Korea's Fight for Freedom Part 11

"The present requires the wielding of an iron hand rather than a gloved one in order to secure lasting peace and order in this country. There is no lack of evidence to show an intense dissatisfaction against the new state of things is fermenting at present among a section of the Koreans. It is possible that if left unchecked, it may culminate in some shocking crime. Now after carefully studying the cause and nature of the dissatisfaction just referred to, we find that it is both foolish and unreasonable....

"j.a.pan is in this country with the object of promoting the happiness of the ma.s.ses. She has not come to Korea to please a few hundred silly youngsters or to feed a few hundred t.i.tled loafers. It is no fault of hers that these men are dissatisfied because of their failure to satisfy them.... _She must be prepared to sacrifice anybody who offers obstacles to her work_.

j.a.pan has. .h.i.therto dealt with Korean malcontents in a lenient way. She has learned from experience gained during the past five years that there are some persons who cannot be converted by conciliatory methods. _There is but one way to deal with these people, and that is by stern and relentless methods_."

The _j.a.pan Mail_, as usual, echoed the same sentiments from Yokohama. "The policy of conciliation is all very well in the hands of such a statesman as the late Prince Ito," it declared. "But failing a successor to Prince Ito, more ordinary methods will be found safer as well as more efficacious."

Viscount Terauchi settled in the capital, and it was as though a chill had pa.s.sed over the city. He said little, in public. Callers, high and low, found him stern and distant. "He has other things to think of than pleasant words," awed Secretaries repeated. Things suddenly began to happen. Four j.a.panese papers were suspended in a night. An item in their columns was objectionable. Let others be very careful. The police system was reversed.

The gendarmerie were to be brought back again in full force. Every day brought its tale of arrests. Fifteen students were arrested this morning; the old Korean President of the Railway Board had been hurried to prison; the office of a paper in Pyeng-yang had been raided. It was as though the new Governor-General had deliberately set himself to spread a feeling of terror.

The Korean must not so much as look awry now. Police and gendarmes were everywhere. Spies seemed to catch men's thoughts. More troops were coming in. Surely something was about to happen.

Yet there were some smiling. They were called to the Residency-General to hear good news. This man was to be made a peer; he had served j.a.pan well.

This man, if he and his kin were good, was to be suitably rewarded. Bribes for the complaisant, prison for the obstinate.

Men guessed what was coming. There were mutterings, especially among the students. But the student who spoke bravely, even behind closed doors to-day, found himself in jail by evening. The very walls seemed to have ears.

Then it was remarked that the Ministers of State had not been seen for some days. They had shut themselves in, refusing to see all callers. They feared a.s.sa.s.sination, for they had sold their country. Policemen and troops were waiting within easy calls from their homes, lest mobs should try to burn them out, like rats out of their holes.

And then the news came. Korea had ceased to exist as an even nominally independent or separate country. j.a.pan had swallowed it up. The Emperor--poor fool--was to step off his throne. After four thousand years, there was to be no more a throne of Korea. The Resident-General would now be Governor-General. The name of the nation was to be wiped out--henceforth it was to be Chosen, a province of j.a.pan. Its people were to be remade into a lesser kind of j.a.panese, and the more adept they were in making the change, the less they would suffer. They were to have certain benefits. To mark the auspicious occasion there would be an amnesty--but a man who had tried to kill the traitor Premier would not be in it. Five per cent of taxes and all unpaid fiscal dues would be remitted. Let the people rejoice!

The j.a.panese expected an uprising, and were all ready for one. "Every man should be ready to fight and die in the cause of his nation's independence," they said tauntingly to the Koreans. But the people's leaders kept them in. Up on the hills, the Righteous Army was still struggling. The people must wait for better times.

One man stuck a proclamation on the West Gate, threatening death to the traitors. Man after man, scholars, old soldiers, men who loved Korea, committed suicide, after telling of their grief. "Why should we live when our land is dead?" they asked.

The j.a.panese sneered because the people did nothing. "We may a.s.sume, indeed, that all fear of a national uprising is now past," declared a semi-Government organ. "The nation obviously has no leaders competent to execute and direct a crusade in the cause of independence. Whether that lack is due to adroit management on the part of the j.a.panese or to unpatriotic apathy on the part of the Koreans we cannot pretend to judge."

The j.a.panese decree announcing the annexation of the country was in itself an acknowledgment that the j.a.panese administration so far had been a failure. Here is the opening paragraph:--

"Notwithstanding the earnest and laborious work of reforms in the administration of Korea in which the Governments of j.a.pan and Korea have been engaged for more than four years since the conclusion of the Agreement of 1905, the existing system of government of that country has not proved entirely equal to the work of preserving public order and tranquillity, and in addition a spirit of suspicion and misgiving pervades the whole peninsula.

"In order to maintain peace and prosperity and the welfare of the Koreans and at the same time to ensure the safety and repose of foreign residents, it has been made abundantly clear that fundamental changes in the actual regime of government are actually essential."

The declaration announced various changes. It abrogated all Korean foreign treaties, and brought the subjects of foreign nations living in Korea under j.a.panese law. In other words, extra-territoriality was abolished. The Government agreed to maintain the old Korean tariff for ten years both for goods coming in from j.a.pan and abroad. This was a concession to foreign importers whose trade otherwise would have been swamped. It also allowed ships under foreign registers to engage in the Korean coasting trade for ten years more.

The annexation was put in the form of a treaty between the Emperors of j.a.pan and Korea, as though the surrender of their land had been the act of the Koreans themselves, or their ruler.

His Majesty the Emperor of j.a.pan and His Majesty the Emperor of Korea having in view the special and close relations between their respective countries and to ensure peace in the Extreme East, and being convinced that these objects can best be attained by the annexation of Korea to the Empire of j.a.pan have resolved to conclude a Treaty of such annexation and have for that purpose appointed as their Plenipotentiaries, that is to say, His Majesty the Emperor of j.a.pan, Viscount Maskata Terauchi, His Resident General.

And His Majesty the Emperor of Korea, Ye Wan Yong, His Minister President of State, Who, upon mutual conference and deliberation, have agreed to the following articles.

Article 1. His Majesty the Emperor of Korea makes complete and permanent cession to His Majesty the Emperor of j.a.pan of all rights of sovereignty over the whole of Korea.

Article 2. His Majesty the Emperor of j.a.pan accepts the cession mentioned in the preceding Article, and consents to the complete annexation of Korea to the Empire of j.a.pan.

Article 3. His Majesty the Emperor of j.a.pan will accord to their Majesties the Emperor and Empress of Korea and His Imperial Highness the Crown Prince of Korea, and Their Consorts and Heirs such t.i.tles, dignity and honour as are appropriate to their respective rank and sufficient annual grants will be made for the maintenance of such t.i.tles, dignity and honour.

Article 4. His Majesty the Emperor of j.a.pan will also accord appropriate honour and treatment to the members of the Imperial House of Korea and their heirs, other than those mentioned in the preceding Article and the funds necessary for the maintenance of such honour and treatment will be granted.

Article 5. His Majesty the Emperor of j.a.pan will confer peerages and monetary grants upon those Koreans who, on account of meritorious services, are regarded as deserving of such special treatment.

Article 6. In consequence of the aforesaid annexation, the Government of j.a.pan a.s.sumes the entire government and administration of Korea, and undertakes to afford full protection for the property and person of Koreans, obeying the laws then in force, and to promote the welfare of all such Koreans.

Article 7. The Government of j.a.pan will, so far as circ.u.mstances permit, employ in the public service of j.a.pan in Korea those Koreans who accept the new regime of j.a.pan loyally and in good faith, and who are duly qualified for such service.

Article 8. This Treaty, having been approved by His Majesty the Emperor of j.a.pan and His Majesty the Emperor of Korea shall take effect from the day of its promulgation.

Some defenders of j.a.pan have wasted much effort in attempting to show that in destroying the Korean Empire j.a.pan did not break her word, although she had repeatedly pledged herself to maintain and preserve the nation and the Royal House. Such arguments, under the circ.u.mstances, are merely nauseating. j.a.pan wanted Korea; so soon as she was able, j.a.pan took it. The only justification was

"The good old rule ... the simple plan, That he shall take who has the power, That he shall KEEP, who can."

XI

"I WILL WHIP YOU WITH SCORPIONS"

The j.a.panese administration of Korea from 1910 to 1919, first under Count Terauchi and then under General Hasegawa, revealed the harshest and most relentless form of Imperial administration. When formal annexation was completed in 1910 all the hindrances which had hitherto stood in the way of the complete execution of j.a.panese methods were apparently swept on one side. The Governor-General had absolute power to pa.s.s what ordinances he pleased, and even to make those ordinances retroactive.

Extra-territoriality was abolished, and foreign subjects in Korea were placed entirely under the j.a.panese laws.

j.a.panese statesmen were ambitious to show the world as admirable an example of efficiency in peace as j.a.pan had already shown in war. Much thought had been given to the matter for a long time ahead. The colonial systems of other countries had been carefully studied. Service in Korea was to be a mark of distinction, reserved for the best and most highly paid. National pride and national interest were pledged to make good. Money was spent freely and some of the greatest statesmen and soldiers of j.a.pan were placed at the head of affairs. Ito, by becoming Resident-General, had set an example for the best of the nation to follow.

Between the annexation in 1910 and the uprising of the people in 1919, much material progress was made. The old, effete administration was cleared away, sound currency maintained, railways were greatly extended, roads improved, afforestation pushed forward on a great scale, agriculture developed, sanitation improved and fresh industries begun.

And yet this period of the j.a.panese administration in Korea ranks among the greatest failures of history, a failure greater than that of Russia in Finland or Poland or Austria-Hungary in Bosnia. America in Cuba and j.a.pan in Korea stand out as the best and the worst examples in governing new subject peoples that the twentieth century has to show. The j.a.panese entered on their great task in a wrong spirit, they were hampered by fundamentally mistaken ideas, and they proved that they are not yet big enough for the job.

They began with a spirit of contempt for the Korean. Good administration is impossible without sympathy on the part of the administrators; with a blind and foolish contempt, sympathy is impossible. They started out to a.s.similate the Koreans, to destroy their national ideals, to root out their ancient ways, to make them over again as j.a.panese, but j.a.panese of an inferior brand, subject to disabilities from which their overlords were free. a.s.similation with equality is difficult, save in the case of small, weak peoples, lacking tradition and national ideals. But a.s.similation with inferiority, attempted on a nation with a historic existence going back four thousand years is an absolutely impossible task. Or, to be more exact, it would only be possible by a.s.similating a few, the weaklings of the nation, and destroying the strong majority by persecution, direct killing and a steady course of active corruption, with drugs and vice.

The j.a.panese overestimated their own capacity and underestimated the Korean. They had carefully organized their claque in Europe and America, especially in America. They engaged the services of a group of paid agents--some of them holding highly responsible positions--to sing their praises and advocate their cause. They enlisted others by more subtle means, delicate flattery and social ambition. They taught diplomats and consular officials, especially of Great Britain and America, that it was a bad thing to become a _persona non grata_ to Tokyo. They were backed by a number of people, who were sincerely won over by the finer sides of the j.a.panese character. In diplomatic and social intrigue, the j.a.panese make the rest of the world look as children. They used their forces not merely to laud themselves, but to promote the belief that the Koreans were an exhausted and good-for-nothing race.

In the end, they made the fatal mistake of believing what their sycophants and flatterers told them. j.a.panese civilization was the highest in the world; j.a.pan was to be the future leader, not alone of Asia, but of all nations. The Korean was fit for nothing but to act as hewer of wood and drawer of water for his overlord.

Had j.a.pan been wise and long-sighted enough to treat the Koreans as America treated the Cubans or England the people of the Straits Settlements, there would have been a real amalgamation--although not an a.s.similation--of the two peoples. The Koreans were wearied of the extravagances, abuses and follies of their old administration. But j.a.pan in place of putting Korean interests first ruled the land for the benefit of j.a.pan. The j.a.panese exploiter, the j.a.panese settler were the main men to be studied.

Then j.a.pan sought to make the land a show place. Elaborate public buildings were erected, railroads opened, state maintained, far in excess of the economic strength of the nation. To pay for extravagant improvements, taxation and personal service were made to bear heavily on the people. Many of the improvements were of no possible service to the Koreans themselves.

They were made to benefit j.a.panese or to impress strangers. And the officials forgot that even subject peoples have ideals and souls. They sought to force loyalty, to beat it into children with the stick and drill it into men by gruelling experiences in prison cells. Then they were amazed that they had bred rebels. They sought to wipe out Korean culture, and then were aggrieved because Koreans would not take kindly to j.a.panese learning.

They treated the Koreans with open contempt, and then wondered that they did not love them.

Let us examine the administration more closely in detail.

Its outstanding feature for most of the people is (I use the present tense because as I write it still continues) the gendarmerie and police. These are established all over the country, and they have in effect, although not in name, power of life or death. They can enter into any house, without warrant, and search it. They destroy whatever they please, on the spot.

Thus if a policeman searches the room of a student, and sees a book which does not please him, he can--and does--often burn it on the spot. Sometimes he takes it into the street and burns it there, to impress the neighbours.

One of the police visits most feared by many villagers is the periodical examinations to see if the houses are clean. If the policemen are not satisfied, they do not trouble to take the people to the station, but give them a flogging then and there. This house examination is frequently used by police in districts where they wish to punish the Christians, or to prevent their neighbours from becoming Christians. The Christian houses are visited and the Christians flogged, sometimes without even troubling to examine the houses at all. This method particularly prevails in parts of the Pyengyang province.

The police can arrest and search or detain any person, without warrant.

This right of search is freely used on foreigners as well as Koreans. Any Korean taken to the police station can, in practice, be kept in custody as long as wanted, without trial, and then can be released without trial, or can be summarily punished without trial by the police.