UNHAPPY KOREA

Otago Daily Times, Issue 17636, 28 May 1919, Page 8

UNHAPPY KOREA

A CEY TO THE NATIONS. TUB "HERMIT KINGDOM" TO-DAY. OBJECTS TO JAPANESE RULE. \ For fourteen years dominated by Japan under the easy phrase of "benevolent aseimilatiari," unhappy Korea has humbly submitted to a yoke which iter pride of blood and her knowledge of achievement made writes E. S. Bisbee in the New York Times. With a population of 15 millions of people, all of whom were churchmen, agncaltansts, or scholars, she never had an army. Of the great nations of the Orient, China haa ever been the merchant, sending her goods into adjacent lands and at the same time slowly through the centuries spreading a natural propaganda of commercial efficiency; Japan has been the warrior nation, as specially exemplified by the Samurai, while Korea was essentially a land of scholars. The Korean sees, in Japanese domination of his people and their lands, a growing menace toward a similar sovereignty over a large portion of China- With a popu- . i lation of 60 minions, which is growing at .the rate of 800,000 a year, Japan's natural borders are too confined for her development and the necessities of this rapidly augmenting multitude of human beings. The Japanese, a race of high natural mentality, rapidly assimilated Occidental ' . ideas, and Japan's leading men saw at once that the "Island Kingdom" had a future "in the sun." Thus she rapidly advanced towards the plane along which Occidental peoples wore progressing, changing her manners and many of her century-old customs • with the bewildering rapidity of the . chameleon's change of hue. . JAPANESE EXPANSION. "With the Russo-Japanese war came a new era for Japan. Her population had grown tremendously, and was advancing in greater volume every year. It was essential that she enlarge her sphere of activity or there would soon come a time when the problem of life would be insoluble. It became, with the 'Empire of the Mikado, not so much a question of territorial expansion for the mere sake of colonisation as a case of dire necessity for the inhabitants of the islands, who : ,were -actually crowding themselves out of house and home and becoming a i menace to their own lives. There, was not room enough for' the millions who lived there and :.their Government was morally called upoir to provide for them. This necessity was,;in reality, the fundamental cause of the war jwith lUissia, for Japan oould not stand idly by and see the powerful neighbour on her .west reach forth and take unto herself lands, that meant the very life of Japan's teeming millions. The result of that was to giro to Japan the immensely valuable Korean Peninsula, far Korea, in order to save herself from _ Russian aggression, had formed an alliance with Japan for mu-tual-'protection. In return for this alliancev Japan guaranteed to Korea her independence and territorial rights, but following the winning of the war byJapan, the Korean Peninsula . was formally annexed to tiie Empire of the Mikado after], a protectorate had first been estab-' bshed; the Emperor Li was dethroned and became a ward of Japan, and the real menace to China was born. dynasty of Li ended on u sy®t 29, 1910, the Emperor receiving Japanese Government can anmritv of 250,000 dollars for himself and family and being permitted to live in the ancient palace at Seoul, an emperor no longer, but merely a ward_ of the conquering Pqjrer a _5 virtual prisoner, for he since has been guarded by soldiers and neither entrance nor .exit is permitted' save by permission trom tho Japanese Governor-General. Jv THE KOREAN PAYS. Tlfronghont Korea the Japanese have brait;, magnificent roads and modern rail r ? ad ?i.. have erected at an expense of millions of yen mansions for their higher dignitaries and splendid houses for their Government employees, oil of these' improvements having been made at the expense of the Korean taxpayer. All of which is not particularly gratifying to the Korean. ■ SVom Korea direct roads run inrto the rich • Manchuria ' and from Manchuria into,., China run many others.' In the natural.course of events, argues the Korean political student, Korea herself' will have become too small to maintain the rapidlv increasing population of Japan, and a natural diversion of the increment will send ft northya™ "rto Manchuria and thence southward onto Chip;!. This is the end toward which he points the warning finger—that Japan is forced by nature to defend herself from annihilation by extending her boundaries along the course of least resistance, a«d this course runs through Manchuria into China, with its boundless area and unlimited opportunities. For cooperation and leadership Korea, at the time of the alliance with Japan, looted to her powerftd and warlike neighbour, but in this the ancient "Hermit Kingdom" regards herself as having been sadly disappointed, for, according to the leaders of thought there, Japan has been guilty of a greater aggression and oppression than Prussia ever put upon Alsace-Lorraine. THE ROLE OF LEADER. Koreans feel that Japan should assume as a national heritage and because of her groat strides in world affairs, not the role of a oonqueror who menaces his weaker and more pacific, neighbours, but that of Asiatio leadership—not Asia for Japan, but Asia for Asiatics. In this schcmo Korea desires a national, although, naturally, a minor part. She would, devote her talents to agriculture, to literature, to religion, and to commerce. In Korea are a half million Christians and many Christian missionaries, although the national faith follows the teachings of Confucius. The former independent cmpiro had evolved a high system of selfgovernment, and all positions under it were controlled by an effective system of civil service. AD this has been lest, as has the opportunity to practise the Korean religion, for oven the language of the oounfcry is being lo&t, Japan having decreed that the tongue of tho Mikado most be the only official one.