and residents had
been reiterating that we stood for right against mere brute force,
and Korea had a right to regard our government as the one above all
others to demur at any encroachment on her independence. But when the
time of difficulty approached we deserted her with such celerity,
such cold-heartedness and such refinement of contempt, that the blood
of every decent American citizen boiled with indignation. While the
most loyal, patriotic, cultured of Korean nobility were committing
suicide one after another, because they would not survive the death
of their country, the American Minister (Mr. Morgan) was toasting the
perpetrators in bumpers of champagne, utterly indifferent to the death
throes of an empire which had treated American citizens with a courtesy
and consideration they had enjoyed in no other Oriental country.”[9]
[9] Hulbert’s “Passing of Korea.”
News of this action was carried that night to the editors of one of the
Korean dailies. They worked all night, well knowing that the result of
their action would be confiscation of their presses and imprisonment
at least, but thousands of copies of the paper containing a detailed
report of all that had happened were in the hands of the people
scattered broadcast beyond possibility of recall before the Japanese
were aware. Every effort was made to destroy this publication and to
prevent the spread of this story to other countries but it was too
late. Members of the Cabinet and Court told the story to Americans, and
though there existed a rigid censorship of telegraph lines and mails,
it was carried by foreigners to China, so that even in the minds of
those who lend the most willing ear to the story told by the Japanese,
there must always remain at least a moiety of doubt.
When, as soon as the fact of the protectorate was announced, the
American Legation was so suddenly removed, there went up as it were
a great cry from the heart of the people, “Et tu, Brute.” It seemed
the seal of their misfortunes, the certainty that their best friend
remorselessly and with hopeless finality had deserted them.
Strong men were sobbing, moaning, crying like women or little children.
Many committed suicide. Shops were closed with emblems of mourning. A
nation was in sackcloth and ashes, on its face in the dust. It was a
bitter hour for Korea and for the humiliated Americans who for once
were not proud of their government so far as its policy in Korea was
concerned. Well was it for the cowards who had signed the agreement
that when they ventured through the streets it was with a strong
guard of Japanese, for the people would have torn them to pieces, and
as it was, numerous attempts were made on their lives. One of them
attempted or pretended to attempt suicide, and to this step they were
all advised by their compatriots. Japanese troops and artillery were
paraded through the capital, with great show of power. Heavy guards
were stationed at various points, though no attempt at resistance was
made by the unarmed, unorganized, uncaptained mass of the citizens,
against the victorious conquerors of Russia. Pro-Japanese societies and
clubs suddenly collapsed. The party that had believed all along that
Japan would keep her treaty and help Korea maintain her independence,
was now disillusioned, horror-struck and indignant. The missionaries
unanimously did all in their power to quiet the unhappy people, to
prevent useless uprisings and bloodshed, and to comfort them in their
sore distress. Some of them were inclined to resent these efforts to
prevent revolt and to think and say that these missionaries were false
friends who did not care for the welfare of the nation. Who could blame
them for casting such a reproach upon us, when our own government had
deserted them without even a word of commiseration or regret?
To add to the distress an epidemic of malarial fevers with typhus and
typhoid, took place, on account of the way in which the city drains
had been closed. The city had always been drained by open ditches
which empty into a large drain flowing out under the walls. These
small ditches were, in addition, periodically cleaned out by men who
gather fertilizers; and, purified by sun and air, and washed out by
the rains, they were not so great a source of evil as they looked.
But the new-comers, by way of reform, and with the inevitable eye to
appearances, ordered all these ditches covered. A protest, private
and public, went up from every physician in Seoul. Appeals were made,
but in vain. The ditches were covered with boards and sod and left to
ferment and breed countless colonies of germs, with the result just
mentioned.
Japanese colonists were still pouring into the country by thousands[10]
and the class who came, and came as conquerors, was such (as has been
noted) as to entail inevitable hardships on the natives. There is an
impression abroad that all Japanese are now civilized. This is a great
mistake. While in the cities there are large schools and universities
of Western learning, it must be remembered there are forty million of
people, most of whom live in the country and are very poor, who have
never been touched by the wave of civilization that has swept over
Tokio, Yokohama, Osaka, Nagasaki and the great cities. They are little
if any different from their grandfathers as Commodore Perry found
them, and their customs of dress, their ideas as to the seclusion of
women, their morals, their habits of thought, their animus is in every
way diametrically opposite to that of the Koreans. Easier would it be
to mix oil and water than these peoples.
[10] There are now over 100,000 Japanese in Korea and they are coming
at the rate of 50 to 100 a day (1908).
Some Japanese schools were started by the protectors but the Koreans
were hardly prepared to profit by these, as the teaching was in
Japanese, a language they could not understand, and yet it has been
said that the Koreans did not care for education and were not willing
or fit to make use of the advantages offered them.
But every little village has its schools, and among the Christians
nearly every little group has its self-supporting parochial school,
where the elements of Western learning are taught and the people are
eagerly begging American missionaries for colleges and high schools
which, as fast as provided, are thronged with students and could be
easily thronged were the capacity doubled. The attitude of the people
toward Christianity is stated in another chapter. Let it suffice to say
that now is the accepted time to push forward with the standard of the
Cross in Korea.
A young woman graduate of one of our largest American women’s colleges
wrote, “Of one thing I am certain, that Christianity is the force for
good and for enlightenment in Korea, in spite of all that may be said
concerning Japanese reforms, governmental, educational, social.”
Another writes from Korea: “The whole country is ripe for the picking.
The direful political conditions have turned the people toward the
missionaries and their message is the only succor in sight. The leaders
are openly declaring that in Christianity alone is to be found the
political and social salvation of the nation. In their extremity the
Koreans are ready to turn to the living God. It may not be so two years
hence. _Conditions of which I dare not write are changing the character
of Korea._[11] If the Christian Church has any conception of strategy
and appreciation of opportunity, any sense of relative values, she will
act at once--not next year, but _now_.”
[11] Morphine is being introduced with fearful success by Japanese,
hundreds of immoral characters are plying their trade and the character
of the people seriously changed. L. H. U.
Just before the meeting of The Hague the Emperor decided to send an
appeal thither for Korea. He was warned that if he did so it would
result in his death or abdication, but he held firm. He replied that
he knew that would be the case but that the appeal must be made. This
was done and the abdication followed as predicted. Since then the
rebellious among the people, many of those who have sore grievances,
who have lost their homes, perhaps their all, and have been driven
to desperation, have joined hands with the bandits, and form large
companies of insurrectionists, called the Righteous Army, who keep up a
kind of guerrilla warfare, giving the Japanese no rest.
A newspaper correspondent writes “The whole country is ablaze with
_eui-pyung_ (righteous soldiers.) Their professed object is to protest
against Japanese rule and free the land from it.... As I take up
to-day’s paper it reads ‘Modol (twenty miles west of Seoul) Dec. 7.
Company fifty-one of the Japanese fought with one hundred and fifty
rebels (_eui-pyung_) and drove them off. Su Won (twenty miles south of
Seoul) Dec. 2. _Eui-pyung_ entered the town, robbed, plundered and made
off toward Namyang. Idong (twenty-five miles southeast of Seoul) Dec.
4. _Eui-pyung_ entered and carried off the two chief men. Puk-chung
(three hundred and seventy miles north of Seoul) Dec. 4. After much
effort on the part of government (Japanese) troops, the _eui-pyung_
have been dispersed. Chechun (one hundred miles south of Seoul) Dec.
2. Three hundred _eui-pyung_ were followed, brought to a fight and
thirteen killed. Changyim (seventy miles north of Seoul) Dec. 1. Fifty
_eui-pyung_ were encountered and in the fight six were killed. Eumsung
(thirty miles southeast of Seoul) Dec. 4. An attack was made on the
_eui-pyung_, two were killed and five wounded,’ etc.”
“All the while every Japanese wayfarer is marked, followed and done
to death. The _eui-pyung_ are everywhere. In the twinkling of an eye
they gather, they separate. To-day five hundred are here. To-morrow
no one knows where they have been spirited away to. Seoul and the
larger cities alone are safe from their attack.... The task before the
government grows daily more formidable.”
It has been reported that along the line of some of the railways the
Japanese have been obliged to establish a continuous line of fortified
posts with resident troops to prevent the constant destruction of the
bridges and road bed by the _eui-pyung_, but in these reports coming
from the government we are not told the numbers of their troops killed
and wounded in these encounters, presumably too small to be worth
mentioning. It is nevertheless evident that there is in the minds of a
large number of Koreans objection to the present order which they are
taking this means of recording.
As for the large body of Christians, they remain the most orderly,
reliable and peaceable of the whole native population. The
missionaries, one and all, whether from a wish to uphold Japanese rule,
or a desire to save useless bloodshed, are unanimous in using all
their influence to quiet the Christians and to induce them to prevent
uprisings and revolts, and after the abdication the Christians in Pyeng
Yang went through the streets counselling forbearance and patience.
These Christians are, however, no less patriotic than their more
demonstrative compatriots. They are eager for progress, for education,
for uplift, because they believe and openly declare that in Christian
education and Christianity alone is to be found the political and
social salvation of the country.
They are seeking “Kaiwha” more diligently than ever, and they are
learning that progress and civilization do not consist in altering the
cut and color of a man’s coat or the length of his hair; that it is
not a matter of tramways, wide streets, tall houses, gunboats, well
drilled armies, factories, arts, luxuries, hideous European clothes,
etc. Most Eastern countries have all or many or some of these things,
but even where they are in greatest profusion one feels that something
is wanting. It is as like true civilization as a graphophone is like
the true voice of a friend. There is a hollow, brassy ring about it. It
does not come from a warm, living _heart_ but is only a poor caricature
out of an empty shell. They are learning that true civilization is
not a veneer; it is the solid ringed growth of centuries reaching its
leaves and blossoms unto Heaven. Some of its outgrowths are the things
these people copy so marvellously in paper and wax that we can scarcely
tell the difference.
At a great fête given in an Eastern city they built most cunningly out
of boards and canvas a grand old tree; they painted it with wonderful
skill and crowned it with paper leaves and blossoms. It was a marvel
whereat the world stood open mouthed for a day, but the rain descended
and the floods came and the wind blew and beat upon the tree and it
fell _for it had no roots_.
The Korean Christians are learning fast, we hope, that better
civilization of which our dictionaries give but one or two definitions:
“_The humanization of man in society; the satisfaction for him in
society of the true law of human nature_,” and “_The lifting up of men
mentally, morally and socially_.”
This never was, never will be done by tramways and new clothes. It can
never be brought about by armies and men of war. It will not follow in
the train of art and of luxuries, though they follow it. Men, however
well dressed and well informed, may be after all no better than the
manufactured tree, without the _vital principle of life_ that is in
Christianity to “lift them up mentally, morally and socially” above the
material and sensual and hold them there unshakenly rooted in the rock.
They are learning that all that is best in Western civilization, the
motor power that stirs the energies of men and brings out the choicest
results is Christian faith and love. Christian principle, and that
where this principle is implanted, this spirit breathed, there is a
civilization made or making, for the choice things of which heathenism
has often not even a word whereby they may be expressed. Test them by
such words as God, Heaven, Home, Love, Faith or Sin--where do they
stand?
This is the reason that to-day Korean statesmen are saying that in
Christianity is the only hope for Korea’s national salvation.
And here let me quote Dr. J. D. Davis of Kyoto who says, “If this work
of Christianity can go on unchecked and unchilled Korea will be rapidly
evangelized and filled with millions of happy, enlightened Christian
homes and this little kingdom, despised though it has been, will give
to the world a priceless example of the way and the only way that the
Gospel can be carried to the whole world during the present generation.”
Again Mrs. Curtis, another American missionary to the Japanese, writes,
“By God’s blessing, within the next ten years, if the Church in America
will do its part, this whole nation (Korea) may be reached with the
Gospel. Korea is fast becoming Christian, and, if Japan does not soon
respond to God’s call to her, there is the prospect of a Christian
people, producing the first-fruits of true life, brought under the sway
of a nation yet dead, who have appropriated the fruits of centuries
of Christian growth, but who refuse to share the life which alone can
make those fruits sweet and wholesome and bring them to perfection. A
Christian nation ruled by another whose real God is National Glory! It
will be laid to the charge of the Christian Church if this becomes a
fact. Every man and woman who is ‘looking for the kingdom of God’ and
faithfully seeking to hasten its coming ought to consider this.”[12]
[12] Missionary review, March 1908.
Books which may be relied upon to give trustworthy accounts of
conditions in Korea during the period above referred to are: Hulbert’s
“Passing of Korea,” Doubleday, Page & Co.; McKenzie’s “Unveiled East,”
Hutchinson & Co.; Story’s “To-morrow in the Far East,” Chapman & Hull,
H. G. Underwood’s “The Call of Korea,” Revell (Mission study book);
Hulbert’s “History of Korea.”