Japan in Korea—Historical associations—In Old Fusan—Political
and economic interests—Abuse of paramountcy
[Illustration: JAPANESE CAVALRY]
Southern Korea bears many evidences of the warlike activities and
commercial enterprise of the past generations of Japanese, who,
abandoning their own island home, sought domicile upon the shores of
the neighbouring peninsula. The precarious existence of these waifs and
strays from an alien state, in the midst of a people whose whole attitude
was anti-foreign, did not deter others from coming to her ports. This
gradual migration from Japan to the Hermit Kingdom continued during
many centuries, promoting an intercourse between two races which the
Government was powerless to frustrate. Japanese historians argue from
this settlement in Korea that the State was a vassal of Japan from the
second century by right of conquest and appropriation. The idea, which
prevailed through seventeen centuries, was not finally rejected until the
Ambassador of the Mikado signed a treaty at Seoul on February 7th, 1897,
which recognised Korea as an independent nation. From about the beginning
of the Christian era until the fifteenth century, the relations between
Japan and Korea were very close. From this period onward Korea, although
maintaining her attitude of complacent indifference to events outside her
own Empire, betrayed signs of weakness in her policy of isolation when
menaced with the importunate demands of her rival neighbours, China and
Japan.
At the two points in her Empire adjacent to the dominions of China and
Japan, war and peace alternately prevailed. If, upon occasion, the
Koreans went out unsupported to fight their invaders, the leaders more
usually united with one of the two rivals against the other. Thus,
there was always turmoil throughout the kingdom. In the south, as in
the north, the tide of war rolled backwards and forwards, with varying
success. From the west, the armies of China appeared and vanished,
skirting the Liao-tung Gulf, to plunder and to devastate the peninsula.
Fleets from Shantung, crossing the Yellow Sea, dropped their anchors in
the rivers of the land. The west was threatened by the hordes of China,
and the south was harried by ships and men from the east, who pounced
upon Fusan and seized the cities of the south. The aggressions of the
Japanese extinguished any hope the Koreans might still have cherished
of preserving the southern frontier of their kingdom intact. Although
cordons of armed sentinels and palisades, barriers of mountains and miles
of ruined and deserted wastes protected the northern borders against
the incursions of the Chinese soldiers to some extent, the south was
vulnerable.
Fusan was the floodgate through which poured the hostile masses of
Japan, an unbroken stream of men, to deluge the land. They invaded Korea
as enemies, levying tribute; they came as allies against China; they
appeared as the embassies of a friendly State and returned enriched to
the Court of their Sovereign. Actuated by feelings of mercy, they sent
grain-ships to Fusan when famine overtook their neighbours. Between
Japan and Fusan there was the continuous passing of ships. Around this
outlet, the one gate to the southern half of the kingdom, the spasmodic
beginnings of the present important commerce between the two countries
grew out of a fretful exchange of commodities.
In the years that followed the earlier visitations, Japan became so
embarrassed by her own internal troubles, that the Kingdom of Korea was
left in that peace and seclusion which, always preferring, it had found
so much difficulty in securing. This happy state of things prevailed
for two centuries. At the end of this interval, the annual embassy to
Japan from the Court of Korea had ceased. The kingdom in general, lulled
by visions of perpetual peace, no longer maintained defences. Military
preparations were neglected; the army was disorganised; the old fighting
spirit of the people died down, and martial exercises disappeared from
the training of the militia. Dissipation and profligacy were rife. In
the meantime, order having been restored in Japan, the thoughts of her
soldiers again turned towards fields of conquest and deeds of daring.
The vassalship of Korea was recalled; the King was summoned to renew
his allegiance. The answer proving unsatisfactory, preparations for
an invasion were at once begun. The fleet assembled and the ships set
sail. The mobility which was to distinguish the Japanese in after years
characterised their movements in this campaign. Within eighteen days
after their landing at Fusan, the capture of the capital was accomplished
and a blow was struck, which enabled the Koreans at last to understand
the gravity of their plight.
[Illustration: THE GUARD OF THE JAPANESE LEGATION, SEOUL]
The part, which Fusan played in this war, materially assisted the
invading hosts of Japan. A settlement at Fusan, which had been founded
long since by the retainers of the Daimio of the island of Tsu-shima,
assisted by itinerant traders and deserters from the numerous expeditions
which visited its shores, had grown to such dimensions that when the
force was descried off the harbour upon the morning of May 25th, 1592,
Fusan was already in their possession. This circumstance gave the
troops immediate facilities for disembarkation, and, in the subsequent
vicissitudes of the next six years’ campaign, expedited the progress of
the war. The position of Fusan speedily made the place a base of supplies
to the army of operation and a repairing yard for the Japanese fleet
after their disastrous engagement with the Korean ships, in an attempt
to co-operate with the victorious forces, which Konishi and Kuroda had
assembled before Pyöng-yang. After the conclusion of the first invasion
and the Japanese retreat from the north, before the combined strength
of the Chinese and Koreans on May 22nd, 1593, Fusan became one of the
fortified camps upon the coast, where the Japanese armies passed the
winter in sight of the shores of their own land. The negotiations, which
were opened in the following year, and shifted alternately between the
camp of the Commander-in-Chief at Fusan and the Courts in China and
Japan, failed.
Even at this date Japan was anxious to establish her power in Korea by
obtaining possession of the southern provinces. Foiled in this attempt,
she renewed her attack. Fusan again became the seat of the councils of
war, and the base for the second invasion. The operations began with the
siege of the Castle of Nan-on, in Chyöl-la province, upon the morning of
September 21st, 1597. Twelve months later, the Japanese were withdrawn
from Korea, and the war came to its close. Two hundred years passed
before Korea recovered from the desolation of this conflict, which was
one in which the loss of three hundred thousand men was recorded.
Moreover, the Japanese retained Fusan, a perpetual evidence of their
victory.
This early claim to the southern provinces put forward by the Japanese
plainly reveals how long standing is their wish to annex the southern
half of Korea. Even in modern times, they have embarked upon one campaign
in the interests of Korea, while they are now ready to go to war with
Russia on behalf of the same nation that they themselves consistently
bully. Their plea of Korea for the Koreans, however, is in curious
contrast to their own lawless domination of the coveted territory.
Indeed, the interests which the Japanese have developed for themselves
throughout these regions do not disclose much consideration for the
rights of the natives. The treaty of 1876, which opened Fusan to Japanese
settlers, removed the nominal obstacles to that over-sea immigration
which had been progressing steadily during several centuries. A wave of
Japanese colonisation at once lapped the eastern, western, and southern
shores of the Hermit Kingdom.
Indications of previous incursions were given by the affinity which
existed between the language, manners, and local customs of these
newcomers and the indigenous race. The existence of this affinity became
a powerful, if impersonal, instrument in abating the opposition of the
population to the settlement. Unable to obtain the secession of the
territory which they so much desired, communities of Japanese fringed
its borders. They planted themselves wherever there were prospects of
trade, until the resources of the land were tapped in all directions, and
the control of its commerce was virtually in their hands. As other ports
were opened at the persistent instigation of these persevering traders,
however, the settlement of the south proceeded less rapidly. In view
of the changing relations between Korea and the Powers, therefore, the
Japanese passed further afield, developing some little industry to their
own advantage wherever they went. Trade followed their flag, whether they
were within the radius of the treaty ports, or engaged in forcing the
hand of the local officials by settling beyond the limitations of their
Conventions. The success of these efforts was soon assured. Despite the
stipulations of the treaties, and in face of the objections of their own,
as well as the Korean, Government, the irrepressible activity of these
pioneers of a past generation unconsciously contributed to that supremacy
which the trade of Japan has since achieved in the land of her former
enemy.
The expansion of Japanese interests in Korea has not been without
political design. The integrity of her neighbour is bound up with her
own existence. The security of Korea emphasises the safety of her own
borders; and, as her own Empire has developed into a first-class Power,
this desire to see the kingdom respected has become more and more the
spirit of the policy upon which she has concentrated her individual
action. She has fostered the trade with Korea because it drew together
the ties which connected the two countries. She has urged the concession
of ports, and still more ports, to foreign commerce, because the
preponderance of her trade in these open marts substantiates her claim
to be the lawful champion of the race. The progress of Korea, since the
country came under her supervision, has been more evident than any of
the difficulties which have originated out of the disposition of the
Japanese to bully and coerce the Koreans. If, upon occasion, the results
have suggested that the blind cannot lead the blind without disaster,
the rarity of mistakes reflects credit upon the judgment which has been
displayed. This combination is, of course, directed against foreigners.
Just as Japan is discarding those Western teachers, whose genius and
administrative abilities protected her in her days of ignorance, so does
she hanker after the time when she alone may guard the interests of
Korea, and supply the demands of her markets. At present, however, it is
open to question whether the Koreans will have overcome their feelings
of irritation against the Japanese by the time that these have become
thoroughly progressive in their treatment of the Koreans. The Japanese
are more repressive in their methods than they need be.
The extraneous evidence of the power of the Japanese irritates the
Koreans, increasing the unconquerable aversion which has inspired them
against the Japanese through centuries, until, of the various races of
foreigners in Korea at the present, none are so deservedly detested as
those hailing from the Island Empire of the Mikado. Nor is this prejudice
remarkable, when it is considered that it is the scum of the Japanese
nation that has settled down upon Korea. It is, perhaps, surprising that
the animus of the Koreans against the Japanese has not died out with
time; but the fault lies entirely with the Japanese themselves. Within
recent years so much has occurred to alter the position of Japan and
to flatter the vanity of these island people that they have lost their
sense of perspective. Puffed up with conceit, they now permit themselves
to commit social and administrative excesses of the most detestable
character. Their extravagant arrogance blinds them to the absurdities
and follies of their actions, making manifest the fact that their gloss
of civilisation is the merest veneer. Their conduct in Korea shows them
to be destitute of moral and intellectual fibre. They are debauched in
business, and the prevalence of dishonourable practices in public life
makes them indifferent to private virtue. Their interpretation of the
laws of their settlements, as of their own country, is corrupt. Might
is right; the sense of power is tempered neither by reason, justice nor
generosity. Their existence from day to day, their habits and their
manners, their commercial and social degradation, complete an abominable
travesty of the civilisation which they profess to have studied. It is
intolerable that a Government aspiring to the dignity of a first-class
Power should allow its settlements in a friendly and foreign country to
be a blot upon its own prestige, and a disgrace to the land that harbours
them.
There are some twenty-five thousand Japanese in Korea, and the Japanese
settlement is the curse of every treaty port in Korea. It is at once
the centre of business, and the scene of uproar, riot, and confusion.
In the comparative nakedness of the women, in the noise and violence
of the shopkeepers, in the litter of the streets, there is nothing
to suggest the delicate culture of Japan. The modesty, cleanliness,
and politeness, so characteristic of the Japanese, are conspicuously
absent in their settlements in this country. Transformation has taken
place with transmigration. The merchant has become a rowdy; the coolie
is impudent, violent, and, in general, an outcast more prone to steal
than to work. Master and man alike terrorise the Koreans, who go in
fear of their lives whenever they have transactions with the Japanese.
Before the Chino-Japanese war this spirit had not displayed itself
to any great extent in the capital of the Hermit Kingdom. With the
successful conclusion of that campaign, however, the Japanese became
so aggressive in their treatment of the people that, had the choice of
two evils been possible in view of these events, the Koreans would have
preferred the Chinese and a state of dependence to the conditions which
were then introduced. The universal admiration aroused by the conduct of
the Japanese troops in the North-China campaign of 1900-1901 has added
sensibly to the vanity and egoism of these Korean-Japanese. Convinced
of their innate superiority, their violence towards the Koreans goes on
unchecked. It threatens now to assume unparalleled dimensions. If the
relations between the Powers are to continue upon a satisfactory footing
in Korea, it will be necessary for the Japanese Government to redress
those abuses which foreigners, Japanese, and Koreans alike have combined
to denounce.
[Illustration: H.M.S. _ASTREA_]