would visit them on April 27th, to inspect the house-cleaning. The
Christians received warning that they must look out for a hard time.
Everything was very carefully cleaned, ready for the inspection. The leader
of the church sent word to all the people to gather for early worship, so
as to be through before the police should come. But the police were there
before them, a Japanese in charge, two Korean policemen, two secretaries
and two dog killers.
The two leaders of the church were called up by the Japanese, who stepped
down and ran his fingers along the floor. "Look at this dust," he said.
Ordering the two men to sit down on the floor, he beat them with a flail,
over the shoulders.
"Do you beat an old man, seventy years old, this way?" called the older
man.
"What is seventy years, you rascal of a Christian?" came the reply.
The police took the names of the Christians from the church roll, and went
round the village, picking them out and beating them all, men, women and
children. They killed their dogs. The non-Christians were let alone.
On the afternoon of April 4th a cordon of police and gendarmes was suddenly
picketed all around the missionary quarter in Pyeng-yang, and officials,
police and detectives made an elaborate search of the houses. Some copies
of an Independence newspaper, a bit of paper with a statement of the
numbers killed at Anju, and a copy of the program of the memorial service
were found among the papers of Dr. Moffett's secretary, and two copies of a
mimeographed notice in Korean, thin paper rolled up into a thin ball and
thrown away, were found in an outhouse. The secretary was arrested, bound,
beaten and hauled off. Other Koreans found on the premises were treated in
similar fashion. One man was knocked down, beaten and kicked on the head
several times.
Dr. Moffett and the Rev. E.M. Mowry, another American Presbyterian
missionary from Mansfield, Ohio, were ordered to the police office that
evening, and cross-examined. Dr. Moffett convinced the authorities that he
knew nothing of the independence movement and had taken no part in it (he
felt bound, as a missionary, not to take part in political affairs), but
Mr. Mowry was detained on the charge of sheltering Korean agitators.
Mr. Mowry had allowed five Korean students wanted by the police to remain
in his house for two days early in March. Some of them were his students
and one was his former secretary; Mr. Mowry was a teacher at the Union
Christian College, and principal of both the boys' and girls' grammar
schools at Pyeng-yang. Mr. Mowry declared that Koreans often slept at his
house, and he had no knowledge that the police were trying to arrest these
lads.
The missionary was kept in jail for ten days. His friends were told that he
would probably be sent to Seoul for trial Then he was suddenly brought
before the Pyeng-yang court, no time being given for him to obtain counsel,
and was sentenced to six months' penal servitude. He was led away wearing
the prisoners' cap, a wicker basket, placed over the head and face.
An appeal was at once entered, and eventually the conviction was quashed,
and a new trial ordered.
XVII
GIRL MARTYRS FOR LIBERTY
The most extraordinary feature of the uprising of the Korean people is the
part taken in it by the girls and women. Less than twenty years ago, a man
might live in Korea for years and never come in contact with a Korean woman
of the better classes, never meet her on the street, never see her in the
homes of his Korean friends. I have lived for a week or two at a time, in
the old days, in the house of a Korean man of high class, and have never
once seen his wife or daughters. In Japan in those days--and with many
families the same holds true to-day--when one was invited as a guest, the
wife would receive you, bow to the guest and her lord, and then would
humbly retire, not sitting to table with the men.
Christian teaching and modern ways broke down the barrier in Korea. The
young Korean women took keenly to the new mode of life. The girls in the
schools, particularly in the Government schools, led the way in the demand
for the restoration of their national life. There were many quaint and
touching incidents. In the missionary schools, the chief fear of the girls
was lest they should bring trouble on their American teachers. The head
mistress of one of these schools noticed for some days that her girls were
unusually excited. She heard them asking one another, "Have you enrolled?"
and imagined that some new girlish league was being formed. This was before
the great day. One morning the head mistress came down to discover the
place empty. On her desk was a paper signed by all the girls, resigning
their places in the school. They thought that by this device they would
show that their beloved head mistress was not responsible.
Soon there came a call from the Chief of Police. The mistress was wanted at
the police office at once. All the girls from her school were demonstrating
and had stirred up the whole town. Would the mistress come and disperse
them?
The mistress hurried off. Sure enough, here were the girls in the street,
wearing national badges, waving national flags, calling on the police to
come and take them. The men had gathered and were shouting "Mansei!" also.
The worried Chief of Police, who was a much more decent kind than many of
his fellows, begged the mistress to do something. "I cannot arrest them
all," he said. "I have only one little cell here. It would only hold a few
of them," The mistress went out to talk to the girls. They would not
listen, even to her. They cheered her, and when she begged them to go home,
shouted "Mansei!" all the louder.
The mistress went back to the Chief. "The only thing for you to do is to
arrest me," she said.
The Chief was horrified at the idea, "I will go out and tell the girls that
you are going to arrest me if they do not go," she said. "We will see what
that will do. But mind you, if they do not disperse, you must arrest me."
She went out again. "Girls," she called, "the Chief of Police is going to
arrest me if you do not go to your homes. I am your teacher, and it must be
the fault of my teaching that you will not obey."
"No, teacher, no," the girls shouted. "It is not your fault. You have
nothing to do with it. We are doing this." And some of them rushed up, as
though they would rescue her by force of arms.
In the end, she persuaded the girls to go home, in order to save her.
"Well," said the leaders of the girls, "it's all right now. We have done
all we wanted. We have stirred up the men. They were sheep and wanted women
to make a start. Now they will go on."
The police and gendarmerie generally were not so merciful as this
particular Chief. The rule in many police stations was to strip and beat
the girls and young women who took any part in the demonstrations, and to
expose them, absolutely naked, to as many Japanese men as possible. The
Korean woman is as sensitive as a white woman about the display of her
person, and the Japanese, knowing this, delighted to have this means of
humiliating them. In some towns, the schoolgirls arranged to go out in
sections, so many one day, so many on the other. The girls who had to go
out on the later days knew how those who had preceded them had been
stripped and beaten. Anticipating that they would be treated in the same
way, they sat up the night before sewing special undergarments on
themselves, which would not be so easily removed as their ordinary clothes,
hoping that they might thus avoid being stripped entirely naked.
The girls were most active of all in the city of Seoul. I have mentioned in
the previous chapter the arrest of many of them. They were treated very
badly indeed. Take, for instance, the case of those seized by the police on
the morning of Wednesday, March 5th. They were nearly all of them pupils
from the local academies. Some of them were demonstrating on Chong-no, the
main street, shouting "Mansei." Others were wearing straw shoes, a sign of
mourning, for the dead Emperor. Still others were arrested because the
police thought that they might be on the way to demonstrate. A few of these
girls were released after a spell in prison. On their release, their
statements concerning their treatment were independently recorded.
They were first taken to the Chong-no Police Station, where a body of about
twenty Japanese policemen kicked them with their heavy boots, slapped their
cheeks or punched their heads. "They flung me against a wall with all their
might, so that I was knocked senseless, and remained so for a time," said
one. "They struck me such blows across the ears that my cheeks swelled up,"
said another. "They trampled on my feet with their heavy nailed boots till
I felt as though my toes were crushed beneath them.... There was a great
crowd of students, both girls and boys. They slapped the girls over the
ears, kicked them, and tumbled them in the corners. Some of them they took
by the hair, jerking both sides of the face. Some of the boy students they
fastened down with a rope till they had their heads fastened between their
legs. Then they trampled them with their heavy boots, kicking them in their
faces till their eyes were swelled and blood flowed."
Seventy-five persons, forty men and thirty-five girls, were confined in a
small room. The door was closed, and the atmosphere soon became dreadful.
In vain they pleaded to have the door open. The girls were left until
midnight without food or water. The men were removed at about ten in the
evening.
During the day, the prisoners were taken one by one before police officials
to be examined. Here is the narrative of one of the schoolgirls. This girl
was dazed and almost unconscious from ill-treatment and the poisoned air,
when she was dragged before her inquisitor.
"I was cross-questioned three times. When I went out to the place of
examination they charged me with having straw shoes, and so beat me over
the head with a stick. I had no sense left with which to make a reply. They
asked:
"'Why did you wear straw shoes?'
"'The King had died, and whenever Koreans are in mourning they wear straw
shoes,'
"'That is a lie,' said the cross-examiner. He then arose and took my mouth
in his two hands and pulled it each way so that it bled. I maintained that
I had told the truth and no falsehoods. 'You Christians are all liars,' he
replied, taking my arm and giving it a pull.
"... The examiner then tore open my jacket and said, sneeringly, 'I
congratulate you,' He then slapped my face, struck me with a stick until I
was dazed and asked again, 'Who instigated you to do this? Did
foreigners?'
"My answer was, 'I do not know any foreigners, but only the principal of
the school. She knows nothing of this plan of ours!'
"'Lies, only lies,' said the examiner.
"Not only I, but others too, suffered every kind of punishment. One kind of
torture was to make us hold a board at arm's length and hold it out by the
hour. They also had a practice of twisting our legs, while they spat on our
faces. When ordered to undress, one person replied, 'I am not guilty of any
offence. Why should I take off my clothes before you?'
"'If you really were guilty, you would not be required to undress, but
seeing you are sinless, off with your clothes,'"
He was a humorous fellow, this cross-examiner of the Chong-no Police
Station. He had evidently learned something of the story of Adam and Eve in
the Garden of Eden. His way was first to charge the girls--schoolgirls of
good family, mind you--with being pregnant, making every sort of filthy
suggestion to them. When the girls indignantly denied, he would order them
to strip.
"Since you maintain you have not sinned in any way, I see the Bible says
that if there is no sin in you take off all your clothes and go before all
the people naked," he told one girl. "Sinless people live naked."
Let us tell the rest of the story in the girl's own words. "The officer
then came up to where I was standing, and tried to take off my clothes. I
cried, and protested, and struggled, saying, 'This is not the way to treat
a woman.' He desisted. When he was making these vile statements about us,
he did not use the Korean interpreter, but spoke in broken Korean. The
Korean interpreter seemed sorrowful while these vile things were being said
by the operator. The Korean interpreter was ordered to beat me. He said he
would not beat a woman; he would bite his fingers first. So the officer
beat me with his fist on my shoulders, face and legs."
These examinations were continued for days. Sometimes a girl would be
examined several times a day. Sometimes a couple of examiners would rush at
her, beating and kicking her; sometimes they would make her hold a chair or
heavy board out at full length, beating her if she let it sink in the
least. Then when she was worn out they would renew their examination. The
questions were all directed towards one end, to discover who inspired them,
and more particularly if any foreigners or missionaries had influenced
them. During this time they were kept under the worst possible conditions.
"I cannot recount all the vile things that were said to us while in the
police quarters in Chong-no," declared one of the girls. "They are too
obscene to be spoken, but by the kindness of the Lord I thought of how Paul
had suffered in prison, and was greatly comforted. I knew that God would
give the needed help, and as I bore it for my country, I did not feel the
shame and misery of it." One American woman, to whom some of the girls
related their experiences, said to me, "I cannot tell you, a man, all that
these girls told us. I will only say this. There have been stories of girls
having their arms cut off. If these girls had been daughters of mine I
would rather that they had their arms cut off than that they faced what
those girls endured in Chong-no."
There came a day when the girls were bound at the wrists, all fastened
together, and driven in a car to the prison outside the West Gate. Some of
them were crying. They were not allowed to look up or speak. The driver, a
Korean, took advantage of a moment when the attention of their guard was
attracted to whisper a word of encouragement. "Don't be discouraged and
make your bodies weak. You are not yet condemned. This is only to break
your spirits."
The prison outside the West Gate is a model Japanese jail. There were women
officials here. It seemed horrible to the girls that they should be made to
strip in front of men and be examined by them. Probably the men were prison
doctors. But it was evidently intended to shame them as much as possible.
Thus one girl relates that, after her examination, "I was told to take my
clothes and go into another room. One woman went with me, about a hundred
yards or more away. I wanted to put my clothes on before leaving the room,
but they hurried me and pushed me. I wrapped my skirt about my body before
I went out, and carried the rest of my clothes in my arms. After leaving
this room, and before reaching the other, five Korean men prisoners passed
us."
For the first week the girls, many of them in densely crowded cells, were
kept in close confinement. After this, they were allowed out for fifteen
minutes, wearing the prisoners' hat, which comes down over the head, after
breakfast. Their food was beans and millet It was given to the
accompaniment of jeers and insults. "You Koreans eat like dogs and cats,"
the wardresses told them.
The routine of life in the prison was very trying. They got up at seven.
Most of the day they had to assume a haunched, kneeling position, and
remain absolutely still, hour after hour. The wardresses in the corridors
kept close watch, and woe to the girl who made the slightest move. "They
ordered us not to move a hand or a foot but to remain perfectly still,"
wrote one girl. "Even the slightest movement brought down every kind of
wrath. We did not dare to move even a toe-nail."
One unhappy girl, mistaking the call of an official in the corridor,
"I-ri-ma sen" for a command to go to sleep, stretched out her leg to lie
down. She was scolded and severely punished. Another closed her eyes in
prayer. "You are sleeping," called the wardress. In vain the girl replied
that she was praying. "You lie," retorted the polite Japanese lady. More
punishment!
After fifteen days in the prison outside the West Gate, some of the girls
were called in the office. "Go, but be very careful not to repeat your
offence," they were told. "If you are caught again, you will be given a
heavier punishment."
The worst happenings with the women were not in the big towns, where the
presence of white people exercised some restraint, but in villages, where
the new troops often behaved in almost incredible fashion, outraging
freely. The police in many of these outlying parts rivalled the military in
brutality. Of the many stories that reached me, the tale of Tong Chun
stands out. The account was investigated by experienced white men, who
shortly afterwards visited the place and saw for themselves.
The village of Tong Chun contains about 300 houses and is the site of a
Christian church. The young men of the place wished to make a demonstration
but the elders of the church dissuaded them for a time. However, on March
29th, market day, when there were many people in the place, some children
started demonstrating, and their elders followed, a crowd of four or five
hundred people marching through the streets and shouting "Mansei!" There
was no violence of any kind. The police came out and arrested seventeen
persons, including five women.
One of these women was a widow of thirty-one. She was taken into the police
office and a policeman tore off her clothes, leaving her in her underwear.
Then the police began to take off her underclothes. She protested,
whereupon they struck her in the face with their hands till she was black
and blue. She still clung to her clothes, so they put a wooden paddle down
between her legs and tore her clothes away. Then they beat her. The beating
took a long time. When it was finished the police stopped to drink tea and
eat Japanese cakes, they and their companions--there were a number of men
in the room--amusing themselves by making fun of her as she sat there naked
among them. She was subsequently released. For a week afterwards she had to
lie down most of the time and could not walk around.
Another victim was the wife of a Christian teacher, a very bright,
intelligent woman, with one child four months old, and two or three months
advanced in her second pregnancy. She had taken a small part in the
demonstration and then had gone to the home of the mother of another woman
who had been arrested, to comfort her. Police came here, and demanded if
she had shouted "Mansei." She admitted that she had. They ordered her to
leave the child that she was carrying on her back and took her to the
police station. As she entered the station a man kicked her forcibly from
behind and she fell forward in the room. As she lay there a policeman put
his foot on her neck, then raised her up and struck her again and again.
She was ordered to undress. She hesitated, whereupon the policeman kicked
her, and took up a paddle and a heavy stick to beat her with. "You are a
teacher," he cried. "You have set the minds of the children against Japan.
I will beat you to death."
He tore her underclothes off. Still clinging to them, she tried to cover
her nakedness. The clothes were torn out of her hands. She tried to sit
down. They forced her up. She tried by turning to the wall to conceal
herself from the many men in the room. They forced her to turn round again.
When she tried to shelter herself with her hands, one man twisted her arms,
held them behind her back, and kept them there while the beating and
kicking continued. She was so badly hurt that she would have fallen to the
floor, but they held her up to continue the beating. She was then sent into
another room. Later she and other women were again brought in the office.
"Do you know now how wrong it is to call 'Mansei'?" the police asked. "Will
you ever dare to do such a thing again?"
Gradually news of how the women were being treated spread. A crowd of five
hundred people gathered next morning. The hot bloods among them were for
attacking the station, to take revenge for the ill-treatment of their
women. The chief Christian kept them back, and finally a deputation of two
went inside the police office to make a protest. They spoke up against the
stripping of the women, declaring it unlawful. The Chief of Police replied
that they were mistaken. It was permitted under Japanese law. They had to
strip them to search for unlawful papers. Then the men asked why only the
younger women were stripped, and not the older, why they were beaten after
being stripped, and why only women and not men were stripped. The Chief did
not reply.
By this time the crowd was getting very ugly. "Put us in prison too, or
release the prisoners," the people called. In the end the Chief agreed to
release all but four of the prisoners.
Soon afterwards the prisoners emerged from the station. One woman, a widow
of thirty-two who had been arrested on the previous day and very badly
kicked by the police, had to be supported on either side. The wife of the
Christian teacher had to be carried on a man's back. Let me quote from a
description written by those on the spot:
"As they saw the women being brought out, in this condition, a wave of pity
swept over the whole crowd, and with one accord they burst into tears and
sobbed. Some of them cried out, 'It is better to die than to live under
such savages,' and many urged that they should attack the police office
with their naked hands, capture the Chief of Police, strip him and beat him
to death. But the Christian elder and other wiser heads prevailed, kept the
people from any acts of violence, and finally got them to disperse."
XVIII
WORLD REACTIONS
On April 23rd, at a time when the persecution was at its height, delegates,
duly elected by each of the thirteen provinces of Korea, met, under the
eyes of the Japanese police, in Seoul, and adopted a constitution, creating
the Republic.
Dr. Syngman Rhee, the young reformer of 1894, who had suffered long
imprisonment for the cause of independence, was elected the first
President. Dr. Rhee was now in America, and he promptly established
headquarters in Washington, from which to conduct a campaign in the
interests of his people. Diplomatically, of course, the new Republican
organization could not be recognized; but there are many ways in which such
a body can work.
The First Ministry included several men who had taken a prominent part in
reform work in the past The list was:
Prime Minister........................Tong Hui Yee
Minister Foreign Affairs..............Yongman Park
Minister of Interior..................Tong Yung Yee
Minister of War.......................Pak Yin Roe
Minister of Finance...................Si Yung Yee
Minister of Law.......................Kiu Sik Cynn
Minister of Education.................Kiusic Kimm
Minister of Communications............Chang Bum Moon
Director Bureau of Labour.............Chang Ho Ahn
Chief of Staff........................Tong Yul Lew
Vice Chief of Staff...................Sei Yung Lee
Vice Chief of Staff...................Nan Soo Hahn
The Provisional Constitution was essentially democratic and progressive:
PROVISIONAL CONSTITUTION
By the will of God, the people of Korea, both within and without
the country, have united in a peaceful declaration of their
independence, and for over one month have carried on their
demonstrations in over 300 districts, and because of their faith
in the movement they have by their representatives chosen a
Provisional Government to carry on to completion this
independence and so to preserve blessings for our children and
grandchildren.
The Provisional Government, in its Council of State, has decided
on a Provisional Constitution, which it now proclaims.
1. The Korean Republic shall follow republican principles.
2. All powers of State shall rest with the Provisional Council of
State of the Provisional Government.
3. There shall be no class distinction among the citizens of the
Korean Republic, but men and women, noble and common, rich and
poor, shall have equality.
4. The citizens of the Korean Republic shall have religious
liberty, freedom of speech, freedom of writing and publication,
the right to hold public meetings and form social organizations
and the full right to choose their dwellings or change their
abode.
5. The citizens of the Korean Republic shall have the right to
vote for all public officials or to be elected to public office.