THE TRAGEDY OF KOREA.

Lyttelton Times, Volume CXVI, Issue 14222, 19 November 1906, Page 3

THE TRAGEDY OF KOREA.

/By F. A. M’KENZIE, in the “Daily Mail.”) When the Japanese came to Korea, in 1904, the common people-were their, friends. Now they hate them with intense bitterness. Why is this? _ _ : The first • cause i®- national. The Koreans say that the Japanese came among them under the guise of friendship, with fair words, and with solemn promises to . maintain their independence. Then, having planted their troops over the land, and got Korea into their power, they broke their word, and deprived the nation of its freedom. They further charge the Japanese with seizing the lands and homes of private individuals,, in thousands of cases, without any other excuse than that they wanted the place themselves. They say that an army of disorderly Japanese had been allowed to flood the peninsula, without control, beating men, assaulting women, robbing and murdering. They say that the Japanese soldiers, oven now the war is over, are quartered in wholesale fashion on them, and that they tread down their crons, injure their farm®, and turn them out of their homes. They complain that they are forced, at the point of the bayonet, to labour for Japanese masters for less than half , their ordinary wages, and to pay whatever local impositions the Japanese like to ask. If they appeal to Japanese officials, they are constantly refused a- hearing, or, even if heard, get no satisfaction. Japanese justice has become a by-word among the countrymen. EVIDENCE FROM ALE QUARTERS. When I first heard these charges from the Koreans, I naturally suspected exaggeration. I talked the matter over with some of the leading Japanese, but these, while partly admitting some of the complaints, claimed that they were past—temporary wrongs incidental to war time—and that all is going right now. I found, however, when 1 went into the country, too many new cases to enable me to accept this view. I questioned the European and Arnerican residents, and compared notes with many scores of them. Diplomats, missionaries, merchants, doctors, and teachers, all told me practically the same tale, and that tale elaborated and confirmed the Korean case. I say all, but that is not'quite correct. I found four white men who defended the Japanese policy. One was an American official in the Japanese service, aiid the other three were tradesmen.doing considerable business with the Japanese authorities. Apart from these four, the attitude was generally this; “We are no more pro-Husaian than ever we were,” the people would say. “We believe in the splendid future before Japan, if she only will rise to it. But the Japanese doings in Korea during the past two years hove been so bad that we cannot keep silence.” I made great efforts to find an independent white man who would stand up tor the Japanese policy. At last I thought I had found one in an American missionary doctor, living in the interior, who last year wrote forcibly and eloquently for Japan. Alas! I came to see the doctor at an unfortunate moment. Some Japanese soldiers had only the. previous day invaded the home of one of his chief native preachers, and had badly beaten the preacher when he attempted to slop them from penetrating into his women’s quarters. Soldiers had seized the homo of an elderly servant of the doctor not many days before. His Korean neighbours were suffering because of the seizure of their lands. I heard no defence of Japan there.

A CHAXOK OF ATTITUDE. i ‘When the Japanese came to Keren

at the beginning of the Russian -war they adopted a fair and liberal policy. They entered into a treaty with the Government, in which, while making Korea agree to accept their advice for internal reforms they promised to maintain the independence of the land and the security of the Royal house. For what Korean labour they required they paid well. Then came a succession of Japanese triumphs on sea and on land, and the Japanese attitude rapidly changed. Japan evidently arrived at the conclusion that she was strong enough to take oyer the country, and that no one would interfere with her. The foreign advisers employed by the Korean Government were . gradually weeded out, and Japanese put in their place. Various public services, notably the posts and telegraphs, were appropriated by Japan. Thousands of Lowclass coolies were allowed to come into the country and over-run it. The Korean magistrates had no power to control these, and the Japanese would not. For a time these men made a reign of terror in the interior. If one of them saw a house in the country that he liked he would go in, turn the family out, and take possession. If the Korean objected, the Japanese would beat him into submission. This was quite common. Then came a rapid Japanisation of the land. The old names of towns were changed for Japanese names. Time Ping-yang became Kei-ju. Japanese time took the place of sun time. Pressure was brought on people to compel them to discard their native dress. Schools wore started to teach Koreans Japanese. “No one will speak any language hero in twenty years but Japanese,” was a, favourite boast. Along with this came a deliberate policy of obtaining by any means rested rights in the land for J apaneso subjects. The Japanese Legation demanded that the entire waste lands of the country, including the forests and practically all of the great mineral wealth, and fully half the area of Korea, should be handed over to a Japanese citizen named Nagamori, on a fifty years’ lease. He was., to pay nothing for the' lease, but wag to be paid back everything, at compound interest, at the end of the term. The demand was so iniquitous, arid aroused so much protest, both Korean and foreign, that it had to be abandoned. '■ WHOLESALE LAND SEIZURE. But another plan of land seizure was more successful. Under the plea of military necessity, the authorities took over large sections for the railways, arid immense areas of the richest and best country in various parts, particulargly outside the cities of 'Seoul_ and Ping-yang. Trivial sums were paid to the. Korean Government for some of these, and the people who were driven from their homes were told to apply to their own Government for compensation. • .The military authorities, once they secured possession of the land, let it out to Japanese'subjects, and great Japanese towns are going up on these stolen sites to-day. This ruined thousands of prosperous Koreans, and turned their children on the streets as beggars. The devices to seize land have been moat ingenious and most varied. The same thing has gone on since the war. The Seoul-Wiju railway Lae been largely built on land thus taken, and the ooolie work on it done by labourers forced to comp by the military or police. I found this forced labour still maintained in the north a week or two ago, although I understand that the Residency authorities are now, opposed to it. There came at the same time a constant succession of gratuitous outrages against the common people. The Japanese despises the Korean as a ooward, and treats him accordingly. "Were 1 to tell one-hundredth part of the outrages that have been related to me by reliable witnesses I should be suspected of riotous imagination. It was the freedom they had to assault the Koreans that led the Japanese to think they had an equal right to ill-use white people. ■ The outrages on Mr and Mrs Weigail, the Roman Catholic bishop, the Aiperican. Consul-General, American, missionary ladies and- many others, were the natural sequence. If the Korean applied to the Japanese Consul h© -would usually be turned, back by an underline at the doOr, probably with blows. Had the Japanese aimed to strike terror into the hearts of the people, they could not have gone about; it better. I know that this campaign of terror has aroused resentment among many of the better class people in Janan, who desire ‘to have ■it stopped. I• believethat the Marquis Ito himself and hfs chief assistants would fain have better things. - The blame must be largely put first on the attitude of the military in Korea, then on the idea of the minor officials that it is their duty to back up their fellow-countrymen in any circumstances. . and, lastly, on the notion that eeem§’ to have seized seme of the directors of Japanese policy that national expansion excuses wholesale individual- wrong.