find no opportunity to kill him. Then a plot was planned and he was induced
to visit Shanghai. He had taken great pains to conceal his visit, but
everything had been arranged ahead for him. Arriving at Shanghai he was
promptly slain, and his body was carried in a Chinese war-ship to Chemulpo.
It was cut up, and exhibited in different parts of the land as the body of
a traitor. The mortified Japanese could do nothing at the time.
Years passed. The Japanese now had control of Korea. One of the last things
they did, in 1910, before contemptuously pushing the old Korean Government
into limbo, was to make it issue an Imperial rescript, restoring Kim
Ok-kiun, Hong Yung-sik and others--although long dead--to their offices and
honours, and doing reverence to their memory.[1]
[Footnote 1: Curiosity may be felt about my authority for many of the
particulars supplied in this chapter. Accounts published by foreigners
living at Seoul at the time are of use as giving current impressions, but
are not wholly to be relied on for details. A very interesting official
report, based on information supplied by the King, is to be found in the
unpublished papers of Lieutenant George C. Foulk, U.S. Naval Attaché at
Seoul, which are stored in the New York Public Library. A valuable account
from the Japanese point of view was found among the posthumous papers of
Mr. Fukuzawa (in whose house several of the exiles lived for a time) and
was published in part in the Japanese press in 1910. I learned the
conspirators' side directly from one of the leading actors in the drama.]
III
THE MURDER OF THE QUEEN
"We are not ready to fight China yet," said the Japanese Foreign Minister
to the impetuous young Korean. It was ten years later before Japan was
ready, ten years of steady preparation, and during that time the real focus
of the Far Eastern drama was not Tokyo nor Peking, but Seoul. Here the
Chinese and Japanese outposts were in contact. Here Japan when she was
ready created her cause of war.
China despised Japan, and did not think it necessary to make any real
preparations to meet her. The great majority of European experts and of
European and American residents in the Far East were convinced that if it
came to an actual contest, Japan would stand no chance. She might score
some initial victories, but in the end the greater weight, numbers and
staying power of her monster opponent must overwhelm her.
The development of Korea proceeded slowly. It seemed as though there were
some powerful force behind all the efforts of more enlightened Koreans to
prevent effective reforms from being carried out The Japanese were, as was
natural the most numerous settlers in the land, and their conduct did not
win them the popular affection. Takezoi's disastrous venture inflicted for
a time a heavy blow on Japanese prestige. The Japanese dead lay unburied in
the streets for the dogs to eat. China was momentarily supreme. "The whole
mass of the people are violently pro-Chinese in their sentiments," the
American representative stated in a private despatch to his Government,
"and so violently anti-Japanese that it is impossible to obtain other than
a volume of execrations and vituperations against them when questioned," A
semi-official Japanese statement that their Minister and his troops had
gone to the palace at the King's request, to defend him, made the matter
rather worse.
The affair would have been more quickly forgotten but for the overbearing
attitude of Japanese settlers towards the Korean people, and of Japanese
Ministers towards the Korean Government. Officially they advanced claims so
unjust that they aroused the protest of other foreigners. The attitude of
the Japanese settlers was summed up by Lord (then the Hon. G.N.) Curzon,
the famous British statesman, after a visit in the early nineties. "The
race hatred between Koreans and Japanese," he wrote, "is the most striking
phenomenon in contemporary Chosen. Civil and obliging in their own country,
the Japanese develop in Korea a faculty for bullying and bluster that is
the result partly of nation vanity, partly of memories of the past. The
lower orders ill-treat the Koreans on every possible opportunity, and are
cordially detested by them in return."[1]
[Footnote 1: "Problems of the Far East," London, 1894.]
The old Regent returned from China in 1885, to find his power largely gone,
at least so far as the Court was concerned. But he still had friends and
adherents scattered all over the country. Furious with the Chinese for his
arrest and imprisonment, he threw himself into the arms of the Japanese.
They found in him a very useful instrument.
Korea has for centuries been a land of secret societies. A new society now
sprang up, and spread with amazing rapidity, the Tong-haks. It was
anti-foreign and anti-Christian, and Europeans were at first inclined to
regard it in the same light as Europeans in China later on regarded the
Boxers. But looking back at it to-day it is impossible to deny that there
was much honest patriotism behind the movement. It was not unnatural that a
new departure, such as the introduction of Europeans and European
civilization should arouse some ferment. In a sense, it would not have been
healthy if it had not done so. The people who would accept a vital
revolution in their life and ways without critical examination would not be
worth much.
Few of the Tong-haks had any idea that their movement was being organized
under Japanese influences. It did not suit Japan that Korea should develop
independently and too rapidly. Disturbances would help to keep her back.
When the moment was ripe, Japan set her puppets to work. The Tong-haks were
suddenly found to be possessed of arms, and some of their units were
trained and showed remarkable military efficiency. Their avowed purpose was
to drive all foreigners, including the Japanese, out of the country; but
this was mere camouflage. The real purpose was to provoke China to send
troops to Korea, and so give Japan an excuse for war.
The Japanese had secured an agreement from China in 1885 that both
countries should withdraw their troops from Korea and should send no more
there without informing and giving notice to the other. When the Tong-haks,
thirty thousand in number, came within a hundred miles of Seoul, and
actually defeated a small Korean force led by Chinese, Yuan Shih-kai saw
that something must be done. If the rebels were allowed to reach and
capture the capital, Japan would have an excuse for intervention. He
induced the King to ask for Chinese troops to come and put down the
uprising; and as required by the regulations, due notice of their coming
was sent to Japan.
This was what Japan wanted. She poured troops over the channel until there
were 10,000 in the capital Then she showed her hand. The Japanese Minister,
Mr. Otori, brusquely demanded of the King that he should renounce Chinese
suzerainty. The Koreans tried evasion. The Japanese pressed their point,
and further demanded wholesale concessions, railway rights and a monopoly
of gold mining in Korea. A few days later, confident that Europe would not
intervene, they commanded the King to accept their demand unconditionally,
and to give the Chinese troops three days' notice to withdraw from the
land. The King refused to do anything while the Japanese troops menaced his
capital.
The declaration of war between Japan and China followed. The first incident
was the blowing up by the Japanese of a Chinese transport carrying 1,200
men to Korea. The main naval battle was in the Yalu, between Korea and
Manchuria, and the main land fight, in which the Chinese Army was
destroyed, in Pyeng-yang, the main Korean city to the north. The war began
on July 25, 1894; the Treaty of Peace, which made Japan the supreme power
in the Extreme East, was signed at Shimonoseki on April 17, 1895.
Before fighting actually began, the Japanese took possession of Seoul, and
seized the palace on some trumpery excuse that Korean soldiers had fired on
them and they had therefore been obliged to enter and guard the royal
apartments. They wanted to make their old friend and ally the ex-Regent,
the actual ruler, as he had been in the King's minority but he did not care
to take responsibility. Japanese soldiers turned the King out of his best
rooms and occupied them themselves. Any hole was good enough for the King.
Finally they compelled the King to yield and follow their directions. A new
treaty was drawn up and signed. It provided
1. That the independence of Korea was declared, confirmed, and established,
and in keeping with it the Chinese troops were to be driven out of the
country.
2. That while war against China was being carried on by Japan, Korea was to
facilitate the movements and to help in the food supplies of the Japanese
troops in every possible way.
3. That this treaty should only last until the conclusion of peace with
China.
Japan at once created an assembly, in the name of the King, for the
"discussion of everything, great and small, that happened within the
realm." This assembly at first met daily, and afterwards at longer
intervals. There were soon no less than fifty Japanese advisers at work in
Seoul. They were men of little experience and less responsibility, and they
apparently thought that they were going to transform the land between the
rising and setting of the sun. They produced endless ordinances, and scarce
a day went by save that a number of new regulations were issued, some
trivial, some striking at the oldest and most cherished institutions in the
country. The Government was changed from an absolute monarchy to one where
the King governed only by the advice of his Ministers. The power of direct
address to the throne was denied to any one under the rank of Governor. One
ordinance created a constitution, and the next dealt with the status of the
ladies of the royal seraglio. At one hour a proclamation went forth that
all men were to cut their hair, and the wearied runners on their return
were again despatched hot haste with an edict altering the official
language. Nothing was too small, nothing too great, and nothing too
contradictory for these constitution-mongers. Their doings were the laugh
and the amazement of every foreigner in the place.
Acting on the Japanese love of order and of defined rank, exact titles of
honour were provided for the wives of officials. These were divided into
nine grades: "Pure and Reverend Lady," "Pure Lady," "Chaste Lady," "Chaste
Dame," "Worthy Dame," "Courteous Dame," "Just Dame," "Peaceful Dame," and
"Upright Dame." At the same time the King's concubines were equally
divided, but here eight divisions were sufficient: "Mistress," "Noble
Lady," "Resplendent Exemplar," "Chaste Exemplar," "Resplendent Demeanour,"
"Chaste Demeanour," "Resplendent Beauty," and "Chaste Beauty." The Japanese
advisers instituted a number of sumptuary laws that stirred the country to
its depths, relating to the length of pipes, style of dress, and the
attiring of the hair of the people. Pipes were to be short, in place of the
long bamboo churchwarden beloved by the Koreans. Sleeves were to be
clipped. The topknot, worn by all Korean men, was at once to be cut off.
Soldiers at the city gates proceeded to enforce this last regulation
rigorously.
Japanese troops remained in the palace for a month, and the King was badly
treated during that time. It did not suit the purpose of the Japanese
Government just then to destroy the old Korean form of administration. It
was doubtful how far the European Powers would permit Japan to extend her
territory, and so the Japanese decided to allow Korea still to retain a
nominal independence. The King and his Ministers implored Mr. Otori to
withdraw his soldiers from the royal presence. Mr. Otori agreed to do so,
at a price, and his price was the royal consent to a number of concessions
that would give Japan almost a monopoly of industry in Korea. The Japanese
guard marched out of the palace on August 25th, and was replaced by Korean
soldiers armed with sticks. Later on the Korean soldiers were permitted to
carry muskets, but were not served with any ammunition. Japanese troops
still retained possession of the palace gates and adjoining buildings.
Another movement took place at this time as the result of Japanese
supremacy. The Min family--the family of the Queen--was driven from power
and the Mins, who a few months before held all the important offices in the
kingdom, were wiped out of public life, so much so that there was not a
single Min in one of the new departments of state.
Victory did not improve the attitude of the Japanese to the Koreans. While
the war was on the Japanese soldiers had shown very strict discipline, save
on certain unusual occasions. Now, however, they walked as conquerors. The
Japanese Government presented further demands to the King that would have
meant the entire trade of Korea being monopolized by their countrymen.
These demands went so far that the foreign representatives protested.
The new Japanese Minister, Count Inouye, protested publicly and privately
against the violent ways and rascalities of the new Japanese immigrants
pouring into Korea. He denounced their lack of coöperation, arrogance and
extravagance. "If the Japanese continue in their arrogance and rudeness,"
he declared, "all respect and love due to them will be lost and there will
remain hatred and enmity against them."
Several of the participants in the _émeute_ of 1884 were brought back by
the Japanese and Pak Yung-hyo became Home Minister. He was very different
from the rash youth who had tried to promote reform by murder eleven years
before. He had a moderate, sensible program, the reform and modernization
of the army, the limitation of the powers of the monarchy and the promotion
of education on Western lines. "What our people need," he declared, "is
education and Christianization." Unfortunately he fell under suspicion. The
Queen thought that his attempt to limit the power of the King was a plot
against the throne. He received warning that his arrest had been ordered,
and had to flee the country.
Count Inouye ranks with Prince Ito as the two best Japanese administrators
sent to Korea. He was followed, in September, 1895, by Viscount General
Miura, an old soldier, a Buddhist of the Zen school and an extreme ascetic.
The Queen continued to exercise her remarkable influence over the King, who
took her advice in everything. She was the real ruler of the country. What
if her family was, for a time, in disgrace? She quietly worked and brought
them back in office again. Time after time she checked both the Japanese
Minister and the Regent.
The Japanese Secretary of Legation, Fukashi Sugimura, had long since lost
patience with the Queen and urged on Miura that the best thing was to get
rid of her. Why should one woman be allowed to stand between them and their
purpose? Every day she was interfering more and more in the affairs of
state. She was proposing to disband a force of troops that had been
created, the Kunrentai, and placed under Japanese officers. It was reported
that she was contemplating a scheme for usurping all political power by
degrading some and killing other Cabinet Ministers favourable to Japan.
Miura agreed. She was ungrateful. Disorder and confusion would be
introduced into the new Japanese organization for governing the country.
She must be stopped.
While Miura was thinking in this fashion the Regent came to see him. He
proposed to break into the palace, seize the King and assume real power. As
a result of their conversation, a conference was held between the Japanese
Minister and his two leading officials, Sugimura and Okamoto. "The decision
arrived at on that occasion," states the report of the Japanese Court of
Preliminary Enquiries, "was that assistance should be rendered to the Tai
Won Kun's (Regent's) entry into the palace by making use of the Kunrentai,
who, being hated by the Court, felt themselves in danger, and of the young
men who deeply lamented the course of events, and also by causing the
Japanese troops stationed in Seoul to offer support to the enterprise. It
was further resolved that this opportunity should be availed of for taking
the life of the Queen, who exercised overwhelming influence in the
Court."[1]
[Footnote 1: Japanese official report.]
The whole thing was to be done according to system. The Regent was made to
bind himself down to the Japanese. A series of pledges was drawn up by
Sugimura, and handed to the Regent, saying that this was what Miura
expected of him. He, his son and his grandson "gladly assented" to the
conditions and he wrote a letter guaranteeing his good faith. The Japanese
Minister then resolved to carry out the plan, _i.e._, the attack on the
palace and the murder of the Queen, by the middle of the month. A statement
by the Korean War Minister that the disbandment of the Kunrentai troops was
approaching caused them to hurry their plans. "It was now evident that the
moment had arrived, and that no more delay should be made. Miura Goro and
Fukashi Sugimura consequently determined to carry out the plot on the night
of that very day."[1] The Legation drew up a detailed program of what was
to happen, and orders were issued to various people. Official directions
were given to the Commander of the Japanese battalion in Seoul Miura
summoned some of the Japanese and asked them to collect their friends and
to act as the Regent's body-guard when he entered the palace. "Miura told
them that on the success of the enterprise depended the eradication of the
evils that had done so much mischief in the Kingdom for the past twenty
years, and instigated them to despatch the Queen when they entered the
palace."[2] The head of the Japanese police force was ordered to help; and
policemen off duty were to put on civilian dress, provide themselves with
swords and proceed to the rendezvous. Minor men, "at the instigation of
Miura, decided to murder the Queen and took steps for collecting
accomplices."[3]
[Footnote 1: Japanese official report.]
[Footnote 2: Ibid.]
[Footnote 3: Ibid.]
The party of Japanese met at the rendezvous, to escort the Regent's
palanquin. At the point of departure Okamoto (one of the Japanese
Minister's two right-hand men) "assembled the whole party outside the gate
of the Prine's (Regent's) residence, declaring that on entering the palace
the 'fox' should be dealt with according as exigency might require, the
obvious purpose of this declaration being to instigate his followers to
murder Her Majesty the Queen."[4] The party proceeding towards Seoul met
the Kunrentai troops outside the West Gate and then advanced more rapidly
to the palace.
[Footnote 4: Ibid.]
The Japanese Court of Preliminary Enquiries, which had Viscount Miura and
his assistants before it after the murder, reported all the facts up to
this point with great frankness. I have used its account solely in the
above description. The Court having gone so far, then added a final finding
which probably ranks as the most extraordinary statement ever presented by
a responsible Court of law. "Notwithstanding these facts, there is no
sufficient evidence to prove that any of the accused actually committed the
crime originally meditated by them.... For these reasons the accused, each
and all, are hereby discharged."
What happened after the Regent and the Japanese reached the palace? The
party advanced, with the Kunrentai troops to the front. Behind them were
the police, the officers in charge, and twenty-six Japanese. An inner group
of these, about half of them, had special orders to find the Queen and kill
her. The gates of the palace were in the hands of Japanese soldiers, so the
conspirators had free admission. Most of the regular troops paraded
outside, according to orders. Some went inside the grounds, accompanied by
the rabble, and others moved to the sides of the palace, surrounding it to
prevent any from escaping. A body of men attacked and broke down the wall
near to the royal apartments.
Rumours had reached the palace that some plot was in progress, but no one
seems to have taken much trouble to maintain special watch. At the first
sign of the troops breaking down the walls and entering through the gates,
there was general confusion. Some of the Korean body-guard tried to resist,
but after a few of them were shot the others retired. The royal apartment
was of the usual one-storied type, led to by a few stone steps, and with
carved wooden doors and oiled-paper windows. The Japanese made straight for
it, and, when they reached the small courtyard in front, their troops
paraded up before the entrance, while the soshi broke down the doors and
entered the rooms. Some caught hold of the King and presented him with a
document by which he was to divorce and repudiate the Queen. Despite every
threat, he refused to sign this. Others were pressing into the Queen's
apartments. The Minister of the Household tried to stop them, but was
killed on the spot. The soshi seized the terrified palace ladies, who were
running away, dragged them round and round by their hair, and beat them,
demanding that they should tell where the Queen was. They moaned and cried
and declared that they did not know. Now the men were pressing into the
side-rooms, some of them hauling-the palace ladies by their hair. Okamoto,
who led the way, found a little woman hiding in a corner, grabbed her head,
and asked her if she were the Queen. She denied it, freed herself, with a
sudden jerk, and ran into the corridor, shouting as she ran. Her son, who
was present, heard her call his name three times, but, before she could
utter more, the Japanese were on her and had cut her down. Some of the
female attendants were dragged up, shown the dying body, and made to
recognize it, and then three of them were put to the sword.
The conspirators had brought kerosene with them. They threw a bedwrap
around the Queen, probably not yet dead, and carried her to a grove of
trees in the deer park not far away. There they poured the oil over her,
piled faggots of wood around, and set all on fire. They fed the flames with
more and more kerosene, until everything was consumed, save a few bones.
Almost before the body was alight the Regent was being borne in triumph to
the palace under an escort of triumphant Japanese soldiers. He at once
assumed control of affairs. The King was made a prisoner in his palace. The
Regent's partizans were summoned to form a Cabinet, and orders were given
that all officials known to be friendly to the Queen's party should be
arrested.
The Japanese were not content with this. They did everything they could,
the Regent aiding them, to blacken the memory of the murdered women. A
forged Royal Decree, supposed to have been issued by the King, was
officially published, denouncing Queen Min, ranking her among the lowest
prostitutes, and assuming that she was not dead, but had escaped, and would
again come forward. "We knew the extreme of her wickedness," said the
decree, "but We were helpless and full of fear of her party, and so could
not dismiss and punish her. We are convinced that she is not only unfitted
and unworthy to be Queen, but also that her guilt is excessive and
overflowing. With her We could not succeed to the glory of the Royal
ancestors, so We hereby depose her from the rank of Queen and reduce her to
the level of the lowest class."
The poor King, trembling, broken, fearful of being poisoned, remained
closely confined in his palace. The foreign community, Ministers and
missionaries, did their best for him, conveying him food and visiting him.