JAPANNED KOREA.

Oamaru Mail, Volume XLIX, Issue 13860, 12 September 1919, Page 2

JAPANNED KOREA.

(By Mr Adam McCay, Editor of the

Sydney Sun.) Visiting this country, the Australian journalist has not yet seen Korea: Visiting Korea, he will have a picturesque railway journey, and will stow away in his mind a pictorial impression of that country's resources, and its positive material development under Japanese Government. Ma - Morrison told us in Sydney that there could not he two opinions concerning the superior efficiency u>f .Japanese control to that of the old Korean princedom. The whole world, as far as 1 can gather from Ministers and Ambassadors, if of the same opinion. All the same an Australian thinks that he does not want to be a Korean living under the government of Japan. In point of fact, Japanese publicists to whom 1 have spoken—peers and commercial magnates—realise that a great international blunder has recently been committed in Korea. It does not matter two straws whether one believes in the humauitarianism of r 'Westernised'-' residents of Japan, or whether, like many of the anti-Japanese foreigners living here, one says that every concession to European ideals springs only from motives of policy. The fact remains that Japanese soldiery in Korea have behaved as British people could not behave, and that here in this city of Tokio tliere are Japanese men who proclaim that punishment is due to' the men who have been guilty of the Korean excesses. What follows is printed by a man who knows nothing about Korea from his own experience, but who has been given the documents by mi acquaintance who came direct from that .Japanese colony, and showed the signatures to the documents. Korea has been shouting "Mansei," which is the equivalent ol a call for Home liule or independence. Everybody joins in a vivifying clarion like that. Among the eager Voices for Koreanism (says my informant) were those of 55 school girls, who were promptly arrested and taken to the "West Gate Prison in Seoul, to remain there for a fortnight.

You may mako up your own mind whether the story of a patriotic schoolgirl put into a gaol is wholly reliable. Anyway, here is the narrative to which one'girl subscribed her name:—"l was taken to the "West .Gate Prison. There J was stripped naked and looked at by the men. I was sneered at and cursed at beyond power to tell. After being allowed to dress I Has put into a room not very large, with 16 others, and so we were packed together. The toilet was placed in the room, like a pigs : shelter. If was filthy. We were given beans and salt to cat. "While eating they called us names: "You dogs, you pigs." The second day the Japanese called a police doctor, and several others came. They stripped me naked, and weighed me, and sneered, and spat on me, too. They said I should be tried publicly, and I hoped to be able to state my case: but at last I. was let out without trial, and was not even told the nature of my offence." However much you may be charmed by the beauties of Japan, you have to admit that womanhood goes bereft of the reverence and respect which we Eu-ropean-born pay to it. Another girl, a Christian convert of the missionaries, signs her story: "1 saw each girl sent out of the room naked, carrying her clothes in her arms, and her hair changing down her back. Then my- turn came. I was taken in before the Japanese, officer with gold braid and a Japanese, policeman. They told me to take off my clothes. I refused. They said that 1 must, as I was a condemned prisoner. At last I took them off, struggling. I had to stand undressed ten minutes before the officer.' 1 never looked at his face."

1 have not the slightest idea whether nakedness is or is not a supreme shame to the Korean woman. In their photographs some of the Koreans wear a curious dress, which covers the neck, but leaves flic breasts bare, in accordance with ;i quaint hygienic theory which says that children are better nourished when the breast of the mother receives sun and air. In Japan 1 have heard this question of carnal modesty summed up in the epigram: "There is no country in the world where nakedness- is more seen and less noticed." Hut to return to our Korean schoolgirls, there are a few more sentencesto quote: "Five girls had to sleep under one quilt infested with vermin. They called us awful names, and said we were not virgins. YVe had to bathe 104 persons in one tub; so dirty was the water 1 cannot describe it."

11l a thousand ways a visitor lias pleasant feelings towards Japan. But Japan dealing with Europe is one .tiling and Japan dealing with Asia is another. "Race equality'' is mere talk; one need not discuss superiority or inferiority in intellectual capacity; the fact remains that whatever the Germans may have done among the Herreros in Africa, the stories" of Japanese "repression" in Korea would not be possible under an Anglo-Saxon Government. In have refrained from sending the photographs of mutilated Korean corpses, which are passing from hand to hand in Japan—pictures which show also a man with his flesh flogged into raw meat. From a pro-Japanese source 1 learn that it is always the same picture of the same horror. Let it go at that. Neither have 1 troubled to record the finite unreliable statistics of the mimlier of persons killed in Korea in order to dismiss the threat to Japan's security in government. Human life is less precious in Asia than in a communitv like ours. But. of the things which I have read, and of which witnesses have come to me, I believe enough to be certain that Japan has an Asiatic as well as a European mind, and that the Asiatic mind in Japan has not lost the old medieval brutality. One does not believe that this malignant spirit of cruelty exists among those simple peasants with 'whom we cracked our biscuits and our jokes in the first motoring tour; nor can one think that there is latent savagery in the charming men who are the social diplomats of club life in Tokio. But Japan is still steepI '"I in the dye of feudal government, and to that ensanguined color is added the dye from Germany. Upon Asiatic disregard of life and of suffering has boon imposed a callous officialdom. What is to follow? For me. T have : been so captivated by those far-away rustics that I believe the Japanese people to be infinitely better than their Government and their governing system Anv country, when you come'to think of it, would bn nretty miserable if it bad to be judged bv its politicians and its policemen. In the dear old davs of Japan, not so very long ago, the Samurai cut off the head of a wandering peasant just because tbev felt the need of some physical exercise. Thf "Zabern incident" in the pre-war Ger many was but a trifle compared wifl Japan's aristocratic amusements. Then is still prevalent in this country tin idea that government is founded upoi the two-handed sword. That is wlr ther shoot the benirrhted Korean fo'i waving a flag- why the school teacher: in "the colonies" wear daggers at the.i hips. The notion of the ruling nower: has not yet swung away from the oh powers which threshed and slew.. The Japan Advertiser CToldo} ha: just printed an account of some wir-kec shootine-' of which Jananese soldier: were guilty in Korea a few weeks ago The naper stars the storv under bif headlines: "Awful Tales of Korean J?e pression. Eye-witnesses Tell of Rol dierv Burning Homes and Shoot,in< Pnnic-ifitrickcn Women." Among Eng lish language, newspapers in Japan th< 'Advertiser can by no means be re carded as anti-Japaiieso; ori the cbn t.rary. it shows a much readier symna t.ljr with Japan than do some othc English prints in this country. ." know that the Ad\-ertise r s'fts care fully all its Korean stories, because 1 have been within its sanctum when ' lurid t'al" his been estimated., anc ".turned do-vn" for lack of coriobora Ti'on." What it has just nrinted is therefore, all the rnore significant anc al' the more reliable. The narrative rebates events in tbc Korea" village of Chain m on Anril In The little town contains about 4( houses f"rl ;, Christian ch"reh. "On this dntel" sav the witnesses "n. Jnnanose lieutenant with n numbei of soldiers appeared in thei town, anc ordered 23 men into the church, undei the pretence of living them a lee turc. .. . The b'eute-nant, bevnn ha roiiomhiT'tho men." Pis eo" +r.,'r ) o ( : ] niiorbnns rpo-p^diu' l ' ■ ■.Tytw.onti r> r Cbristianitv, with criticism l n* fkp nraoticp, of Christian nntY* 115 The lieutenant havQ-betm a Teftde''

panesfr Press recently, especially in association with attacks on President Wilson. But the lieutenant showed his disapprobation of the Christians by sharper means than words, JJ " lS *} l / the lieutenant stepped out of the building. There were three sharp commands, and the soldiers at the door fired into the church. Men sitting on the floor crumpled up and fell over. Additional tragedies happened putside the church. The wife of a man named Kang, who himself had been shot, was looking at her burning home. "Suddenly a. soldier came running down the hill at her. She. turned and opened her lips to protest when the soldier swung his sword and with two blows cut- off her head." A man named Song had also oeen shot. His wife, "finding the town on fire, ran from her home. As she passed from the village a soldier shot her twice.: Her two sons carried her home, and , she died that night." Again, the | soldiers entered the village of Acham, , about 20 'li' west of Chaiam, and bum- i prl the town. A woman ran from the raided The soldiers followed her for more than a mile and shot her. . Many " Japanese of high place is "deploring" such outrages as these, but there is no burst of popular indignation. The old Asiatic acquiescence prevails, and it is from America. 1191 from within Japan, that the protest 111 the name of humanity incoming. \ ery niauv American missionaries are 111 Korea, "unci through their home Press and their home organisations they are going to be a powerful international influence. Members of the "Kenseikai.' the middle political party of Japan, afterwards approached the Prime Minister (Mr Hara) to ask whether he admitted the truth of what the Japan Advertiser had published, and what action the Government had taken. Mr Hara answered that he "could hardlv recognise as a fact" the whole siorv" but he admitted "more or less traces of the story." He added that the officers and men concerned had been punished, the worst offenders being*mprisoned.' The Prime Minister's reticence and the secrecy attached to the "punishment" are characteristic of bureaucrucv. So are the following, onestion and answer: —"None of the Japanese papers has published an account of these massacres. Is this due to anv prohibition from the Government 0 '" "The authorities might have issued a warning to the newspapers, but no order has been issued such as to prohibit publication." the Premier replied. "Ft is interesting also to remember that Viscount Kate is leader of the Kcnsekai. and that he has yet to atone for a bad mistake 1111 his arrogance towards China—and China !> Korea's neighbor. Let us hope that this deputation to Mr Hara- was pureilv humane, not political. But \ isc'ount Kato is "tough, sir, tough, and devilish sly." . . T , 1 The Korean Declaration of Independence was issued at Seoul, signed by 33 representatives of the various religions. The object of this religious classification, which begins with Presbyterians, then follow Methodists, Roman Catholics, and, last of all. Buddhists, is to show that the movement is not one of anv particular church or religion, but of'all Korea. The signers were arrested before the printed handbills containing it were on the streets of Seoul one hour. Following on the declaration of the National Committee! a later issue urged the people that, there must be no destruction of property and no violence against the life or safety of anyone, 1 advising" at the same time that- any Korean who resorted to violence would disgrace his nation and injure her cause. Tilt- declaration went on to say: "To bind by force 20 millions of resentful Koreans will mean not only loss of peace for ever of this part of the Far Kast, but will also mean for the centre of danger as well as safety the -100 J millions of China, a suspicion of Japan, and an over-deeoening hatred. From this all the rest of the East will sillier. To-dav Korean independence would mean "not only life and happiness for us, but also it would mean Japan's departure from an evil way and exaltation.to the place of true protection of the East, so that China, too, even in her dreams, I would put all fear of Japan aside. This 1 thought comes from no minor reselltj ment, but from a large hope, for the future." I Korea has now- appealed to the world at large, and to the United States in particular, against flic Japanese stranglehold on her liberties, and the National Association have drawn up this formidable indictment : Our richest lands are rapidly passing under private and Japanese Government ownership. The Korean language, lias been abolished from.the public schools, with the substitution of the Japanese. Korean schools arc not permitted higher education. The history of a proud Korea is excluded from" the schools to make way for Japanese culture. All Koreans are forced to salute the Japanese flag and to worship the Japanese Emperor's tablet. Constant and bitter persecution of Christianity in all its activities —both in its distinctive religious activities and in its social and educational work, while official sanction is given to Buddhist and Shinto propagandists.

Japanese are in control of nil businesses and industries. Constant inhumane treatment of any Korean who exhibits outwardly his endeavor to remain Korean.