service and payment of taxes.
7. Since by the will of God the Korean Republic has arisen in the
world and has come forward as a tribute to the world peace and
civilization, for this reason we wish to become a member of the
League of Nations.
8. The Korean Republic will extend benevolent treatment to the
former Imperial Family.
9. The death penalty, corporal punishment and public prostitution
will be abolished.
10. Within one year of the recovery of our land the National
Congress will be convened.
Signed by:
_The Provisional Secretary of State,
And the Ministers of Foreign Affairs,
Home Affairs,
Justice,
Finance,
War,
Communications._
In the 1st Year of the Korean Republic, 4th Month.
The following are six principles of government:
1. We proclaim the equality of the people and the State.
2. The lives and property of foreigners shall be respected.
3. All political offenders shall be specially pardoned.
4. We will observe all treaties that shall be made with foreign
powers.
5. We swear to stand by the independence of Korea.
6. Those who disregard the orders of the Provisional Government
will be regarded as enemies of the State.
The National Council issued a statement of its aims and purpose:
_April 22 1919._
We, the people of Korea, represented by thirty-three men,
including Son Pyeng Heui, have already made the Declaration of
Independence of Korea, found on the principle of righteousness
and humanity. With a view to upholding the authority of the
Declaration, solidifying the foundations of the Independence, and
meeting the natural needs of humanity, we, by combining the large
and small groups and the provincial representatives, have
organized the Korean National Council, and hereby proclaim it to
the world.
We, the people of Korea, have a history of over forty-two
centuries, as a self-governing and separate state, and of
special, creative civilization, and are a peace-loving race. We
claim a right to be sharers in the world's enlightenment, and
contributors in the evolution of mankind. With a distinctive and
world-wide glorious past, and with our healthy national spirit,
we should never be subjected to inhuman and unnatural oppression,
nor assimilation by another race; and still less could we submit
to the materialistic subjugation by the Japanese, whose spiritual
civilization is 2,000 years behind ours.
The world knows that Japan has violated the sworn treaties of the
past and is robbing us of the right of existence. We, however,
are not discussing the wrongs done us by the Japanese in the
past, nor considering their accumulated sins; but, in order to
guarantee our rights of existence, extend liberty and equality,
safeguard righteousness and humanity, maintain the peace of the
Orient, and respect the equitable welfare of the whole world, do
claim the independence of Korea. This is truly the will of God,
motivation of truth, just claim, and legitimate action. By this
the world's verdict is to be won, and the repentance of Japan
hastened.
At this time, when the militarism which once threatened the peace
of the world is brought to submission, and when the world is
being reconstructed for a lasting peace, will Japan refuse
self-reflection and self-awakening? Obstinate clinging to the
errors, which have gone contrary to the times and nature, will
result in nothing but the diminution of the happiness of the two
peoples and endangering of the peace of the world. This council
demands with all earnestness that the government of Japan abandon
as early as possible the inhuman policy of aggression and firmly
safeguard the tripodic relationship of the Far East, and further
duly warn the people of Japan.
Can it be that the conscience of mankind will calmly witness the
cruel atrocities visited upon us by the barbarous, military power
of Japan for our actions in behalf of the rights of life founded
upon civilization? The devotion and blood of our 20,000,000 will
never cease nor dry under this unrighteous oppression. If Japan
does not repent and mend her ways for herself, our race will be
obliged to take the final action, to the limit of the last man
and the last minute, which will secure the complete independence
of Korea. What enemy will withstand when our race marches forward
with righteousness and humanity? With our utmost devotion and
best labour we demand before the world our national independence
and racial autonomy.
THE KOREAN NATIONAL COUNCIL
Representatives of the thirteen Provinces:
Yee Man Jik Kim Hyung Sun
Yee Nai Su Yu Keun
Pak Han Yung Kang Ji Yung
Pak Chang Ho Chang Seung
Yee Yeng Jun Kim Heyen Chun
Choi Chun Koo Kim Ryu
Yee Yong Kiu Kim Sig
Yu Sik Kiu Chu Ik
Yu Jang Wuk Hong Seung Wuk
Song Ji Hun Chang Chun
Yee Tong Wuk Chung Tam Kio
Kim Taik Pak Tak
Kang Hoon
RESOLUTIONS
That a Provisional Government shall be organized.
That a demand be made of the Government of Japan to withdraw the
administrative and military organs from Korea.
That a delegation shall be appointed to the Paris Peace
Conference. That the Koreans in the employ of the Japanese
Government shall withdraw.
That the people shall refuse to pay taxes to the Japanese
Government.
That the people shall not bring petitions or litigations before
the Japanese Government.
* * * * *
It was expected in Korea that there would be an immediate agitation in
America to secure redress. The American churches were for some weeks
strangely silent. There is no reason why the full reasons should not be
made public.
The missionary organizations mainly represented in Korea are also strongly
represented in Japan. Their officials at their headquarters are almost
forced to adopt what can be politely described as a statesmanlike attitude
over matters of controversy between different countries. When Mr.
Armstrong, of the Presbyterian Board of Missions of Canada, arrived in
America, burning with indignation over what he had seen, he found among the
American leaders a spirit of great caution. They did not want to offend
Japan, nor to injure Christianity there. And there was a feeling--a quite
honest feeling,--that they might accomplish more by appealing to the better
side of Japan than by frankly proclaiming the truth. The whole matter was
referred, by the Presbyterian and Methodist Boards, to the Commission on
Relations with the Orient of the Federal Council of the Churches, a body
representing the Churches as a whole.
The Secretary of that Commission is the Rev. Sydney Gulick, the most active
defender of Japanese interests of any European or American to-day. Mr.
Gulick lived a long time in Japan; he sees things, inevitably, from a
Japanese point of view. He at once acted as though he were resolved to keep
the matter from the public gaze. This was the course recommended by the
Japanese Consul-General Yada at New York. Private pressure was brought on
the Japanese authorities, and the preparation of a report was begun in very
leisurely fashion.
Every influence that Mr. Gulick possessed was exercised to prevent
premature publicity. The report of the Federal Council was not issued until
between four and five months after the atrocities began. A Presbyterian
organization, The New Era Movement, issued a stinging report on its own
account, a few days before. The report of the Federated Council was
preceded by a cablegram from Mr. Hara, the Japanese Premier, declaring that
the report of abuses committed by agents of the Japanese Government in
Korea had been engaging his most serious attention. "I am fully prepared to
look squarely at actual facts."
The report itself, apart from a brief, strongly pro-Japanese introduction,
consisted of a series of statements by missionaries and others in Korea,
and was as outspoken and frank as any one could desire. The only regret was
that it had not been issued immediately. Here was a situation that called
for the pressure of world public opinion. In keeping this back as long as
possible Mr. Gulick, I am convinced, did the cause of Korean Christianity a
grave injury, and helped to prevent earlier redress being obtained.
"No neutrality for brutality" was the motto adopted by many of the
missionaries of Korea. It is a good one for the Churches as a whole. There
are times when the open expression of a little honest indignation is better
than all the "ecclesiastical statesmanship" that can be employed.
In Japan itself, every effort was made by the authorities to keep back
details of what was happening. Mr. Hara, the Progressive Premier, was in
none too strong a position. The military party, and the forces of reaction
typified by Prince Yamagata, had too much power for him to do as much as he
himself perhaps would. He consented to the adoption of still more drastic
methods in April, and while redress was promised in certain particular
instances, as in the Suigen outrage, there was no desire displayed to meet
the situation fully. Taxed in Parliament, he tried to wriggle out of
admissions that anything was wrong.
The attitude of the people of Japan at first was frankly disappointing to
those who hoped that the anti-militarist party there would really act. One
American-Japanese paper, the Japan _Advertiser_, sent a special
correspondent to Korea and his reports were of the utmost value. The Japan
_Chronicle_, the English owned paper at Kobe, was equally outspoken. The
Japanese press as a whole had very little to say; it had been officially
"requested" not to say anything about Korea.
The Japanese Constitutional Party sent Mr. Konosuke Morya to investigate
the situation on the spot. He issued a report declaring that the
disturbances were due to the discriminatory treatment of Koreans,
complicated and impracticable administrative measures, extreme censorship
of public speeches, forcible adoption of the assimilation system, and the
spread of the spirit of self-determination. Of the assimilation system he
said, "It is a great mistake of colonial policy to attempt to enforce upon
the Koreans, with a 2,000-year history, the same spiritual and mental
training as the Japanese people."
By this time the Japanese Churches were beginning to stir. The Federation
of Churches in Japan sent Dr. Ishizaka, Secretary of the Mission Board of
the Japan Methodist Church, to enquire. Dr. Ishizaka's findings were
published in the _Gokyo_. I am indebted for a summary of them to an article
by Mr. R.S. Spencer, in the _Christian Advocate_ of New York:
"Dr. Ishizaka first showed, on the authority of officials,
missionaries and others, that the missionaries could in no just
way be looked upon as the cause of the disturbances. Many Koreans
and most of the missionaries had looked hopefully to Japanese
control as offering a cure for many ills of the old regime, but
in the ten years of occupation feeling had undergone a complete
revulsion and practically all were against the Japanese governing
system. The reasons he then sketches as follows: (1) The
much-vaunted educational system established by the
Governor-General makes it practically impossible for a Korean to
go higher than the middle schools (roughly equivalent to an
American high school) or a technical school. Even when educated
Koreans were universally discriminated against. In the same
office, at the same work, Koreans receive less pay than Japanese.
(The quotations are from the translation of the Japan
_Advertiser_.) 'A Korean student in Aoyama Gakuin, who stayed at
Bishop Honda's home, became the head officer of the Taikyu
district office. That was before the annexation.... That officer
is not in Taikyu now. He is serving in some petty office in the
country. The Noko Bank, in Keijo (Seoul) is the only place where
the Japanese and Koreans are treated equally, but there, also,
the equality is only an outward form.' (2) The depredations of
the Oriental Improvement Co., the protégé of the government,
resulted in the eviction of hundreds of Korean farmers, who fled
to Manchuria and Siberia, many dying miserably. The wonderful
roads are mentioned, it being shown that they are built and cared
for by forced labour of the Koreans. That most galling and
obnoxious of all bureaucratic methods, carried to the nth power
in Japan--the making out of endless reports and forms--has
created dissatisfaction. Dr. Ishizaka relates how an underling
official required a Korean of education to rewrite a notice of
change of residence six times because he omitted a dot in one of
those atrocious Chinese characters, which are a hobble on the
development of Japan. This last opinion is mine, not the
doctor's. (3) The gendarmerie, or military police system, is
mentioned, 13,000 strong, of whom about 8,000 are renegade
Koreans. Admittedly a rough lot, these men are endowed with
absolute power of search, personal or domiciliary, detention,
arrest (and judging from the reports, I would say torture)
without warrant. Bribery is, of course, rampant among them. (4)
Associated closely with the police system, indeed controlling it
and the civil administration and everything else, is the military
government. The Governor-General must be a military officer. Dr.
Ishizaka says: 'Militarism means tyranny; it never acts in open
daylight, but seeks to cover up its intentions. The teachers in
primary schools and even in girls' schools, that is, the men
teachers, wear swords.' (5) Lastly, Dr. Ishizaka speaks of the
method, which we can easily recognize as to source, of trying to
'assimilate' the Koreans by prohibiting the language, discarding
Korean history from the schools, repressing customs, etc.
"In conclusion Dr. Ishizaka points out that not alone must these
errors be righted, but that the only hope lies in the assumption
on the part of Japanese, public and private, of an attitude of
Christian brotherhood towards the Koreans. He announces a
campaign to raise money among Japanese Christians for the benefit
of Koreans and their churches."
The Japanese Government at last came to see that something must be done.
Count Hasegawa, the Governor-General and Mr. Yamagata, Director-General of
Administration, were recalled and Admiral Baron Saito and Mr. Midzuno were
appointed to succeed them. Numerous other changes in personnel were also
made. An Imperial Rescript was issued late in August announcing that the
Government of Korea was to be reformed, and Mr. Hara in a statement issued
at the same time announced that the gendarmerie were to be replaced by a
force of police, under the control of the local governors, except in
districts where conditions make their immediate elimination advisable, and
that "It is the ultimate purpose of the Japanese Government in due course
to treat Korea as in all respects on the same footing as Japan." Admiral
Saito, in interviews, promised the inauguration of a liberal régime on the
Peninsula.
The change unfortunately does not touch the fundamental needs of the
situation. No doubt there will be an attempt to lessen some abuses. This
there could not fail to be, if Japan is to hold its place longer among the
civilized Powers. But Mr. Hara's explanation of the new program showed that
the policy of assimilation is to be maintained, and with it, the policy of
exploitation can hardly fail to be joined.
These two things spell renewed failure.
XIX
WHAT CAN WE DO?
"What do you want us to do?" men ask me. "Do you seriously suggest that
America or Great Britain should risk a breach of good relations or even a
war with Japan to help Korea? If not, what is the use of saying anything?
You only make the Japanese harden their hearts still more."
What can we do? Everything!
I appeal first to the Christian Churches of the United States, Canada and
Britain. I have seen what your representatives, more particularly the
agents of the American and Canadian Churches, have accomplished in Korea
itself. They have built wisely and well, and have launched the most hopeful
and flourishing Christian movement in Asia. Their converts have established
congregations that are themselves missionary churches, sending out and
supporting their own teachers and preachers to China. A great light has
been lit in Asia. Shall it be extinguished? For, make no mistake, the work
is threatened with destruction. Many of the church buildings have been
burned; many of the native leaders have been tortured and imprisoned; many
of their followers, men, women and children, have been flogged, or clubbed,
or shot.
You, the Christians of the United States and of Canada, are largely
responsible for these people. The teachers you sent and supported taught
them the faith that led them to hunger for freedom. They taught them the
dignity of their bodies and awakened their minds. They brought them a Book
whose commands made them object to worship the picture of Emperor--even of
Japanese Emperor--made them righteously angry when they were ordered to put
part of their Christian homes apart for the diseased outcasts of the
Yoshiwara to conduct their foul business, made them resent having the trade
of the opium seller or the morphia agent introduced among them.
Your teaching has brought them floggings, tortures unspeakable, death. I do
not mourn for them, for they have found something to which the blows of the
lashed twin bamboos and the sizzling of the hot iron as it sears their
flesh are small indeed. But I would mourn for you, if you were willing to
leave them unhelped, to shut your ears to their calls, to deny them your
practical sympathy.
What can we do? you ask. You can exercise the powers that democratic
government has given you to translate your indignation into action. You can
hold public meetings, towns meetings and church meetings, and declare,
formally and with all the weight of your communities behind you, where you
stand in this matter. You can make your sentiments known to your own
Government and to the Imperial Japanese Government.
Then you can extend practical support to the victims of this outbreak of
cruelty. There could be no more effective rebuke than for the Churches of
the English-speaking nations to say to their fellow Christians of Korea,
"We are standing by you. We cannot share your bodily sufferings, but we
will try to show our sympathy in other ways. We will rebuild some of your
churches that have been burned down; we will support the widows or orphans
of Christians who have been unjustly slain, or will help to support the
families of those now imprisoned for their faith and for freedom. We will
show, by deeds, not words, that Christian brotherhood is a reality and not
a sham."
In doing so, you will supply an example that will not be forgotten so long
as Asia endures. Men say--and say rightly--that Korea is the key-land of
Northeastern Asia, so far as domination of that part of the lands of the
Pacific is concerned. Korea is still more the key-land of Asia for Western
civilization and Christian ideals. Let Christianity be throttled here, and
it will have received a set-back in Asia from which it will take
generations to recover.
"The Koreans are a degenerate people, not fit for self-government," says
the man whose mind has been poisoned by subtle Japanese propaganda. Korea
has only been a very few years in contact with Western civilization, but it
has already indicated that this charge is a lie. Its old Government was
corrupt, and deserved to fall. But its people, wherever they have had a
chance, have demonstrated their capacity. In Manchuria hundreds of
thousands of them, mostly fled from Japanese oppression, are industrious
and prosperous farmers. In the Hawaiian Islands, there are five thousand
Koreans, mainly labourers, and their families, working on the sugar
plantations. They have built twenty-eight schools for their children, and
raise among themselves $20 a head a year for the education of their
children; they have sixteen churches; they bought $80,000 worth of Liberty
bonds during the war, and subscribed liberally to the Red Cross. Some of
these Hawaiian Koreans--210 in all--volunteered to serve in the war. A
large number of Manchurian Koreans--their total has been placed as high as
thirty thousand--joined the Russian forces, fought under General Lin, and
later, in conjunction with the Czecho-Slovak prisoners, fought the rearmed
German prisoners and the Bolsheviks.
In America the Koreans who were fortunate enough to escape have brought the
culture of rice into California, and are a prosperous community there.
Young Koreans have won prominent place in American colleges and in American
business. One big business in Philadelphia was created and is conducted by
a Korean. Give these people a chance, and they soon show what they can do.
A word with the statesmen.
Japan is a young country, so far as Western civilization is concerned. She
is the youngest of the Great Powers. She desires the good will of the
world, and is willing to do much to win it. Be frank with her. You owe it
to her to deal faithfully with her.
When you ask me if I would risk a war over Korea, I answer this: Firm
action to-day might provoke conflict, but the risk is very small. Act
weakly now, however, and you make a great war in the Far East almost
certain within a generation. The main burden of the Western nations in such
a war will be borne by America.
To the Japanese themselves, I venture to repeat words that I wrote over
eleven years ago. They are even more true now than when they were written:
"The future of Japan, the future of the East, and, to some extent, the
future of the world, lies in the answer to the question whether the
militarists or the party of peaceful expansion gain the upper hand in the
immediate future (in Japan). If the one, then we shall have harsher rule in
Korea, steadily increasing aggression in Manchuria, growing interference
with China, and, in the end, a titanic conflict, the end of which none can
see. Under the other, Japan will enter into an inheritance, wider, more
glorious and more assured than any Asiatic Power has attained for many
centuries.... Japan has it in her to be, not the Mistress of the East,
reigning, sword in hand, over subject races--for that she can never
permanently be--but the bringer of peace to, and the teacher of, the East.
Will she choose the nobler end?"
End of Project Gutenberg's Korea's Fight for Freedom, by F.A. McKenzie