CORNELL 
 
 UNIVERSITY 
 
 LIBRARY 
 
 WILLIAM EDMUND AUGHINBAUGH 
 
 M.D., LL.B., LL.M. 
 
 1871, October 12, Washington, D. C. ■ New York, N. Y., December 17, 1940 
 
 President of The Adventdkers' Club 
 
 1919-1925 
 
 "/ Swear by Apollo" 
 
Cornell University Library 
 DS 916.K33 1919 
 

B Cornell University 
 
 'g Library 
 
 The original of this book is in 
 the Cornell University Library. 
 
 There are no known copyright restrictions in 
 the United States on the use of the text. 
 
 http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924023276276 
 

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 MAP OF KOREA. 
 
THE 
 TRUTH ABOUT KOREA 
 
 By 
 
 CARLTON WALDO KENDALL 
 
 (Delegate to the International Peace Conference, 1915) 
 
 ' <=?c>o •.., 
 
 SECOND EDITION 
 
 * * * * V * * (r , * * • ', 
 
 Published by . i <"< ' t « i r , 
 
 i<" V < 
 
 THE KOEEAN NATIONAL ASSOCIATION /Vv} '<<, 
 
 San Francisco, California i^'f \ '( 
 
 July, 1919 l%\^^ir, h4 
 
Copyright, 1919, 
 
 by 
 
 The Korean N%ti(Vi^ Association 
 
 
 

 This volume is dedicated 
 
 to the men and toomen of Korea 
 
 who have so heroically given their lives 
 
 that Freedom and Liberty may be 
 
 the inherent birth-right 
 
 of their posterity. 
 
TABLE OF CONTENTS 
 
 PAGE. 
 
 Foreword 7 
 
 General Information About Korea 9 
 
 The Seizure of Korea 11 
 
 Japanese Autocratic Rule , 15 
 
 Administration and 'Reforms' 16 
 
 Economic Oppression 17 
 
 Religious Oppression 19 
 
 The Double Standard 20 
 
 The Independence Movement 24 
 
 The Preparations 25 
 
 The Opening Demonstration 27 
 
 The Japanese Police 30 
 
 Atrocities and Massacres 31 
 
 The New Republic 34 
 
 Statements and Press Reports 37 
 
 Official Documents and Proclamations 47 
 
 Declaration of Independence 49 
 
 Aims and Aspirations 53 
 
 Provisional Constitution 55 
 
 Official Proclamation 57 
 
 Petition to the Peace Conference 59 
 
 Memorandum to the Peace Conference 71 
 
 Appendices 95 
 
 Bibliography 103 
 
ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 Map of Korea Frontispiece 
 
 The Dai Dong River 7 /-> •, 10 
 
 . . ••««■• } Opposite page 18 
 
 An American Mine j 
 
 Soldiers Guarding Pagoda Park 1 „ „ 
 
 The Opening Demonstration - I 
 
 Japanese Atrocities " " 59 
 
FOREWORD 
 
 In presenting this volume, it is not my purpose to create a 
 feeling of hostility against the Japanese people. I cannot be- 
 lieve that the kindly men and women of Japan approve the 
 unnamable cruelties taking place today in Korea. Where I 
 have used the term Japan or Japanese in connection with the 
 Korean situation, I refer not to the Japanese people — the 
 wives and daughters, husbands and sons of the Flowery 
 Kingdom — -but to that spirit of Military Autocracy which knows 
 no conscience, no human regard nor tolerance, and crushes 
 all who oppose it beneath the insatiable wrath of its iron heel. 
 
 It is that spirit which, while serving as a soldier in the 
 United States Army, I took an oath to crush and to which 
 end the remainder of my life is dedicated. 
 
 You who read this volume may feel that the people of 
 Korea and the Orient have no common tie with the people of 
 America and Europe, and that therefore we should not con- 
 cern ourselves with their affairs. It is true that they are of a 
 different nationality and a different race. But today, above 
 all nationalities and all races, is a common tie — Justice and 
 Humanity. And it is in the name of Justice and Humanity 
 that I present this volume for your consideration, as a plea 
 for the right of twenty million human beings to enjoy their 
 
 personal freedom and liberty. 
 
 C. W. Kendall. 
 
 Oakland, California, June IJ, 1919. 
 
The world can he at peace only if its life is stable, and 
 there can he no stability where the will is in rebellion, where 
 there is not tranquility of spirit and a sense of justice, of 
 freedom, and of right. — Woodrow Wilson. 
 
GENERAL INFORMATION ABOUT 
 KOREA 
 
 Korea is a "buffer" state. In the Orient she occupies a 
 position analogous to Belgium in Europe. She is one of the 
 oldest countries in existence. The exact date of her birth as a 
 nation is unknown, probably about 2,000 B. C. Like Belgium, 
 she is a country with a separate and distinct language, liter- 
 ature and customs. 
 
 In her early history, she was instrumental in spreading the 
 Chinese culture from China to Japan. Amongst her most 
 notable achievements was the early use of movable set type 
 and the invention of the first iron-clad war vessel. 
 
 The country is somewhat the shape of Italy. It is a rich 
 peninsula, extending out from the mainland of Asia, bounded 
 on three sides by the sea and on the north by Manchuria 
 and the Russian Maritime Province. Its 1,700-mile sea coast 
 is rugged and dotted with many mountainous islands and good 
 harbors. The largest port is Fusan, one hundred and sixty- 
 three miles by water from Nagasaki, Japan, and a thriving 
 commercial city with over a hundred thousand population. 
 Korea is about twice the size of New York State. 
 
 In climate and density of population it is closely akin to 
 the eastern United States. The principal industries are min- 
 ing, agriculture and the catching of sea foods. Much of the 
 mining is in the hands of foreigners. Formerly large con- 
 cessions were granted to Americans, but of late years, as 
 the leases expire, they have gradually been taken over by 
 Japanese. The country is rich in undeveloped natural re- 
 sources. 
 
 Rich, fertile river valleys, together with an abundance 
 of salt-water fish, make Korea amply able to support its 
 population of twenty million people. The number of foreign- 
 ers in the country is constantly on the increase. At the 
 present time there are over three hundred and fifty thousand 
 Japanese. The other nationalities represented are, according 
 
10 THE TRUTH ABOUT KOREA. 
 
 to the census of 1914: 16,882 Chinese, 687 Americans, 230 
 English, 97 French, S3 Germans and 14 Russians. Prac- 
 tically all the Americans in the country are either mission- 
 aries or engaged in mining. 
 
 The capital city is Seoul, with a population of close to 
 three hundred thousand people. For centuries Korea was a 
 free nation and ruled itself. But in the last few decades, as 
 the Orient awakened from its slumbering lethargy, the little 
 nation became the pawn in the struggle for Asiatic su- 
 premacy. 
 
 Like Belgium, Korea is situated between three great 
 powers, each one ambitious to be the greatest — the Mistress of 
 the Orientr— so that in recent years the country and its people 
 have been subject to a long succession of invasions. China, 
 Russia and Japan have each had their turn at claiming a 
 suzerainty over the country. But the latter, Japan, becoming 
 more powerful in the Orient than the other two, could not 
 resist the temptation to prey upon the little, helpless nation 
 at her mercy, in order to be forever sure of the balance of 
 power. 
 
THE SEIZURE OF KOREA 
 
 At the opening of the Russo-Japanece war, Japan made a 
 treaty with Korea in which she solemnly vowed to guarantee 
 the independence of the "Hermit Kingdom," as it was then 
 called. In return, Korea opened the country to Japan as a 
 basis for her military operations against Russia and gave 
 her material aid in the way of raw supplies. In doing this she 
 ran the risk of devastation and seizure in case her ally was 
 defeated. 
 
 But no sooner were Japanese arms proclaimed victorious 
 than Japan began her first insidious operations to deliber- 
 ately violate the terms of the treaty. To do it openly would 
 have robbed her of the moral prestige as a coming great 
 power. She therefore determined to make Korea ask to 
 give up her independence and come under the suzerainty of 
 Japan. So as soon as the treaty of peace was signed at 
 Portsmouth, she forwarded to the Emperor of Korea a note 
 to that effect. But the Emperor of Korea, foreseeing what 
 would happen to his country and its people, determined to do 
 all in his power to prevent such a catastrophe. His only 
 hope was America. 
 
 In 1882 Korea and the United States had concluded a 
 treaty in which they had mutually agreed to help each other 
 in case of oppressive treatment by an outside power. So, in 
 view of this treaty, he sent a personal note to the President 
 of the United States asking his assistance. But before the 
 note was fairly on its way, a Japanese spy on board the vessel 
 discovered it and notified the government in Tokio the exact 
 hour it would arrive in Washington. 
 
 Immediately Marquis Ito was dispatched to Seoul, with 
 instructions to make Korea agree to a Japanese suzerainty. 
 He arrived and after numerous conferences realized that 
 Korea was determined to stand firm on the treaty of 1904, in 
 which Japan had guaranteed her independence. 
 
12 THE TRUTH ABOUT KOREA. 
 
 In the meantime, the date set for the arrival of the Em- 
 peror's note in Washington was rapidly approaching. It was 
 now or never. On November 17, 1905 — a little over two 
 months and a half after the close of the war — the Marquis 
 called a conference of the Korean Cabinet in the audience 
 chamber of the Emperor. 
 
 During the week preceding this conference, the Japanese 
 troops stationed at the capital had been making a great dis- 
 play of military force around the palace. They were equipped 
 with field guns and the men were fully armed. They did 
 everything short of actual violence to demonstrate to the 
 Koreans the military prowess of Japan. 
 
 To the Cabinet Ministers and to the Emperor, all this 
 display had a sinister and terrible meaning, for in 1895, under 
 very similar circumstances, the Queen of Korea, who was 
 opposed to Japanese rule, was barbarously murdered and 
 her body burned in kerosene. 
 
 F. A. McKenzie, the British journalist, who was in Korea 
 at the time, gives the following vivid account of what took 
 place : 
 
 "That evening Japanese soldiers, with fixed bayonets, en- 
 tered the courtyard of the palace and stood near the apart- 
 ment of the Emperor. Marquis Ito now arrived, accompanied 
 by General Hasegawa, commander of the Japanese Army in 
 Korea. 
 
 "The Marquis demanded an audience of the Emperor. 
 The Emperor refused to grant it, saying that his throat was 
 very bad and he was in great pain. The Marquis then made 
 his way into the Emperor's presence and personally requested 
 an audience. The Emperor still refused. 'Please go away 
 and discuss the matter with the Cabinet Ministers,' he said. 
 
 "Thereupon, Marquis Ito went outside to the Ministers. 
 'Your Emperor has commanded you to confer with me and 
 settle this matter,' he declared. 
 
 "The acting Prime Minister, Han Kew Sul, jumped to 
 his feet and said he would go and tell the Emperor of the 
 
THE SEIZURE OF KOREA. 13 
 
 talk of traitors. Han Kew Sul was allowed to leave the 
 room and then was gripped by the Japanese Secretary of the 
 Legation, thrown into a sideroom, and threatened with death. 
 Even Marquis Ito went out to him to persuade him. 'Would 
 you not yield,' the Marquis said, 'if your Emperor com- 
 manded you?' 'No,' said Han Kew Sul, 'not even then!' 
 
 "This was enough. The Marquis at once went to the Em- 
 peror. 'Han Kew Sul is a traitor,' he said. 'He defies you, 
 and declares that he will not obey your commands.' 
 
 "Meanwhile the remaining Cabinet Ministers waited in 
 the Cabinet chamber. Where was their leader, the man who 
 had urged them all to resist to the death? Minute after min- 
 ute passed, and still he did not return. Then a whisper went 
 around that the Japanese had killed him. The harsh voices of 
 the Japanese grew still more strident. Courtesy and restraint 
 were thrown off. 'Agree with us and be rich; or oppose us 
 and perish.' 
 
 "In the early hours of the morning commands were issued 
 that the seal of State should be brought from the Foreign 
 Minister's apartment, and a treaty should be signed. Here 
 another difficulty arose. The custodian of the seal had re- 
 ceived orders in advance that, even if his master commanded, 
 the seal was not to be surrendered for any such purpose. 
 When telephonic orders were sent to him he refused to bring 
 the seal along, and special messengers had to be dispatched to 
 take it from him by force." 
 
 In this way Japan negotiated the treaty with Korea. Be- 
 fore the Emperor's note reached the President of the United 
 States, she announced to the world that Korea had "volun- 
 tarily" become a protectorate of the Japanese Government 
 and that all future diplomatic business would be conducted 
 through the Japanese Embassy. 
 
 Five years later, in 1910, she concluded another treaty with 
 the new Emperor of Korea, who was known to be mentally 
 incapacitated from birth, and induced him to sign the country 
 over completely. It then became a part of the Japanese na- 
 tion — comprising about one-third of the whole empire. 
 
14 THE TRUTH ABOUT KOREA. 
 
 Whether or not a single feeble-minded individual possessed 
 the right to sign over a nation and the lives and future lives 
 of twenty million people is for the reader to decide. At any 
 rate, from that time on Korea came under the autocratic ad- 
 ministration of the Japanese Empire. 
 
JAPANESE AUTOCRATIC RULE 
 
 The nine years following the egregious annexation has 
 been one of the most shameful pages in the history of the 
 Japanese Empire. The heinous crimes committed by Japanese 
 Military Autocracy have been carefully hidden from the world 
 until the last few months. 
 
 The casual traveler visiting Korea has been shown only 
 the more beautiful aspects of the country: the Japanese 
 achievements, the material progress, the beautiful government 
 museum in Seoul. The legalized robbery, the browbeating, 
 the introduction of licensed public prostitution, the tortures 
 in the prisons, the unnamable oppression and injustice — all 
 these have been hidden from his gaze. He is told in his 
 Japanese Railway Guidebook and traveler's pocket volumes 
 how Japan — ^Japan the Magnificent Mistress of the Orient — 
 has extended to Korea her brotherly love and assistance and 
 is dragging from the depths of poverty, crime and immorality, 
 the ignorant, worthless Koreans and striving to raise them to 
 the level of her own glorious culture. 
 
 American correspondents, coming to the country, have been 
 royally entertained, and — I am ashamed to say — bought up 
 by the Japanese Governor-General, with the result that they 
 have returned and written on the glories of Japanese reforms 
 in Korea. For the consumption of Americans and Europeans 
 there, the Governor-General has a subsidized organ, the Seoul 
 Press, which is a daily English newspaper published to satisfy 
 the Occidental desire for news and to disseminate the kind 
 of news Japan wishes to make public. 
 
 For scholars, she prepared a well-illustrated volume and 
 sent it gratis to all great men and important libraries in 
 America and Great Britain. It is entitled the "Annual Re- 
 port of Reforms and Progress in Chosen". In it she pictures 
 vividly the "contentment and prosperity" that Japanese rule is 
 bringing to the Koreans. Germany, at her cleverest, could not 
 hold a candle to Japan when it came to "pulling the wool" 
 
16 THE TRUTH ABOUT KOREA. 
 
 over the eyes of the Occident in regard to actual conditions 
 under her autocratic rule. 
 
 Administration and "Reforms" 
 
 In the administration of Korea, Japan has done some 
 things, in a material way, for the good of the country, such 
 as constructing public buildings, introducing improvements in 
 agriculture and extending the means of communication. But, 
 as with Germany's administration of Belgium, over and above 
 these material accomplishments she has introduced all the 
 heinousness of Militarism. 
 
 As soon as Korea was annexed Japan began Japanizing 
 the country. She put the government under military juris- 
 diction and appointed a Military Governor-General, who was 
 given virtually all the powers of a Czar. Then, through him, 
 she began to instigate a series of so-called "reforms". 
 
 One of the first of these "reforms" was to go through all 
 the public archives and private libraries and systematically 
 collect and burn Korean works of literature and history. 
 Then she passed laws which completely stamped out all 
 Korean periodical literature — from local newspapers to scien- 
 tific journals. The only non- Japanese publications in Korea 
 today are certain newspapers, published secretly and dis- 
 tributed from hand to hand like the famous Belgian news- 
 papers. The type and hand presses are carried from place to 
 place and the lives of the editors are as thrilling as the 
 Japanese police can make them. 
 
 In addition to destroying the literature of Korea, priceless 
 art treasures and historical objects have been lost to the 
 world through needless vandalism. 
 
 Another of these "reforms" was an attempt to destroy 
 the Korean language by making Japanese the official tongue, 
 not only in public documents, but also in the schools. All text- 
 books were printed in Japanese under official Japanese super- 
 vision. The teachers were and are Japanese or Japanese- 
 speaking Koreans. 
 
 Not only have the Japanese forbidden the Koreans to be 
 
JAPANESE AUTOCRATIC RULE. 17 
 
 instructed in their own language, but they have instigated a 
 series of educational regulations — under the pretext of uni- 
 fying the educational system and bringing it up to a higher 
 standard — which limit the amount of education a Korean can 
 pursue. Religious services and the teaching of geography 
 are forbidden in all the schools. Japanese history alone is 
 permitted. All Korean and Western world histories are 
 forbidden. 
 
 Korean scholars are not permitted to leave the country 
 and go abroad for study, save to Japan. Here the students, 
 under government supervision, are not allowed to specialize 
 in such subjects as law, history or economics in the Imperial 
 University of Tokyo. They are strongly advised to attend 
 commercial or trade schools and are insidiously discriminated 
 against in the higher institutions. 
 
 Under the guise of "educational reforms", a systematic 
 attempt has been made to keep the Korean students in 
 ignorance of the advantages of democracy and to hold them 
 down mentally under the heel of Japanese Military Autocracy, 
 so that the coming generation would be ignorant of the funda- 
 mentals of a just government and robbed of any possible 
 leaders. 
 
 Economic Oppression 
 
 The oppression of Korea has not been confined to lan- 
 guage and education alone. An economic oppression was in- 
 augurated which has already brought ruin to thousands of 
 Korean merchants and landholders. Although, statistically, 
 the total wealth of the country has increased since Japanese 
 occupation, the figures are due to the decrease in the buying 
 value of mpney, Today the economic status of the Koreans 
 is worse than it was under the old administration. Since 
 the seizure of the country, over one million five hundred thou- 
 sand Koreans have emigrated to China and Siberia, primarily 
 because they could not stand the economic pressure brought 
 to bear upon them by their conquerors. 
 
18 THE TRUTH ABOUT KOREA. 
 
 Under the old Korean Government before annexation, 
 the land was divided into four classes: 
 
 1. Private lands, owned by private individuals. 
 
 2. Royal lands, belonging to the king, but leased in 
 perpetuity to private individuals, with the right of selling to 
 another individual without changing the ownership and the 
 privilege of inheritance. 
 
 3. Municipal lands, the titles of which belonged to the 
 various municipalities, but the practical ownership of which 
 was in the hands of private individuals. 
 
 4. Lands belonging to Buddhist Temples. 
 
 Owners of private lands paid taxes to the government; 
 holders of royal lands paid tribute to the royal household; 
 the owners of municipal lands paid fees to the respective 
 municipalities which held the title of the lands, and the lands 
 belonging to Buddhist Temples were free from taxation. These 
 temple lands were held in communistic plan amongst the 
 Buddhists. 
 
 One of the first deeds of the Japanese was to survey the 
 country and confiscate all lands belonging to the royal house- 
 hold, to the municipalities and to the Buddhist Temples. They 
 explained this act on the technical ground that since these 
 lands did not belong to private individuals, they must be 
 the property of the government. The Korean owners were 
 dispossessed and driven out without remuneration and the 
 land was leased or sold to Japanese farmers. In some cases 
 where Koreans protested against the seizure, they were fast- 
 ened to crude wooden crosses and shot. 
 
 Under the direction of the Japanese Government, the Ori- 
 ental Colonization Company was organized to promote Japa- 
 nese colonization of Korea and thus further Japanize the 
 country. To induce emigrants to invade the peninsula, this 
 company offered every Japanese settler free transportation 
 to Korea and provided him with a home and a piece of land, 
 to be paid for in three or four years. The plan in theory is 
 identical with Bismarck's idea for Prussianizing Poland. 
 
 Another method by which the Japanese gained possession 
 
(upper) the DAI DONG RIVER NEAR PYENG YANG, WITH BUDDHIST TEMPLES IN 
 
 THE FOREGROUND. 
 
 (lower) a LARGE AMERICAN MINE IN SOUTHERN KOREA. 
 
JAPANESE AUTOCRATIC RULE. 19 
 
 of land was to force the Korean owners to sell at a ridicu- 
 lously low figure. Rice is the chief agricultural product in 
 Korea and the water, irrigating the rice fields, runs from one 
 field to another in succession. The agents for the Oriental 
 Colonization Company buy the rice patch through which the 
 water runs to the desired piece of land. Then Japanese agents 
 or "farmers" cut off the water supply, and the Korean owner, 
 after vain protests, is finally forced to sell his now worthless 
 land to the Oriental Colonization Company at their own figure 
 or remain on it and starve. 
 
 Already one-third of the best land in Korea is in the 
 hands of the Japanese. 
 
 Religious Oppression 
 
 In regard to religious matters : From the very first they 
 have played a most important part. In 1912 — two years after 
 the annexation — Count Terauchi, the Governor-General, in- 
 stituted what is known as the "persecution of the Korean 
 Church". 
 
 Prominent churchmen, leaders in Korean thought 
 and education, were charged with conspiracy and put 
 in prison. American missionaries were dragged into 
 the trial, accused of being connected with a plot to 
 assassinate the Governor-General. The case attracted 
 world-wide attention and protest. The Japanese pre- 
 pared ready-made confessions and after secret tortures, 
 the prisoners signed these confessions. In open court, 
 however, under the protection of foreign opinion, the 
 prisoners denied their confessions and upon investiga- 
 tion the confessions were found to be absolutely false. 
 The case was known as the famous "Conspiracy Trial" 
 and was the first time the civilized world penetrated 
 beneath the veil of Japanese censorship and propaganda, 
 and saw with horrified eyes the true conditions in Korea. 
 
 The absurdity of some of the charges against Korean 
 Christians is well illustrated by the case of Pastor Kil 
 of Ping Yang. He w^s charged with treason for 
 
20 THE TRUTH ABOUT KOREA. 
 
 preaching against the evil of cigarette-smoking amongst 
 boys. The analysis of the charge is a masterpiece for 
 Jevons' Logic. It is as follows: 
 
 Pastor Kil preached against the use of cigarettes. 
 
 Cigarette manufacture is a government monopoly. 
 
 To speak against their use is to injure a government 
 institution. 
 
 To injure a government institution is to work against 
 the government. 
 
 To work against the government is treason. 
 
 Therefore Pastor Kil is guilty of treason. 
 
 This is but an example of the working of the Jap- 
 anese courts in Korea. 
 
 Religious gatherings of more than five persons are 
 required to obtain a permit from the government, and 
 Christians are compelled to secure a special certificate 
 permitting them to practice their religion. Such hymns 
 as "Onward, Christian Soldiers,'' are not permitted to be 
 sung on the presumption that they stimulate nationalism 
 amongst the Koreans. Spies and detectives attend every 
 large church gathering as well as the ordinary Sunday 
 services. 
 
 At the present time, the foreign missionary force 
 in Korea numbers about three hundred, with the Ameri- 
 can Presbyterian, Methodist and Catholic churches es- 
 pecially influential. The missionaries are practical, hard- 
 working men and women and include all creeds — both 
 Catholic and Protestant. They have opened hospitals 
 and schools as well as churches and missions. 
 
 The Double Standard 
 
 The social, intellectual, moral and economic life of 
 Korea is divided into two classes: one for Japanese 
 and one for Koreans. 
 
 From the first, political favoritism and discrimination 
 were installed. Socially, the Korean is the butt of 
 Japanese scorn and ridicule and is lorded over and 
 
JAPANESE AUTOCRATIC RULE. 21 
 
 humiliated whenever the opportunity presents itself. 
 Never for a moment is he allowed to feel that he be- 
 longs to anything but an inferior race — a scum on the 
 dregs of Oriental civilization. 
 
 From the princes of the Korean Royal Household 
 to the lowest coolie every man, woman and child, in 
 whose veins runs the proud blood of old Korea, is 
 treated with a condescension which is an insult to 
 humanity. They are man-handled for innocently trans- 
 gressing the slightest government regulation. They are 
 elbowed off the sidewalks, spat upon, and taken as the 
 lawful prey of Japanese loan sharks and speculators. 
 If a Korean has to mortgage his property or borrow 
 money, the Japanese speculators charge him as high as 
 70 per cent per annum. 
 
 Everywhere the Double Standard is in vogue. The 
 Koreans and Japanese are punished by two entirely 
 different sets of laws. If a Japanese is arrested and 
 convicted of a minor offense, he is fined. If a Korean 
 is arrested and convicted of the same offense, he is 
 given twenty or thirty lashes on his naked body until 
 he is often beaten into insensibility. In the Japanese 
 prisons today this barbaric custom of the Middle Ages — 
 beating and flogging — is still used when dealing with 
 Korean prisoners, even, according to reports, applied 
 to old men and delicate girls and women. Not only 
 beating and flogging, but torture and mistreatment in 
 order to force confessions have been proven from time 
 to time. The methods of torture used by the Japanese 
 are said to be similar to the "rack" of the Middle Ages, 
 putting the victim in the greatest misery and still leav- 
 ing no visible marks upon his body — stretching the 
 nerves and sinews and often causing total or partial 
 paralysis. 
 
 Since the Japanese seizure of Korea, crime has been 
 steadily on the increase. In 1911, there were 7,342 
 Korean convicts. And in 1915, according to the Jap- 
 
22 THE TRUTH ABOUT KOREA. 
 
 anese statistics there were 14,411 — almost double the num- 
 ber. One of the reasons for this doubling of convicts is 
 to be found in the system of Japanese justice under the 
 Double Standard. 
 
 A Korean is tried before a Japanese court, whose 
 officials and judge are minions of the military autocracy. 
 The justice he receives is the justice of the conqueror 
 to the conquered. In 191S, the records of the summary 
 courts — which correspond to our police courts — show 
 only seven persons acquitted out of a total of 59,483 
 cases and only forty proven innocent. These courts 
 handle minor offenses and the violation of administrative 
 ordinances. 
 
 The Double Standard extends to government posi- 
 tions as well as to justice. The so-called Korean 
 Mayors are only figureheads in the Japanese policy of 
 "pulling the wool" over the eyes of the world. They 
 are all required to employ a Japanese "advisor" or 
 secretary, who tells them what to do and where to 
 sign their names. These advisors are the de facto 
 Mayors. They are paid, on an average, about twice the 
 salary of the Mayor. For instance, the "advisor" of a 
 certain Korean Mayor receiving 70 yen* a month is 
 paid ISO yen for his services. 
 
 In a similar way every wealthy Korean is required 
 to employ a Japanese steward. The Japanese steward 
 keeps account of the Korean's income and expenditures 
 and the capitalist cannot spend a single cent without 
 his knowledge and sanction. This steward is backed by 
 government authority. If a wealthy Korean spends any 
 significant sum of money without the sanction of his 
 Japanese steward, his property is liable to confiscation 
 on the charge that he may be working against the 
 government. For the same reason, no Korean is per- 
 mitted to draw from a bank in Korea more than $500 
 
 *A yen is equal to fifty cents. 
 
Koreans. 
 
 ay 1.02 yen 
 
 per day 
 
 .96 " 
 
 
 1.00 " 
 
 
 1.00 " 
 
 
 .60 " 
 
 
 .45 " 
 
 
 no. 7.00 ■• 
 
 " mo. 
 
 JAPANESE AUTOCRATIC RULE. 23 
 
 at a time. This works a severe hardship on the Korean 
 merchant and gives the Japanese competitor a decided 
 advantage in all cash transactions. 
 
 Another example of the Double Standard is the scale 
 of wages paid laborers and skilled workmen. A Japanese 
 common laborer receives over half again as much as a 
 Korean laborer. The other wages are as follows: 
 
 Japanese, 
 
 Stone Mason 1.96 yen per day 
 
 Plasterer 1.54 " 
 
 Carpenter 1.44 " 
 
 Bricklayer 1.40 " 
 
 Blacksmith 1.20 " 
 
 Compositor 80 " 
 
 Brewer (incl. board) . 16.00 " 
 
 The full extent to which the Double Standard has 
 been practised will probably never be known. As far as 
 possible, Japan has endeavored to keep it hidden from 
 the eyes of the world. Like Germany repressed the 
 truth about her rule in Belgium, Japanese Autocracy 
 has issued misleading statements and repeated denials. 
 The unutterable things they have done; the trickery and 
 cunning, the secret discrimination, the mockery and 
 double-dealing — all these have been carefully concealed 
 from the world and especially from the justice-loving 
 Americans and Europeans. 
 
 Probably no one can ever realize the untold suffering 
 and heartaches caused by the nine years of Japanese 
 rule and oppression. The misery and degradation, the 
 sorrow and death, inflicted by Japanese Military Autoc- 
 racy in Korea is too terrible and shameful a thing to 
 dwell upon. The true awfulness of it will never be 
 known — like the horrors in Armenia, Serbia and the 
 conquered districts of Belgium and France. 
 
THE INDEPENDENCE MOVEMENT 
 
 The Independence Movement in Korea is not a 
 new thing. It began fourteen years ago, just after 
 Japan had forced the Korean Cabinet to grant her a 
 suzerainty and had stepped in to rule the people a centre 
 coeur. 
 
 Many of the Korean leaders, seeing the futility of 
 doing anything at that time to free their people from 
 the powerful Military Autocracy whose yoke was already 
 upon their necks, fled to foreign countries. Others who 
 had tried, in the last desperate moments, to save their 
 country and had failed were forced to seek safety in 
 America and China. Gradually these refugees and 
 patriots came together and organized associations, each 
 member of which dedicated the remainder of his life 
 to free the people at home from the hand of Japanese 
 oppression. These associations were, for the most part, 
 composed of Korean scholars and graduates from Amer- 
 ican universities and preparatory schools. They were 
 not, as charged by the Japanese Government, composed 
 of rabid radicals, disgruntled politicians, or Bolsheviki. 
 
 At the same time, societies with a similar purpose 
 were organized in Korea in spite of the rigid Japanese 
 spy system. The largest of these, the Chun Do Kyo, 
 or "Heaven Worshipers," was encouraged by the Jap- 
 anese authorities themselves. It was organized as a 
 religious cult — supposedly opposed to Christianity — 
 whose teachings were a combination of Buddhism, Tail- 
 ism, ancestral worship and Korean superstition. In 
 reality, it was a great political club whose members 
 numbered over three million patriotic Koreans. 
 
 Quietly and with careful deliberation they prepared 
 for the day when they could strike. 
 
 Then along came the European War and President 
 Wilson's famous statement in his address to the Senate 
 
THE INDEPENDENCE MOVEMENT. 25 
 
 in 1917 that "... henceforth inviolable security of 
 life, of worship, and of industrial and social develop- 
 ment should be guaranteed to all peoples who have 
 lived hitherto under the power of governments devoted 
 to a faith and purpose hostile to their own . . ." 
 
 The time to strike had come. When the Peace Con- 
 ference, with its ideals of "self-determination," met in 
 Paris, it gave to the oppressed Koreans the longed-for 
 chance to place their problem before the world. So, at 
 the opening of 1919, these exiled patriots went secretly 
 to Korea and, in conjunction with the secret societies 
 there, organized committees to begin the movement for 
 re-establishing their independence. 
 
 Their work was quiet and effective. Their plan was 
 to begin a "Passive Revolution". No one, not even the 
 Japanese, was to be harmed. No property was to be 
 destroyed or injured. No radicalism, no I. W. W.-ism, 
 no Bolshevism was to be tolerated or associated in any 
 way with the movement. But a persistent passive agita- 
 tion was to be instituted and continued until success 
 attended their object — freedom from Japanese Military 
 Autocracy. 
 
 The Preparations 
 
 In the latter part of January, an event occurred 
 which brought things to a head. The old ex-Emperor Yi 
 passed away in his palace at Seoul. The circumstances 
 of his death were very peculiar, which led to a report 
 getting out among the people that he had committed 
 suicide in order to prevent the consummation of the 
 marriage of his son. Prince Kon, to the Japanese Prin- 
 cess Nashinoto. This wedding had been fixed for about 
 January 29th — one week after the death of the ex- 
 Emperor. 
 
 The Prince had formerly been engaged to a Korean 
 girl, but this engagement was forcibly broken off when 
 the Prince was taken to Japan some years ago. The 
 
26 THE TRUTH ABOUT KOREA. 
 
 father of this girl is said to have died at almost the 
 same time and under the very same peculiar conditions 
 attending the ex-Emperor's death — so-called apoplexy — 
 and again it was reported that suicide had been the 
 real cause of death. These circumstances povFcrfully 
 affected the people throughout the whole country, and 
 the old ex-Emperor was greatly glorified and worshiped. 
 
 Therefore, it was determined to begin the demonstration 
 on the date of his funeral, March 4th — for other reasons as 
 well. A rigid spy system had been put in operation by the 
 Japanese authorities. Under this system every Korean was 
 registered like a criminal and given a number which was 
 known to the police. Whenever a Korean left his home 
 village or town, he was required to register at the police 
 station, stating his reason for traveling and where he in- 
 tended to go. The general plan was to make Seoul the 
 center of activities, inasmuch as the foreign legations were 
 there and the whole purpose of the movement was designed 
 to gain recognition and publicity. A sudden influx of 
 Koreans into Seoul, with no apparent cause, would imme- 
 diately create suspicion on the part of the Japanese police. 
 If, however, the country people came into the capitol to 
 attend the ex-Emperor's funeral, no suspicion would be 
 aroused. For this reason, as well as the other, March 4th 
 was decided upon by the leaders. 
 
 In some way the news leaked out to the police author- 
 ities. But the Japanese police force and spy system were 
 made up of a large number of native Koreans who the 
 Japanese thought they had won over as their own tools. In 
 reality these Koreans had slowly been creeping into the posi- 
 tions of policemen, stool-pigeons and gendarmes in order to 
 be ready for the day their people were to strike against the 
 hated Japanese. No sooner had the Japanese authorities 
 been notified of the proposed demonstrations than they 
 issued orders to these "supposed" Japanized detectives to 
 get busy. These loyal Koreans immediately notified the 
 leaders, who, with but a few days before them, suddenly 
 
THE INDEPENDENCE MOVEMENT. 27 
 
 changed the date to Saturday, March lst~the day for the 
 rehearsal of the funeral. 
 
 The rehearsal for a Korean funeral is almost as mag- 
 nificent as the event itself; so the sudden influx of Koreans 
 into Seoul at the rate of five thousand a day to witness 
 the rehearsal was nothing extraordinary. In the meantime, 
 the most prominent representatives of all classes, religions 
 and sects had drawn up a Declaration of Independence and 
 signed it. Copies of this, as well as instructions as to what 
 was expected of the people, were sent to the local leaders 
 all over Korea through the aid of loyal little schoolgirls 
 who hid them in their capacious sleeves and trudged from 
 town to town, bringing the messages of freedom. 
 
 It was arranged for passive demonstrations to break out 
 simultaneously in all the large cities and towns in the pen- 
 insula; also in Tokio, Shanghai and various other cities in 
 Japan, China, Manchuria, Russia, the United States and 
 other countries. 
 
 In Seoul itself the people were to divide into groups of 
 three thousand each — each group under a leader — and to 
 march to different consulates and government offices, singing 
 Korean national airs and shouting "Mansai," which is the 
 Korean for "Hurrah." They were not to resist the Japanese 
 Police. If they were beaten, imprisoned or even killed they 
 were to take their punishment without complaint, and to do 
 nothing which would bring reproach upon the name of 
 Korea or their movement. 
 
 The Opening Demonstration 
 
 The night before the demonstration was to begin, twenty- 
 nine of the thirty-three signers of the Declaration of Inde- 
 pendence gathered in Seoul. After a meeting in which 
 final arrangements were checked up and the proclamation 
 read aloud for the first time, they all adjourned to a promi- 
 nent restaurant for a last dinner together. It was one of the 
 most singular banquets ever held in the history of any 
 
28 THE TRUTH ABOUT KOREA. 
 
 nation. Each man present realized that as soon as the 
 proclamation, bearing his signature, was in the hands of the 
 Japanese authorities he would be hunted down and executed 
 or thrown into prison. All of them were acquainted with 
 the efficiency and methods of the Japanese spy system. 
 They knew that to attempt to escape would be useless. 
 So when the banquet was completed and the last toast 
 spoken they went to the telephone, called up the Japanese 
 police, told them what they had done and that they were 
 ready to go to prison. Then consecrating their lives to the 
 freedom of Korea, they calmly awaited the arrival of the 
 government authorities. No resistance was offered when 
 the police arrived. They were bundled into automobiles and 
 taken away to prison. One of the signers, having arrived 
 too late to participate in the meeting and dinner, went di- 
 rectly to the prison and asked to be treated the same as 
 the others. 
 
 The next day, March 1st, at 2 o'clock in the afternoon, 
 the Independence Movement began simultaxieously in every 
 large city in Korea. At the appointed hour the people gath- 
 ered at a previously designated place to attend the meetings 
 preceding the demonstrations. What happened at these 
 meetings is best told by an American missionary who wit- 
 nessed the one at Pyeng Yang, the old capitol of Korea. 
 
 It is as follows : 
 
 "March 1 : There has been considered suppressed excite- 
 ment for some days among the Koreans, and we had various 
 rumors that something important was going to take place. 
 Dr. Moffett, Mr. Holkcrott and myself decided to attend the 
 local meeting and see for ourselves what was going on. 
 We found the courtyard full of people. The pupils of all 
 our church schools were there and also many from the gov- 
 ernment schools. 
 
 "In front of the entrance to the building was erected a 
 speakers' stand and around and back of this were seated 
 several of the (Korean) pastors and officers of the Presby- 
 terian churches of the city. Rev. Kim Sundu, pastor of 
 
THE INDEPENDENCE MOVEMENT. 29 
 
 the Fifth Church and moderator of the general assembly, 
 was speaking when I entered. Pastor Kang Kyu-Chan of 
 the Fourth Church had already spoken, reviewing the life 
 history of the late Emperor. After Kin Sundu had finished 
 speaking he requested the people to remain seated, as there 
 were other things to be done. 
 
 "After the benediction had been pronounced Kim Sundu 
 proceeded to read what was virtually a Declaration of Inde- 
 pendence of the Korean people. After he had finished an- 
 other man took the floor and explained what the people were 
 expected to do, saying that nothing of an unlawful nature 
 was to be permitted, but that the people were to follow the 
 instructions given and make no resistance to the authorities 
 or attack the Japanese people or officials. 
 
 "Kang Kyu-Chan then addressed the people relative to 
 independence. When he had finished some men came out 
 of the building bearing armloads of small Korean flags, 
 which were passed out to the people. A large Korean flag 
 was then fastened to the wall back of the speakers' stands 
 and then the crowd went wild, shouting 'Mansai' and waving 
 flags. It was then explained to them that they were to all 
 form in procession and parade the streets waving flags and 
 saying nothing but 'Mansai, Mansai.' " 
 
 After these preliminary meetings the people formed in 
 parades, headed by their local leaders, and, waving flags and 
 shouting, marched through the streets. In the new capitol, 
 Seoul, students of the colleges, high schools and primary 
 schools, numbering several thousand, and all clad in the 
 spotless white of the Korean costume, gathered at Pagoda 
 Park. From here, after their meeting, they marched through 
 the main streets to the public square, where they divided 
 into the groups of three thousand each, as prearranged, and 
 went to the foreign consulate buildings. The various consuls 
 appeared and greeted them. 
 
 From its incipiency, the demonstration, taken as a whole, 
 followed the instructions of the leaders to the letter. It was 
 "passive" in all its aspects. The people were unarmed and 
 
30 THE TRUTH ABOUT KOREA. 
 
 the parades were composed of old men and women, as well 
 as young men and students. They simply jammed through 
 the streets singing the Korean National Anthem, which is 
 set to the tune of "Auld Lang Syne," waving flags and 
 shouting. Foreigners who witnessed the demonstrations say 
 they were one of the most singular sights they have ever 
 seen. The great white-clad crowds, surging and pulsating 
 with the reawakaned freedom, surrounded on all sides by the 
 very Japanese who had inflicted upon them unnameable tor- 
 tures and depredations — ^and yet, when at last they had the 
 chance to wreak vengeance for their wrongs, refraining 
 from so doing because they felt it would bring reproach 
 upon the honor of their native land. 
 
 When we realize that for every 1000 Koreans there are 
 only 17 Japanese we can understand what would have hap- 
 pened if the demonstrations had not been passive. 
 
 The Japanese Police 
 
 At first the police did not know what to do with the 
 people. Many of the Korean policemen and supposed spies 
 took off their uniforms and joined the crowds. 
 
 In Seoul hundreds of gendarmes — armed with swords and 
 rifles — followed the demonstrators and tried to scatter them. 
 But as soon as they had been scattered in one place they 
 gathered elsewhere with more participants than ever. One 
 party of demonstrators marched to the Japanese quarter, 
 where the police charged them with fixed bayonets and ar- 
 rested fifteen students, including six girls. Those arrested 
 went unresisting to jail. Soon the jails were filled to 
 overflowing. 
 
 At nightfall the crowd disappeared, but an hour later two 
 hundred students, from the Shinsung Academy, assembled 
 before the school and gave three cheers for the independence 
 of Korea. Then they began to march the streets and some 
 of the people distributed copies of the Declaration of Inde- 
 pendence at the police court and county jail. Some ad- 
 dressed the crowd while others distributed literature. Imme- 
 
(upper) JAPANESE SOLDIERS GUARDING PAGODA PARK TO PREVENT FURTHER 
 
 DEMONSTRATIONS. 
 (lower) scene in SEOUL ON THE FIRST DAY OF THE PASSIVE DEMONSTRATION. 
 
THE INDEPENDENCE MOVEMENT. 31 
 
 diately the police called out the military, who,- without hesi- 
 tation, charged the demonstrators with fixed bayonets, ter- 
 ribly wounding many — women and old people being among 
 the victims. 
 
 Women and children were knocked down with the butts of 
 rifles. Innocent spectators were beaten and kicked by Japan- 
 ese civilians and firemen, as well as by policemen and gen- 
 darmes. Throughout the smaller cities, where there were no 
 foreigners, the conditions were much worse. In some in- 
 stances, it is reported, the gendarmes fired upon the mobs 
 until their ammunition was exhausted. 
 
 The Japanese Government promptly began a denial and 
 suppression of the facts, issuing to the outside world only 
 what it wished the outside world to know and scrupulously 
 avoiding any mention of slaughter and massacres. The 
 trouble was minimized in the official reports into a few 
 local disturbances, said to have been egged on by misled 
 leaders. 
 
 An attempt was made to force prominent Koreans to sign 
 a statement, to be forwarded to the Peace Conference in 
 Paris, stating that the Declaration of Independence and the 
 movement in general was promulgated by a low class of 
 people and did not- represent the sentiment of Korea. 
 
 Japanese officials in America issued statements denying the 
 atrocities. Some foreigners, who had received favoritism at 
 the hands of the military autocracy and were pro-Japanese, 
 bitterly denounced the movement. But beneath the veil of 
 censorship and denial the passive demonstration continued 
 and the Japanese police and gendarmes committed acts which 
 were as far against the laws of humanity and civiUzation as 
 the Turkish deeds in Armenia. 
 
 Atrocities and Massacres 
 
 At the town of Cheam-ni, forty-five miles from Seoul, 
 the Japanese soldiers arrived and ordered all the male 
 Christians to gather at the church. When they had as- 
 
32 THE TRUTH ABOUT KOREA. 
 
 sembled, the soldiers deliberately opened fire on them with 
 their rifles, massacring thirty-five. This was confirmed by 
 investigation of the British and American consular agents, 
 and is admitted by the Japanese authorities, including Gov- 
 ernor-General Hasegawa. 
 
 Soochung, another village near Cheam-ni, was burned and 
 the fleeing fugitives shot at and bayoneted by the Japanese 
 soldiers as they ran from their burning homes. Reports 
 have been received of the burning of nine other villages and 
 many Christian churches. The Rev. Stacy L. Roberts, an 
 American missionary stationed at Pyeng Yang, reports that 
 more than a hundred Koreans were shot or beaten to death 
 in Tyung-Ju. Throughout the whole peninsula similar 
 atrocities have been committed. 
 
 Little girls of only 10 years of age, women and school 
 girls, have been shamefully treated and are subjected to 
 physical punishment and torture for no other crime than 
 shouting enthusiasm for their own country and crying out 
 for independence. Small boys have been knocked down and 
 cruelly beaten. Already it is said that over three hundred 
 Korean children, under the age of 7 years, have been put to 
 death. The case of a baby, one year old, being shot 
 through the back, was witnessed by the Rev. Edward W. 
 Twing of Boston, Massachusetts, who is Oriental Secretary of 
 the International Reform Bureau. He also saw a crowd of 
 about twenty Korean schoolgirls who were quietly walking 
 along the road — not even shouting — suddenly pounced upon 
 by a body of Japanese soldiers, who savagely beat them 
 with their guns, knocked them down and then treated them 
 shamefully. 
 
 Old men have been seized by Japanese soldiers and made 
 sport of — being pounded, kicked and beaten until they could 
 not walk. Men who were dying have been dispatched with 
 a shot through the back. Others have been chased and cut 
 down with sabers. Deputized firemen, with long iron hooks, 
 have been seen chasing boys and girls, trying to catch them. 
 One case of an old man who was killed with these hooks, 
 
THE INDEPENDENCE MOVEMENT. 33 
 
 and his body thrust through and dragged off in triumph, 
 comes in a report from an American missionary in Pyeng 
 Yang. Americans have been arrested and thrown in jail. 
 An American Presbyterian missionary, Rev. Eli Mowry of 
 Mansfield, Ohio, has been sentenced to six months in prison 
 for sheltering five Koreans for two days. 
 
 Christians — both men and women — ^have been taken to 
 Japanese churches, stripped of their clothing and tied to 
 crosses and beaten twenty-nine times upon their naked 
 bodies, according to information in the hands of Dr. David 
 Lee of San Francisco. Christian churches have been looted 
 and Bibles destroyed. Little girls have been dragged from 
 their homes by their hair and tied to telegraph poles by the 
 same means and publicly flogged. Women have been vio- 
 lated and beaten with inhuman viciousness. It has been 
 Belgium over again, save that difference in religion, as well 
 as nationality, has been seized upon as an excuse for 
 bestiality. 
 
 In the first three months over fifty thousand Koreans have 
 been killed or wounded. The horror and brutality of some 
 of the deeds committed are beyond belief. In the name of 
 crushing the Independence Movement, the military author- 
 ities have transgressed the laws of all civilization and proved 
 beyond the shadow of a doubt that Japanese Military Autoc- 
 racy is no longer fit to be respected by any civilized people. 
 That the Japanese people should allow such a stain upon their 
 nation is incredible. 
 
THE NEW REPUBLIC 
 
 Before the outbreak of the Independence Movement in 
 Korea, proper, the Korean students in Tokio, Japan, number- 
 ing about eight hundred, drew up a petition to present to the 
 Japanese Emperor and Diet, as well as to the foreign Am- 
 bassadors and Ministers in Japan, asking for the freedom 
 and independence of Korea. When they attempted to hand 
 in the petition they came into conflict with the Japanese 
 police and an open fight ensued. Over sixty students were 
 arrested and some given prison terms. 
 
 In the United States demonstrations were held by the 
 Koreans in New York, Chicago, Denver, Detroit, Honolulu, 
 Akron, Ohio; Pueblo, Colorado; Yakima, Washington; Su- 
 perior, Wyoming, and in San Francisco, Sacramento, Stock- 
 ton, Riverside and Los Angeles, California. 
 
 In Philadelphia— the Cradle of American Liberty — a con- 
 gress of Koreans and sympathetic Americans convened. 
 Just before it broke up, the delegates adjourned to the 
 Declaration Room in Independence Hall. Here, after read- 
 ing the Korean Proclamation of Independence, they ap- 
 proached the old, cracked Liberty Bell. Amid profound 
 silence they placed their hands upon it, and, closing their 
 eyes, prayed for the freedom of Korea and the success of 
 the new movement. Those who saw them say it was the 
 most impressive ceremony the City of Philadelphia has ever 
 witnessed. 
 
 Meanwhile, other demonstrations were held in Mexico, 
 Manila, Shanghai, Pekin, Siberia and Manchuria. In many 
 of these places proclamations were issued, declaring the inde- 
 pendence of Korea, and given into the hands of the foreign 
 embassies. A National Council was called at Nikolskoe, on 
 the Ussuri River in Siberia, and a provisional government 
 established, with a temporary capitol in Manchuria. 
 
 A cabinet of eight members was formed and a committee 
 consisting of eighteen members was put in charge of the 
 
THE NEW REPUBLIC. 35 
 
 new government. The office of Provisional President was 
 left vacant for the time being, the committee as a whole 
 serving in the executive capacity. Dr. Syngman Rhee, a 
 graduate of Harvard and PhD. of Princeton — receiving his 
 degree while Woodrow Wilson was President of the col- 
 lege — ^was named Secretary of State. The portfolio of 
 Secretary of War was given to General Lee Dong Whui, 
 who immediately began the organization of an army. C. H. 
 Ahn, prominent Christian educator and organizer of the 
 Korean National Association in America, was appointed 
 Secretarj' of the Interior; Yun Hyuh Jin as Secretary of the 
 Treasury; Ham Nyung Wee as Secretary of Justice and 
 Young Man Park, a graduate of the University of Nebraska, 
 as Minister of Foreign Affairs. 
 
 Three delegates were appointed to put the plea of the 
 Korean people before the League of Nations. Two of them. 
 Dr. Henry Chung and Dr. Syngman Rhee, were in the 
 United States, having fled from Korea just before its an- 
 nexation by the Japanese. They held old Korean passports, 
 which the State Department at Washington could not recog- 
 nize as valid without straining diplomatic relationship be- 
 tween the United States and Japan. Naturally the Japan- 
 ese Government refused to issue new ones. Therefore, the 
 third delegate, John Kiusic Kimm, was the only one to 
 reach Paris. He presented the claims before the Peace Con- 
 ference, where they are now under consideration. 
 
 Following the first demonstrations, the Japanese War De- 
 partment dispatched two additional divisions of troops to 
 Korea and began preparations for extended military and 
 diplomatic maneuvers. In order to uphold her position at 
 the Peace Conference, Japan issued a statement which 
 "promised" complete reforms in the administration of Korea 
 just as soon as the Independence Movement was crushed. 
 She spoke of her "Monroe Doctrine in the Orient" and com- 
 pared her administration of Korea to the American admin- 
 istration of the Philippines and Cuba. In reality, the cases 
 are not similar. In the Philippines franchise is enjoyed, a 
 
36 THE TRUTH ABOUT KOREA. 
 
 Philippine Senate and House of Representatives is elected 
 by the people, with the right to overrule the Governor- 
 General's veto. In Korea franchise is not enjoyed by the 
 people. They have no legislative representation and the 
 Governor-General is supreme, invested with the power of 
 control over all Korea, commander of the army and navy 
 and virtually a Czar in his own domains. 
 
 As the new republic took form charges were made that 
 the Korean people were not sufficiently competent to govern 
 themselves and that the Independence Movement was pro- 
 mulgated by the spread of Bolshevism from Russia. In 
 reality, the new government is a very business-like proposi- 
 tion, modeled after the government of the United States as 
 far as is possible, consistent with the education of the 
 masses. In absolutely no respect does it aim at a redis- 
 tribution of wealth, government ownership of industries, 
 land nationalization, communism or other Utopian, anarch- 
 istic or Bolshevistic dreams. 
 
 The leaders are able, conservative college graduates, and 
 realize the limits of their people. Their aim is to establish 
 a sound republic with each citizen enjoying freedom of 
 speech, religion and personal liberty, and to have their little 
 nation no longer the pawn of Asia. 
 
 All they ask is to be free forever from the Prussian 
 trickery, brutality and oppression of Japanese Imperalistic, 
 Autocratic Militarism. 
 
STATEMENTS 
 AND PRESS REPORTS 
 
FRAGMENTS SELECTED FROM 
 
 NEWS ITEMS, PERSONAL LETTERS, 
 
 ARTICLES AND PRESS REPORTS 
 
 JAPAN'S POLICY IN KOREA 
 
 "Since Japan has annexed Korea the spirit of her rule, 
 at any rate since the death of Prince Ito, has not been one 
 to develop and benefit the Korean people, but to make them 
 a subject people and, so far as possible, to stamp out any 
 Korean individuality. In the Philippine Islands, in Egypt, 
 in India, in spite of complaints that are often made, natives 
 still concede that they are given a large part in the govern- 
 ment of the country. Not so in Korea. The Koreans are 
 treated as an inferior race (by that people that is so in- 
 sistent upon racial equality), are forbidden to teach their 
 own language, are not allowed to go abroad for study, but 
 can be trained only in Korea or in Japan. Now that the 
 revolt of the oppressed people has come, it is known on 
 unimpeachable testimony that the revolutionists, though 
 offering no resistance, are treated with barbarity so severe 
 and uncalled-for that it has brought forth the protests of 
 foreign residents, English and American business men and 
 officials, as well as missionaries." 
 
 JEREMIAH W. JENKS, PhD., LL. D. 
 (Research Professor of Government and Public Administra- 
 tion, New York University ; Chairman, Alexander Ham- 
 ilton Institute, and Director The Par Eastern Bureau.) 
 
 GERMAN MILITARY SYSTEM INTRODUCED 
 
 "Thirty missionaries gathered in Seoul, March 16, that I 
 might hear the situation discust. They agreed in desig- 
 nating the Japanese military and police and gendarme sys- 
 tem in the Korean peninsula the German machine ! Foreign- 
 ers — consuls, business men, missionaries— are unanimous in 
 
40 THE TRUTH ABOUT KOREA. 
 
 their condemnation of the system which has ruled Korea 
 since 1910. This system was learned from the Germans. 
 While it may have been crushed in Belgium and Europe, it 
 still exists in Korea and Asia. 
 
 "The tortures which the Koreans suffer at the hands of 
 the police and gendarmes are identical with those employed 
 in the famous conspiracy trials. I read affidavits, now on 
 their way to the United States and British Governments, 
 which made one's blood boil, so frightful were the means 
 used in trying to extort confessions from prisoners. And 
 many of these had no part in the demonstrations, but were 
 simply onlookers. 
 
 "In Tokio, on March 21, by arrangement of Galen M. 
 Fisher, National Secretary of the Y. M. C. A. for Japan, I 
 met a few Japanese and foreigners and discust the Korean 
 situation. One of the Japanese (a member of the Parlia- 
 ment, who will be in America in May), told me that the 
 more the world knows about Japanese misrule in Korea, the 
 better it will be for Japan, for thus the sooner will the 
 nation get rid of the militarism which now dominates the 
 empire." 
 
 A. E. ARMSTRONG, of Toronto, Canada, 
 (Assistant Secretary of the Board of Foreign Missions of 
 the Presbyterian Church of Canada.) 
 
 TO REDUCE KOREANS TO SERFDOM 
 
 "It was my opinion when I was in Korea and is n;^ opin- 
 ion still, that it is Japan's intention that all t];»i Koreans 
 shall be practically serfs, ptwifL^ ' ily the^/ifi-ades of farm- 
 ers and artisans, leaving to the"T%panes? immigrants the 
 administration of government, the meaaiaitile and banking 
 trades, and other more profitable cafflngs. In other words, 
 Korea is being exploited altogether, for the benefit of the 
 Japanese, with little thought of any obligation to the natives. 
 
 "The attitude of the Japanese Government toward Ameri- 
 can missions, as shown by the unsuccessful attempt to dis- 
 
STATEMENTS AND PRESS REPORTS. 41 
 
 credit them in the course of the conspiracy in 1912 and the 
 limitations put upon the mission schools since, is caused by 
 a desire to eliminate anything which may interfere with the 
 complete Japanization of Korea and the confining of the 
 natives to the status of contented farmers and artisans." 
 PROFESSOR T. A. CRANE 
 
 (Pittsburg University.) 
 
 STATEMENT OF THE JAPANESE CONSTITU- 
 TIONAL PARTY 
 
 Representative Konosuke Moriya, who was dispatched by 
 the Constitutional or opposition party, to Korea to investi- 
 gate the disturbances, has reported the insurrection to be 
 due to the following causes : 
 
 Discriminatory treatment given to the Korean subjects, 
 who are refused equal treatment with Japanese in matters 
 relating to appointments in government offices and stipends 
 allowed. 
 
 Complicated and impracticable administrative measures, 
 particularly strict measures for the tax collection, which are 
 against the old customs and manners of Korea. 
 
 Extreme oppression on public speeches. Koreans have no 
 organs to give utterance to their complaints which do not 
 reach the ears of the Governor-General. 
 
 Forcible adoption of the assimiliation system. It is a great 
 error and failure of colonial policy to attempt to enforce 
 upon the Koreans, with a 2,000-year history, the same spirit- 
 ual and mental training as on the Japanese people. 
 
 Spread of the principle of the self-determination of na- 
 tions, which he describes as the rising tide of the thoughts 
 of the world's nations and which has deeply implanted itself 
 in the minds of the Korean people. 
 
 (Associated Press Correspondence from Tokio, May 2nd, 
 1919.) 
 
42 THE TRUTH ABOUT KOREA. 
 
 A SAMPLE OF JAPANESE PROPAGANDA 
 
 Despite all rumors to the contrary, there is no tendency 
 in the Japanese official quarters to suggest that American 
 missionaries have been instigating the uprisings in Korea. 
 That a few of them have been subjected to search and 
 arrest is, while unfortunate, not to be taken too seriously. 
 It needs no effort of the imagination to assume that some 
 malcontent Koreans, professing to be Christians, should seek 
 to abuse the sanctum of their unsuspecting teachers for their 
 misguided endeavors. It is not to be imagined that clergy- 
 men who have lived long in Korea and who, with all just 
 and right-thinking men, should know the conditions of the 
 Koreans and recognize the good the Japanese regime is 
 doing them, should ill-advisedly lend themselves to a fatal 
 movement, which must end in failure and unnecessary 
 bloodshed. 
 
 Reports current in this country of alleged cruelties on 
 the part of the Japanese authorities in dealing with the 
 situation are utterly unfounded. 
 
 (Extract from a press statement printed in Washington, 
 D. C, April 17, 1919, and marked "Exclusive Dispatch.") 
 
 AN ANSWER TO THE ABOVE, PRINTED TWO 
 WEEKS EARLIER 
 
 "In a remarkable manner the Korean Independence Move- 
 ment has manifested skill, courage and organization that has 
 been a great surprise to many. It has shown, more than 
 ever before, how unreasonable, without justice, cruel and 
 brutal the military rule of Japan is in this land. I could 
 hardly believe these things if I had not seen them with my 
 own eyes. 
 
 "The police and soldiers have arrested old men and little 
 children and cruelly beaten them. . . . These things 
 have been witnessed, not by one or two, but by scores of 
 missionaries and others in many parts of Korea during 
 March. If the world could only know these things, they 
 
STATEMENTS AND PRESS REPORTS. 43 
 
 would certainly heed this cry of distress from an oppressed 
 people. But the Japanese are doing all they can to keep the 
 world from knowing the truth. A report has just come that 
 in one city, from which letters have been sent, they are mak- 
 ing it very hard for the missionaries, even hinting at de- 
 portation, unless they stop telling the truth. 
 
 "The following are some of the things that I have actu- 
 ally seen with my own eyes: 
 
 "Small school boys knocked down and cruelly beaten by 
 Japanese soldiers. This was not a question of arresting 
 them, but savage, unjustifiable barbarism. 
 
 "Soldiers stop and deliberately fire into a crowd com- 
 posed only of girls and women, who were simply shouting 
 'Mansai.' 
 
 "A small boy of 1 year shot through the back. 
 
 "An unresisting old man of 65 years pounded, kicked 
 and beaten by several Japanese soldiers until he could not 
 walk. 
 
 "A crowd of about twenty school girls, who were quietly 
 walking along the public road, not even shouting, chased 
 by soldiers, beaten with guns, knocked down and so 
 shamefully treated that it made one's blood boil. 
 
 "Japanese firemen chasing boys and girls with long iron 
 hooks, trying to catch them with them. 
 
 "A Korean in a hospital, paralyzed, with his head 
 crushed in with one of these hooks. 
 
 "A man dying, shot through the back. 
 
 "One hundred men with torn and bloody clothes, tied 
 together with ropes, taken to jail. 
 
 "An American missionary roughly arrested while stand- 
 ing in his own yard and looking on, but doing nothing else. 
 
 "Women knocked down with guns and kicked into the 
 ditch. 
 
 "These and many other things I have seen with my own 
 
 eyes; other foreigners have seen the same and worse. One 
 
 can little imagine the reign of terror in all parts of this land. 
 
 . And the punishments and tortures at the police sta- 
 
44 THE TRUTH ABOUT KOREA. 
 
 tions and jails make a still more awful story. I have seen 
 men who were beaten on wooden crosses by the Japanese.'' 
 
 EDWARD W. THWING, of Boston, Mass. 
 (Oriental Secretary of the International' Reform Bureau.) 
 
 THE MASSACRE AT CHEAM-NI 
 
 Details of the massacre at Cheam-ni were obtained by the 
 Associated Press correspondent who visited that place in 
 company with Raymond S. Curtice, the American Vice-Con- 
 sul at Seoul, and Mr. Underwood, an American missionary. 
 Subsequently, the correspondent again visited the place with 
 Mr. Royds, the British Consul, and several missionaries, in- 
 cluding the Rev. Herron Smith, who is in charge of the 
 work of the Methodist church in Korea. Describing his 
 visit to Cheam-ni, the Seoul correspondent writes that when 
 they asked residents of nearby villages why that hamlet had 
 been burned, they were told that it was because there was a 
 Christian church and many native Christians in the village. 
 
 "When we got to the place, which had been a village of 
 about forty houses, we found only four or five standing, all 
 the rest were smoking ruins," he continued. "We found a 
 body, frightfully burned and twisted, lying in a compound, 
 and another, either of a young man or woman, just outside 
 the church compound. Several groups of people were 
 huddled under little straw shelters on the hillside with a 
 few of their pitiful belongings about them. They were 
 mostly women, some old, others young mothers with babies, 
 but all sunk in the dull apathy of abject misery and despair. 
 Mr. Underwood, an American missionary, who talked to 
 them in their own language, brought the story of what hap- 
 pened. 
 
 "The day before we arrived soldiers came to the village 
 and ordered all the male Christians to gather at the church. 
 When about thirty were in the church the soldiers opened 
 fire on them with rifles and then entered the church and 
 finished them off with swords and bayonets. After this they 
 
STATEMENTS AND PRESS REPORTS. 4S 
 
 set fire to the church and to houses which otherwise would 
 not have been burned." 
 
 One Korean told the correspondent he was alive because 
 he was not a Christian and was not in the church. Later 
 when the correspondent made a second trip to Cheam-ni 
 with Mr. Royds, the British Consul, and a party of seven, 
 including several missionaries, he said: "We photographed 
 freely without interference, but when we started to talk to 
 the natives a policeman would saunter up and the Korean 
 would 'freeze up.' They were in fear of what might hap- 
 pen later if they were seen talking to us.'' 
 
 The party, however, divided up and obtained many inter- 
 views concerning the story, as the correspondent learned it 
 on his first visit. They were told that two of those killed 
 in or near the church were women who went to that build- 
 ing to learn what was happening to their husbands. 
 
 (Associated Press Dispatch from Tokio May 1st, 1919.) 
 
 THE AFFAIR AT DUNGCHOO 
 
 Reports from Korea state that during a demonstration in 
 Dungchoo on the 29th of March some persons were 
 killed and over two hundred wounded. Forty persons were 
 hooked and dragged by Japanese soldiers and firemen and 
 half-buried, upright, in front of the railway station, and 
 relatives who came to identify the killed and wounded were 
 beaten so that nobody dared to fetch away the bodies. 
 
 A local doctor, named Shen, to whom the wounded went 
 for treatment, was whipped and beaten with rifle butts and 
 finally arrested. Osan Academy was destroyed and the 
 church of Heaven Worshipers burned down by the Jap- 
 anese. 
 
 (Renter's Dispatch from Pekin, April 4th, 1919.) 
 
 A JAPANESE DIATRIBE AGAINST AMERICAN 
 MISSIONARIES 
 
 "They (the American missionaries) are propagating Chris- 
 tianity in Korea, but pay no attention to the interests of 
 
46 THE TRUTH ABOUT KOREA. 
 
 Japan, the sovereign of Korea. While engaged in Christian 
 propaganda work, the American Missionaries run schools, 
 and diffuse foreign political and social ideas among the half- 
 civilized people. The principle of liberty is recklessly advo- 
 cated among them, this having an evil influence upon their 
 undeveloped minds, which are consequently tainted with 
 excessively radical ideas. 
 
 "The American missionaries include in their number some 
 some who have no sound judgment and discretion. Such 
 people confuse the ideas of the Koreans, who are in a 
 similar mental condition as those Japanese students who are 
 now making an outcry for democracy, without understand- 
 ing what this stands for. As a result, some Korean con- 
 verts to Christianity are so senseless as to have recourse to 
 radical action." 
 
 :); H: :)c :): :): 
 
 "In order to wreak their discontent and bitter feelings, 
 these Koreans, under the mask of Christianity, I think, have 
 created the present disturbances. It may safely be de- 
 clared that missionaries are responsible for the fact that the 
 advanced ideas of foreign countries have been diffused with- 
 out modification among the Koreans, whose state of civiliza- 
 tion is not yet very high, and for the fact that among those 
 taking part in the disturbances were girl students." 
 (Quotation from Mr. Midoru Komatsu, late Director of 
 Foreign Affairs in the Government-General of Korea, 
 Published in The Japan Advertiser of March 9th, 1919.) 
 
OFFICIAL DOCUMENTS 
 
 AND 
 
 PROCLAMATIONS 
 
 OF THE 
 
 PROVISIONAL GOVERNMENT 
 
 FOR THE 
 ••■■•'. 
 
 NEW •^kfeuBLfe up' kOREA 
 
DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE 
 
 "We herewith proclaim the independence of Korea and 
 the liberty of the Korean people. We tell it to the world in 
 witness of the equality of all nations and we pass it on to 
 our posterity as their inherent right. 
 
 "We rriake this proclamation, having back of us 5,000 years 
 of history, and 20,000,000 of a united loyal people. We take 
 this step to insure to our children for all time to come, per- 
 sonal liberty in accord with the awakening consciousness of 
 this new era. This is the clear leading of God, the moving 
 principle of the present age, the whole human race's just 
 claim. It is something that cannot be stamped out, or stifled, 
 or gagged, or suppressed by any means. 
 
 "Victims of an older age, when brute force and the spirit 
 of plunder ruled, we have come after these long thousands 
 of years to experience the agony of ten years of foreign 
 oppression, with every loss to the right to live, every restric- 
 tion of the freedom of thought, every damage done to the 
 dignity of life, every opportunity lost for a share in the in- 
 telligent advance of the age in which we live. 
 
 "Assuredly, if the defects of the past are to be rectified, 
 if the agony of the present is to be unloosed, if the future 
 oppression is to be avoided, if thought is to be set free, if 
 right of action is to be given a place, if we are to attain to 
 any way of progress, if we are to deliver our children from 
 the painful, shameful heritage, if we are to leave blessing 
 and happiness intact for those who succeed us, the first of all 
 necessary things is the clear-cut independence of our people. 
 What cannot our twenty millions do, every man with sword 
 in heart, in this day when human nature and conscience are 
 making a stand for truth and right? What barrier can we 
 not break, what purpose can we not accomplish? 
 
 "We have no desire to accuse Japan of breaking many 
 solemn treaties since 1636, nor to single out specially the 
 teachers in the schools or government officials who treat the 
 
so THE TRUTH ABOUT KOREA. 
 
 heritage of our ancestors as a colony of their own, and our 
 people and their civilization as a nation of savages, finding 
 delight only in beating us down and bringing us under their 
 heel. 
 
 "We have no wish to find special fault with Japan's lack 
 of fairness or her contempt of our civilization and the prin- 
 ciples on which her state rests; we, who have greater cause 
 to reprimand ourselves, need not spend precious time in find- 
 ing fault with others; neither need we, who require so 
 urgently to build for the future, spend useless hours over 
 what is past and gone. Our urgent need today is the settling 
 up of this house of ours and not a discussion of who has 
 broken it down, or what has caused its ruin. Our work is 
 to clear the future of defects in accord with the earnest 
 dictates of conscience. Let us not be filled with bitterness or 
 resentment over past agonies or past occasions for anger. 
 
 "Our part is to influence the Japanese Government, domi- 
 nated as it is by the old idea of brute force which thinks to 
 run counter to reason and universal law, so that it will 
 change, act honestly and in accord with the principles of 
 right and truth. 
 
 "The result of annexation, brought about without any con- 
 ference with the Korean people, is that the Japanese, indif- 
 ferent to us, use every kind of partiality for their own, and 
 by a false set of figures show a profit and loss account be- 
 tween us two peoples most untrue, digging a trench of ever- 
 lasting resentment deeper and deeper the farther they go. 
 
 "Ought not the way of enlightened courage to be to correct 
 the evils of the past by ways that are sincere, and by true 
 sympathy and friendly feeling make a new world in which 
 the two peoples will be equally blessed? 
 
 "To bind by force twenty millions of resentful Koreans 
 will mean not only loss of peace forever for this part of the 
 Far East, but also will increase the every-growing suspicion 
 of four hundred millions of Chinese — upon whom depends 
 the danger or safety of the Far East — besides strengthening 
 the hatred of Japan. From this all the rest of the East will 
 
DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE. 51 
 
 suffer. Today Korean independence will mean not only daily 
 life and happiness for us, but also it would mean Japan's 
 departure from an evil way and exaltation to the place of 
 true protector of the East, so that China, too, even in her 
 dreams, would put all fear of Japan aside. This thought 
 comes from no minor resentment, but from a large hope for 
 the future welfare and blessing of mankind. 
 
 "A new era wakes before our eyes, the old world of force 
 is gone, and the new world of righteousness and truth is 
 here. Out of the experience and travail of the old world 
 arises this light on life's affairs. The insects stifled by the 
 foe and snow of winter awake at this same time with the 
 breezes of spring and the soft light of the sun upon them. 
 
 "It is the day of the restoration of all things on the full 
 tide of which we set forth, without delay or fear. We desire 
 a full measure of satisfaction in the way of liberty and the 
 pursuit of happiness, and an opportunity to develop what is 
 in us for the glory of our people. 
 
 "We awake now from the old world with its darkened 
 conditions in full determination and one heart and one mind, 
 with right on our side, along with the forces of nature, to a 
 new life. May all the ancestors to the thousands and ten 
 thousand generations aid us from within and all the force of 
 the world aid us from without, and let the day we take hold 
 be the day of our attainment. In this hope we go forward. 
 
 THREE ITEMS OF AGREEMENT 
 
 "1. This work of ours is in behalf of truth, religion and 
 life, undertaken at the request of our people, in order to 
 make known their desire for liberty. Let no violence be 
 done to anyone. 
 
 "2. Let those who follow us, every man, all the time, 
 every hour, show forth with gladness this same mind. 
 
 "3. Let all things be done decently and in order, so that 
 our behaviour to the very end may be honorable and up- 
 right." 
 
52 THE TRUTH ABOUT KOREA. 
 
 The 4252nd Year of the Kingdom of Korea, 3d Month 
 
 Representatives of the People. 
 The signatures attached to the document are: 
 Son Byung Hi, Kil Sun Chu, Yi Pil Chu, Paik Long Sung, 
 Kim Won Kyu, Kim Pyung Cho, Kim Chang Choon, Kwon 
 Dong Chin, Kwon Byung Duk, Na Long Whan, Na In Hup, 
 Yang Chun Paik, Yang Han Mook, Lew Yer Dai, Yi Kop 
 Sung, Yi Mung Yong, Yi Seung Hoon, Yi Chong Hoon, 
 Yi Chong II, Lim Yei Whan, Pak Choon Seung, Pak Hi Do, 
 Pak Tong Wan, Sin Hong Sik, Sin Suk Ku, Oh Sei Chang, 
 Oh Wha Young, Chung Choon Su, Choi Sung Mo, Choi In, 
 Han Yong Woon, Hong Byung Ki, Hong Ki Cho. 
 
AIMS AND ASPIRATIONS OF THE NEW 
 KOREAN REPUBLIC 
 
 (1) We believe in government which derives its just 
 power from the governed. Therefore, the government must 
 be conducted for the interest of the people it governs. 
 
 (2) We propose to have a government modeled after that 
 of America, as far as possible, consistent with the education 
 of the masses. For the next decade it may be necessary to 
 have more centralized power in the government; but as edu- 
 cation of the people improves, and as they have more experi- 
 ence in the art of self-governing, they will be allowed to 
 participate more universally in the governmental affairs. 
 
 (3) However, we propose to give universal franchise to 
 elect local and provincial legislators, and the provincial legis- 
 lators elect the representatives to the National Legislature. 
 The National Legislators will have co-ordinate power with 
 the Executive branch of the Government, and they have sole 
 power to make laws of the nation, and are solely responsible 
 to the people whom they represent. 
 
 (4) The Executive branch consists of President, Vice- 
 President and Cabinet OfiScers, who carry out all the laws 
 made by the National Legislature. The President shall be 
 elected by the members of the National Legislature; and the 
 President has the power to appoint the Cabinet Ministers, 
 Governors of Provinces and other such important executive 
 officials of the Government, including envoys to foreign coun- 
 tries. He has the power to make treaties with foreign 
 powers, subject to the approval of the upper house of the 
 National Legislature. The President and his Cabinet are 
 responsible to the National Legislature. 
 
 (5) We believe in freedom of religion. Any religion or 
 doctrine shall be freely taught and preached within the coun- 
 try, provided such teaching does not conflict with the laws 
 or the interest of the nation. 
 
 (6) We believe in free commerce with all nations of the 
 world, affording the citizens and subjects of all treaty powers 
 
S4 THE TRUTH ABOUT KOREA. 
 
 equal opportunity and protection for promoting commerce 
 and industry between them and the Korean people. 
 
 (7) We believe in education of the people, which is more 
 important than any other governmental activity. 
 
 (8) We believe in modern sanitary improvements under 
 scientific supervision, as the health of the people is one of 
 the primary considerations of those who govern. 
 
 (9) We believe in free speech and free press. In fact, 
 we are in thorough accord with the principle of democracy, 
 equal opportunity, sound economic policies, free intercourse 
 with the nations of the world, making conditions of life of 
 the entire people most favorable for unlimited development. 
 
 (10) We believe in liberty of action in all matters, pro- 
 vided such actions or utterances do not interfere with the 
 rights of other people or conflict with the laws and interests 
 of the nation. 
 
 Let us all pledge our solemn word to carry out these 
 cardinal points to the best of our ability, as long as there is 
 life remaining within us. 
 
PROVISIONAL CONSTITUTION 
 
 By the will of God, the people of Korea, both within and 
 without the country, have united in a peaceful declaration of 
 their independence, and for over one month have carried on 
 their demonstrations in over 300 districts, and because of 
 their faith in the movement they have by their representa- 
 tives chosen a Provisional Government to carry on to com- 
 pletion this independence and so to preserve blessings for our 
 children and grandchildren. 
 
 The Provisional Government, in its Council of State, has 
 decided on a Provisional Constitution, which it now pro- 
 claims. 
 
 1. The Korean Republic shall follow republican prin- 
 ciples. 
 
 2. All powers of State shall rest with the Provisional 
 Council of State of the Provisional Government. 
 
 3. There shall be no class distinction among the citizens 
 of the Korean Republic, but men and women, noble and com- 
 mon, rich and poor, shall have equality. 
 
 4. The citizens of the Korean Republic shall have re- 
 ligious liberty, freedom of speech, freedom of writing and 
 publication, the right to hold public meetings and form social 
 organizations and the full right to choose their dwellings or 
 change their abode. 
 
 5. The citizens of the Korean Republic shall have the 
 right to vote for all public officials or to be elected to public 
 office. 
 
 6. Citizens will be subject to compulsory education and 
 military service and payment of taxes. 
 
 7. Since by the will of God the Korean Republic has 
 arisen in the world and has come forward as a tribute to 
 the world peace and civilization, for this reason we wish to 
 become a member of the League of Nations. 
 
 8. The Korean Republic will extend benevolent treatment 
 to the former Imperial Family. 
 
56 THE TRUTH ABOUT KOREA. 
 
 9. The death penalty, corporal punishment and public 
 prostitution will be abolished. 
 
 10. Within one year of the recovery of our land the 
 National Congress will be convened. 
 
 Signed by: 
 
 The Provisional Secretary of State, 
 And the Ministers of Foreign Affairs, 
 Home Affairs, 
 Justice. 
 Finance, 
 War, 
 Communications. 
 
 In the 1st Year of the Korean Republic, 4th Month. 
 The following are six principles of government: 
 
 1. We proclaim the equality of the people and the State. 
 
 2. The lives and property of foreigners shall be re- 
 spected. 
 
 3. All political offenders shall be specially pardoned. 
 
 4. We will observe all treaties that shall be made with 
 foreign powers. 
 
 5. We swear to stand by the independence of Korea. 
 
 6. Those who disregard the orders of the Provisional 
 Government will be regarded as enemies of the State. 
 
OFFICIAL PROCLAMATION 
 
 Korea proclaims to the nations of the world that the 
 people of this land, with a history of 4,000 years, have now, 
 in this age of world progress, asserted the independence and 
 liberty of their nation. 
 
 Although the Japanese troops have overrun our country, 
 as the Germans did Belgium, yet we will not recognize their 
 control, and as a people, in this manner, we repudiate their 
 government and send out these notifications. 
 
 We, the liberty-loving people of Korea, having declared 
 our independence and having chosen our representatives for 
 a Provisional Government, through them make this an- 
 nouncement. 
 
 We extend our most cordial sentiments to the friendly 
 nations that have already had treaty relations with our land 
 and also to the new states which have been recently formed 
 upon principles of humanity and justice. 
 
 Provisional Government for the 
 New Korean Republic. 
 
THE PEACE CONFERENCE 
 
 THE CLAIM OF THE KOREAN PEOPLE 
 AND NATION 
 
 FOR LIBERATION FROM JAPAN AND FOR THE 
 
 RECONSTITUTION OF KOREA AS AN 
 
 INDEPENDENT STATE TO BE EFFECTED BY 
 
 AND THROUGH THE PEACE CONFERENCE 
 
 DECLARING AS NULL AND VOID 
 
 OR OTHERWISE ABROGATING THE TREATY 
 
 CONCLUDED AT SEOUL ON AUGUST 22, 1910, 
 
 WHEREBY JAPAN PURPORTED 
 
 TO ANNEX THE EMPIRE OF KOREA 
 
 Petition 
 
 .^ARIS: APRIL, IQlSi; 
 
60 THE TRUTH ABOUT KOREA. 
 
 KOREAN DELEGATION 
 
 TO THE PEACE CONFERENCE 
 IN SESSION AT PARIS: 
 
 THE PETITION of the KOREAN 
 PEOPLE AND NATION for libe- 
 ration from Japan and for the recon- 
 stitution of Korea as an independ- 
 ent state 
 
 RESPECTFULLY SHEWETH: 
 
 The Korean People have been a nation for more than 
 4,200 years, with a settled life and culture and with their 
 country forming one of the historic states of Asia. During 
 most of these Forty-two Centuries, Korea enjoyed national 
 independence. 
 
 Korean Independence B-ec6gfti±ed., 
 
 • * t * 
 
 2. — The continued "existertcc of ■KjoBea 'as a separate and 
 
 sovereign state was'.r^qognized by'JSpan^'Jhe United States, 
 Great Britain "and.qther foreign Power^'jnr.tlieir respective 
 treaties of peager^d commerce concludexi .tvith the Korean 
 Government* *.•".,•' •*. ..' * 
 
 In the Treaty With" ^116 Uuitf 8; StJtSs, Signed at Seoul on 
 May 22, 18S2, it was* exi>rpssry.agi'efji;thjct "if o^ier Powers 
 deal unjustly or .oppressively with either . Qovernment the 
 other will cjfert-t.heir good offices, on being, jp^ormed of the 
 case, to bring' .a5QbtC«an amicable arrangement, thus showing 
 their friendly feelih^s'.^-; . .-*.•'• 
 
 In the Treaty 'of- Sh^onasfla,* 's%fwd\o^ April 17, 1895, 
 Japan insisted on CWt^'s defiijite-TeccJgnition of the "full 
 
THE PEACE CONFERENCE. 61 
 
 and complete independence and autonomy of Korea." And 
 in the first Anglo- Japanese agreement of alliance, concluded 
 on January 30, 1902, Japan and Great Britain affirmed and 
 substantially guaranteed the independence of Korea. Lastly, 
 in the Treaty of Defensive and Offensive Alliance made 
 between the Japanese Government and the Korean Govern- 
 ment in 1904, Japan specifically guaranteed the independence 
 and integrity of Korea. 
 
 Korean Independence as an International Doctrine. 
 
 3. — ^These treaties not only affirmed and confirmed the 
 separate existence of Korea as a sovereign state, but they 
 established, it is submitted, Korean independence on the 
 basis of an international authority and .sanction which no 
 single Power could violate without subjecting its action to 
 eventual revision by other Powers. 
 
 Japan's Violation of Korean Independence. 
 
 4. — Such a violation of Korean independence was com- 
 mitted by Japan when the Japanese Government — ^by acts of 
 fraud and force — compelled the conclusion of the Treaty of 
 August 22, 1910, whereby the then Emperor of Korea pur- 
 ported to cede "completely and permanently to His Majesty 
 the Emperor of Japan all rights of sovereignty over the 
 whole of Korea," with her then population of more than 
 Fifteen Million Koreans. 
 
 The Korean Protest. 
 
 S. — Against this extinction of Korean sovereignty and the 
 incorporation of their country as a province of Japan, the 
 Korean people and nation have strenuously protested and 
 dn still protest. 
 
 6. — ^This protest is renewed and is strengthened daily, 
 owing to the methods applied by Japan in the administra- 
 tion of Korea. In ruthlessness and efficiency these methods 
 
62 THE TRUTH ABOUT KOREA. 
 
 exceed those practised by Prussia in her eastern provinces, 
 in Schleswig-Holstein, in Alsace-Lorraine*. 
 
 Not only in name but in reality, Japan is determined to 
 turn Korea into a Japanese province. And she is trying to 
 do this by a pitiless attempt to extirpate the great roots of 
 patriotism — love of the soil, language of the people and the 
 history of the nation — and also to "control" the two means 
 which might render futile this organized attempt to de- 
 stroy Korean patriotism, i. e., education and wealth. 
 
 Japanese "Control" of Korean Education and Wealth. 
 
 7. — Any and every department of modern education cal- 
 culated, if pursued beyond a certain point, to encourage what 
 Count Terauchi — the Japanese proconsul who "annexed" 
 Korea— calls "dangerous thoughts" is either forbidden or 
 taught in an emasculated sense in the schools of Korea un- 
 der Government control. And the Korean student is abso- 
 lutely prohibited from going to Europe or the United States 
 to seek a modern education, even at his or her expense. 
 
 8. — Nearly every wealthy Korean is obliged to have a Jap- 
 anese overseer at his house, controlling his properties and 
 
 *"A rigid spy system is inaugurated (in. Korea). Everyone must be 
 registered and is given a number, which is known to the police. 
 Every time he leaves his village or town he must register at the 
 police station and state fully the business he intends to transact and 
 his destination. The policeman phones to this place_ and if his actions 
 are in any way at variance with his report he is liable to arrest and 
 mistreatment. A strict classification is kept on the basis of a man's 
 education, influence, position, etc. As soon as a man begins to show 
 ability or qualities of leadership he is put in class V, detectives are 
 set on his trail, and from thenceforth he becomes a marked man, 
 hounded wherever he goes. Even children are watched or bribed for 
 information. If a man escapes the country his number is traced, his 
 family or relatives arrested and perchance tortured until they reveal 
 his whereabouts. A man is likely to disappear any day and perhaps 
 not be heard of again. It is a very efficient Prussianism which thus 
 aims to crush the spirit of a people. 
 
 "This policy is earned out in the educational system by forbidding 
 the teaching of Koiean history or geography ... by excluding 
 all European history or literature, ... by forbidding any Ko- 
 rean student to go abroad for an education; in fact, by forbidding 
 them to leave the country; ... by forbidding them to entertain 
 or express Korean ideas or aspirations. One student was put in jail 
 for three months and fined three hundred dollars because he was 
 caught singing the Korean national anthem." — From a paper recently 
 published in the United States by J. E. Moore, an American born in 
 Korea. 
 
THE PEACE CONFERENCE. 63 
 
 finances. And Koreans with deposits in the banks — which 
 are all Japanese institutions — cannot withdraw large amounts 
 at one time without disclosing to the banks the purpose or 
 purposes for which the money is to be used. 
 
 Japan and Chrutianiiy. 
 
 9. — Every effort is made by the Japanese authorities — par- 
 ticularly through their police agents — to discourage and ob- 
 struct Christian missionary work in Korea which is envisaged 
 as opposed to vital Japanese interests in the peninsula. 
 
 Is not the gravest indictment of Japan's work in Korea to 
 be read in the fact that Christianity is seriously regarded as 
 a force hostile to the success of the Japanese system of gov- 
 ernment in the country? 
 
 Korea for the Japanese. 
 
 10. — The Japanese authorities claim that "reforms'' have 
 been introduced into Korea. But it is well to remember that 
 most of these reforms, valuable as they are, may be found 
 in a well-regulated penal colony ("The Korean Conspiracy 
 Case," New York), and all of them have been effected or 
 introduced at the expense of the Korean taxpayer in the 
 interest and for the benefit of the Japanese settler for whom 
 the Japanese authorties are bent on making Korea an at- 
 tractive field of colonization. 
 
 II.— The Japanese rules and administers Korea in the spirit 
 and by the methods of a Master-Nation or, more accurately, 
 a Profiteer-Nation. 
 
 Except in the sense that cattle or slaves must be taken 
 care of if they are to be of any value to their owners, the 
 welfare of the Korean people is not an aim of government 
 with Japan. 
 
 Japan Againti the World. 
 
 12.— In addition to these reasons connected directly with 
 the fate of the Korean people, the vital interests of the 
 world— especially the Asiatic interests of France and the 
 
64 THE TRUTH ABOUT KOREA. 
 
 Asiatic and Pacific interests of Great Britain and the United 
 States — demand the dis-annexation of Korea and the libera- 
 tion of her people from Japan. 
 
 13. — In trade and commerce, Japan is gradually eliminat- 
 ing the Western trader and merchant in Korea and trans- 
 ferring to the exclusive hands of her own people tradal inter- 
 ests which have had their origin in the series of treaties of 
 peace and commerce concluded between Korea and the 
 foreign powers. 
 
 In this elimination of Western competition, Japan con- 
 tinues true to that instinct for exclusion which, in the past, 
 found expression in her rigidly guarded isolation and which, 
 today, expresses itself in the menacing attempt to Exclude 
 Western Influence in Far Asia through the application of a 
 debased Monroe Doctrine for the Far East. 
 
 Japan's Continental Policy. 
 
 14.— It is, however, in the far-reaching political aims of 
 Japan — realizable eventually through her continued annexa- 
 tion of Korea — that France, as well as Great Britain and 
 America, must be vitally interested. 
 
 The danger to the non-Japanese world, including especially 
 the three Latin and Anglo-Saxon powers, lies in Japan's un- 
 fettered prosecution of her Continental Policy. 
 
 This policy aims, first, at the seizure of the hegemony of 
 Asia through the domination and control of the man-power 
 and natural resources of China — possible by the Japanese 
 possession of the continental point d'appui of Korea — and, 
 next, at the mastery of the Pacific as the sole means of 
 securing unrestricted entrance for the Japanese immigrant 
 into Australasia and the United States. 
 
 The Policy in Operation. 
 
 IS. — Japan's Continental Policy has already found expres- 
 sion — 
 
 (a) In two successful wars which have made her the great- 
 est military power in Asia in much the same way that Prus- 
 
THE PEACE CONFERENCE. 65 
 
 sia's two wars made her the greatest military power in 
 Europe ; 
 
 (6) In the annexation of Korea; 
 
 (c) In the gradual substitution of Japanese for Chinese 
 authority in South Manchuria and Eastern Inner Mongolia; 
 
 (d) In the attempt now being made to secure from the 
 Peace Conference the succession of Japan to German hold- 
 ings and privileges in the Chinese province of Shantung, 
 including Kiaochow; 
 
 (e) In the growing subjection of China, with her incal- 
 culable man-power and resources, to Japanese domination by 
 and through the same set of methods which made the an- 
 nexation of Korea a "political necessity"; and 
 
 (/) In the Japanese possession of the "South Sea Islands 
 north of the Equator," which bring Japan nearly two thou- 
 sand miles closer to Australia and gives the Japanese Navy 
 a base which dominates, practically, the entire land-areas of 
 the Pacific. 
 
 Th^ Korean Revolution. 
 
 16. — The protest and opposition of the Korean people to 
 Japanese annexation of their country and to the process of 
 political extermination applied to them by the Mikado's 
 agents has now expressed itself in the Korean Revolution. 
 
 On the 1st of March, at 1 p. m., the Korean People and 
 Nation declared their independence. This act of independ- 
 ence was formally done by the National Independence Union, 
 composed of three million Koreans representing and express- 
 ing the desire and will of 18,700,000 Koreans in Korea prop- 
 er, in China, Siberia, in Hawaii and in the United States. 
 
 The declaration states : "It is our solemn duty to secure 
 the right of free and perpetual development of our own na- 
 tional character, adapting ourselves to the principles of the 
 reconstruction of the world — to secure our independence, to 
 wipe out injuries, get rid of our present sufferings, and leave 
 our children eternal freedom instead of a bitter and shame- 
 ful inheritance." 
 
66 THE TRUTH ABOUT KOREA. 
 
 Progress of the Revolution. 
 
 17. — The Korean Delegation — appointed by the New Ko- 
 rean Young Men's Society to which are affiliated the Korean 
 National Independence Union and other bodies organized in 
 the cause of Korean independence — is in receipt of several 
 cable dispatches reporting the progress of the revolution and 
 the national movement for independence. 
 
 A dispatch from the Korean National Independence Union 
 received in Paris, via Shanghai, on April 7th, instant, reads 
 in part as follows : "On March 26 we held grand demonstra- 
 tions at Seoul. Our national flags were flown on the city 
 hills. The Japanese arrested two hundred of those who par- 
 ticipated in the demonstrations. There were casualties on 
 both sides. Samnam (i. e. all provinces south of Seoul) 
 are uprising every day. Korean demonstrations are taking 
 place in Eastern Siberia and Manchuria." 
 
 The Korean Republic. 
 
 18. — ^The same dispatch reports the organization of a Pro- 
 visional Government of Korea, consisting of a President, 
 Vice-President, Secretary of State, Minister for Home 
 Affairs, Minister of Finance, Minister of Justice and Min- 
 ister of War. 
 
 Among those included in the Provisional Government are 
 Prince Pak Yung-hio and Messrs. Rhee Syngman, Ahn 
 Chang Ho and Li Tong Whi. Prince Pak Yung-hio is one 
 of the five great leaders who inaugurated what is known in 
 Korean history as the movement of the Progressive Party in 
 1884. He was the chief figure among the Progressives who, 
 in 1894, compelled the introduction of modern reforms into 
 Korea. He was at one time Minister for Home Affairs be- 
 fore the annexation. Rhee Syngman is an M.A. of Har- 
 vard, U. S. A., and Ph. D. of Princeton, U. S. A. Since 
 1894 he has been one of the leaders of the old Korean Inde- 
 pendence Club. As a political worker he has suffered im- 
 prisonment and he has also been tortured. Ahn Chang Ho 
 
THE PEACE CONFERENCE. 67 
 
 is the founder of the Sin Min Hueh or People's Society and, 
 since 1905, has been a leader of young Korean nationalists. 
 He is the President of the Korean National Association. Li 
 Tong Whi is a former major in the old Korean Army and a 
 recognized leader of Korean nationalists in Siberia and Man- 
 churia. He has been imprisoned and tortured by the Jap- 
 anese authorities. 
 
 Japanese Repression. 
 
 19. — Another dispatch received by the Korean delegation 
 on April 10th inst., states that "from the 1st of March up to 
 date, active demonstrations of the Independence movement 
 have been very well conducted all over Korea. Representa- 
 ■ fives prefer passive revolution, including lecturing and dis- 
 tribution of manifestoes. Girls more active. Strikes have 
 occurred in enemy (Japanese) factories, stores, etc. Our 
 churches, schools and stores closed everywhere. Thirty- 
 two thousand men and women are in prison. About 100,000 
 have been injured, including old people, girls and children. 
 Interior traffic communications severed. Terrible outrages 
 committed by enemy (Japanese). Missionaries are sending 
 truth to world." 
 
 In a further dispatch which reached the Korean delega- 
 tion on April 11th inst., Japanese atrocities are reported: 
 "Japan has begun massacring in Korea. On March 28 over 
 1,000 unarmed people were killed during a three-hour demon- 
 stration held in Seoul. The shooting, beating and hooking 
 ( Pbayoneting) of people are in merciless progress through- 
 out Korea. Churches, schools and homes of leaders have 
 been destroyed. Women are being stripped naked and beaten 
 before crowds, especially female members of leaders' fam- 
 ilies. The imprisoned are being tortured. Doctors are for- 
 bidden to attend to the wounded. We ask urgently aid from 
 Foreign Red Cross. We have decided to fight for freedom 
 until last Korean falls. We solicit help in the name of 
 God." 
 
 Of the many news dispatches on the subject appearing in 
 
68 THE TRUTH ABOUT KOREA. 
 
 the American and the European press, it must suffice here to 
 quote the latest from the Tokio correspondent of the London 
 "Times." It appeared in the issue of the London paper on 
 April 17th inst., under the caption "Korea's Rights" : "While 
 it is recognized that there can be only one outcome of the 
 disturbances in Korea, the Government's decision to rein- 
 force the military establishment in the peninsula evokes uni- 
 versal press comment, the feature of which is the recognition 
 that it will be inevitable, when opportunity occurs, to replace 
 the Military Governor by a Civilian Governor. The 'Nichi- 
 Nichi' attributes the disturbances chiefly to a mistaken con- 
 ception of the principle of self-determination, also to the 
 inimical influence of missionaries. The 'Jiji' says it is evi- 
 dent that many reforms are necessary in Korea. Another 
 journal dwells on the fact that the Koreans are not an in- 
 ferior people. * * *" 
 
 Abrogation of the Treaty of Annexation. 
 
 20. — The Korean people submit that the Treaty of Annexa- 
 tion of August 22, 1910, should be declared Null and Void or 
 otherwise abrogated by the Peace Conference for the reasons 
 set forth in this petition and further elaborated in the memo- 
 randum hereto attached and more especially for the reasons 
 following : 
 
 I. — The said Treaty of annexation was conluded in cir- 
 cumstances of Fraud and Force which vitiated its validity as 
 a legal and international document, even assuming that the 
 then Emperor of Korea had the right to hand over to "His 
 Majesty the Emperor of Japan" Fifteen Million Koreans and 
 a country that had existed as a separate and sovereign state 
 for more than 4,200 years. 
 
 n.- — The Korean people and nation have consistently de- 
 nied the right of the then "puppet" Emperor of Korea to deal 
 with them in terms of the said Treaty of Annexation. Being 
 men and not cattle, they hold that their consent is and has 
 been an essential condition to the validity of the said treaty. 
 This consent has never been given. 
 
THE PEACE CONFERENCE. 69 
 
 ni. — That said Treaty of Annexation was and is a direct 
 violation by Japan of the International guarantees entered 
 into by the Japanese Government with Korea and other 
 Powers regarding Korean independence and integrity*. 
 
 IV. — In the several Treaties concluded between Korea and 
 Japan and other Powers, and by Japan with China, with 
 Russia and with Great Britain, regarding Korea, the exist- 
 ence of the latter as a separate and sovereign state is — as to 
 all these treaties — explicitly recognized and its political inde- 
 pendence and territorial integrity is — as to some of them — 
 also explicitly guaranteed in terms establishing the same on 
 the basis of a public law of nations which no single Power — 
 especially Japan — could violate without subjecting its action 
 to eventual revision by the Powers assembled in an inter- 
 national congress like the present Peace Conference. 
 
 V. — ^The Peace Conference meets in order to secure a set- 
 tlement of the affairs of the member-nations according to the 
 principles expressed in President Wilson's Fourteen Points. 
 The principles underlying this statement of views is defined 
 by the President in his message to Congress on January 8, 
 1918, as "the principle of justice to all peoples and nation- 
 alities and their right to live on equal terms of liberty and 
 safety with one another, whether they he strong or weak." 
 
 As one of the allied and associated states in the war, 
 Japan has expressly accepted the Fourteen Points with their 
 underlying principle of justice. Inasmuch as this principle 
 of justice is clearly violated by the Mikado's continued exer- 
 cise of "all rights of sovereignty over the whole of Korea" 
 without the consent and against the wishes of the Korean 
 People and Nation, it becomes the right and the duty of the 
 
 •The Japan-Korean treaty of February 26 or 27, 1876, states in the 
 first article "Chosen being an independent state enjoys the same sov- 
 ereign rights as does Japan." •, „,. ,oao ■-. • ..• i » i ■ 
 
 In the Japan-Russian protocol of April 25, 1898, it is stipulated in 
 article I that the "Imperial Governments of Japan and Russia defin- 
 tively recognize the sovereignty and entire independence of Korea, and 
 tiiutually engage to refrain from all direct interference in the internal 
 
 ^ The Japan^Korean protocol of February 23, 1904, provides (art. 3) 
 that the "Imperial Government of Japan definitively guarantees the 
 independence and territorial integrity cf the Korean Empire. 
 
70 THE TRUTH ABOUT KOREA. 
 
 Peace Conference to declare the nuUificatioa or otherwise 
 decree the abrogation of the aforesaid Treaty of Annexation. 
 
 VI. — In virtue of rights founded in International Law and 
 of the New Justice which is to redress the wrongs of nations, 
 the Korean People have a just claim for the Reconstruction 
 of Korea as an Independent State unless, indeed, they are to 
 be excluded from the scope of the principles which have 
 already found expression in the reconstitution of Poland 
 after almost one and a half centuries of partitions and an- 
 nexations and in the dis-annexation of Alsace-Lorraine after 
 nearly half a century of Prussian rule. 
 
 It is less than ten years since Japan effected the annexa- 
 tion of Korea. And the fact that the outbreak of the war 
 did not find Japan an ally of the Central Powers — a political 
 combination that had always been envisaged by the German- 
 trained advisers of the Mikado — is no reason why the 
 Korean People should be suffered by the Peace Conference 
 to continue to live under a system of military government 
 which is a denial of every principle for which men have 
 lately died on the soil of France. 
 
 This petition is presented in the name and on behalf of the 
 Provisional Republican Government of Korea and of the 
 eighteen million seven hundred thousand Koreans living in 
 Korea proper, in China, Siberia, Hawaii, the United States 
 and elsewhere as well as of the five thousand and more 
 Koreans who fought for the Allied cause on the Eastern 
 Front before the treaty of Brest-Litovsk — in the aggregate 
 forming and constituting the Korean People and Nation — 
 by the undersigned John Kiusic Soho Kimm, the duly ac- 
 credited member of the Korean Delegation appointed by the 
 New Korean Young Men's Society, etc., etc. 
 
 J. KIUSIC S. KIMM, 
 Delegate of New Korean Young Men's Society, 
 Delegate of the Korean National Association, 
 Delegate of the Provisional Government of the 
 Korean Republic, Etc., Etc., Etc. 
 
KOREAN DELEGATION 
 
 THE PEACE CONFERENCE 
 
 THE CLAIM OF THE KOREAN PEOPLE 
 AND NATION 
 
 FOR LIBERATION FROM JAPAN 
 
 AND FOR THE RECONSTITUTION 
 
 OF KOREA AS AN INDEPENDENT STATE 
 
 Memorandum 
 
 PARIS: APRIL, 1919. 
 
72 THE TRUTH ABOUT KOREA. 
 
 THE CLAIM OF THE KOREAN PEOPLE 
 
 AND NATION FOR LIBERATION FROM JAPAN 
 
 AND FOR THE RECONSTITUTION OF KOREA 
 
 AS AN INDEPENDENT STATE 
 
 I. 
 The Claim of Korea. 
 
 The Korean People and Nation hereby petition the Peace 
 Conference to declare as null and void the Treaty of August 
 22, 1910 (a), whereby one Korean — the then Emperor of 
 Korea — purported, vinder Japanese coercion, to cede "com- 
 pletely and permanently to His Majesty the Emperor of 
 Japan all rights of sovereignty over the whole of Korea" 
 with her then population of over Fifteen Million Koreans. 
 
 It is submitted that the present claim deals with a matter 
 in respect of which the Peace Conference has the right and 
 authority to take action. 
 
 The Conference meets in order to secure a settlement of 
 the affairs of the member-nations in tei-ms of the principles 
 set forth in President Wilson's Fourteen Points. The "evi- 
 dent principle'' running through the "whole program'' is 
 defined by the President in his message to Congress on 
 January 8, 1918, as "the principle of justice to all peoples 
 and nationalities, and their right to live on equal terms of 
 liberty and safety with one another, whether they be strong 
 or weak." 
 
 As one of the Allied and Associated States, Japan has ex- 
 pressly accepted the Fourteen Points, with their underlying 
 principle of justice, as the "foundation" of the "structure 
 of international justice'' to be established by the Peace Con- 
 ference. 
 
 Inasmuch as this principle of justice is obviously violated 
 by the Mikado's continued exercise of "all rights of sover- 
 eignty over the whole of Korea'' without the consent and 
 
 (a) See Appendix No. 1. 
 
THE PEACE CONFERENCE. 73 
 
 against the wishes of the Korean People and Nation, it is at 
 once the right and the duty of the Peace Conference to 
 declare the nullification of the aforesaid Treaty of August 
 22, 1910. 
 
 II. 
 4,200 Years of National Life. 
 
 The Korean people were a nation, with a language and a 
 culture of their own, before Japan ceased to be a land of 
 warring tribes and unlettered people. Indeed, it is as much 
 to Korea as to China— the other historic state now under 
 deadly assault by Japan— that the Japanese owe not a little 
 of their cultural development and the thoughts and ideals 
 which have nourished their mind and enabled them to cap- 
 ture greatness. 
 
 The nationhood of the Korean People had lasted for more 
 than 4,200 years when Japan consummated her work in 
 Korea by the Treaty of August 22, 1910. And save for an 
 intervening period when their liberties were assailed the 
 Koreans lived through these forty-two centuries as an in- 
 dependent nation, their country forming one of the separate 
 states of Asia. 
 
 III. 
 The Independence of Korea. 
 
 The continued existence of Korea as a separate and 
 sovereign state was affirmed and recognized by Japan in 
 the Treaty of Peace and Amity concluded between the 
 Korean Government and the Japanese Government at Seoul 
 on February 27, 1876. 
 
 The independence of Korea as the "Kingdom of Chosen" 
 was recognized by the United States of America in the 
 Treaty of "Peace, Amity, Commerce and Navigation" con- 
 cluded with the Korean Government on May 22, 1882, which 
 contained the important clause that "if other Powers deal 
 unjustly or oppressively with either Government the other 
 
74 THE TRUTH ABOUT KOREA. 
 
 will exert their good offices, on being informed of the case, 
 to bring about an amicable arrangement, thus showing their 
 friendly feelings." 
 
 Korean sovereignty was also recognized and admitted by 
 Great Britain and other Powers in their respective Treaties 
 of peace and commerce concluded with the Korean Govern- 
 ment. 
 
 In the Treaty of Shimonoseki, signed on April 17, 1895, 
 Japan compelled China definitely to recognize the "full and 
 complete independence and autonomy of Korea.'' 
 
 The independence of Korea was also affirmed and sub- 
 stantially guaranteed by Japan and Great Britain in the first 
 Anglo-Japanese agreement of alliance concluded on Janu- 
 ary 30, 1902. 
 
 And, lastly, in a Treaty of Defensive and Offensive Alli- 
 ance concluded between the Japanese Government and the 
 Korean Government in 1904, Japan guaranteed the independ- 
 ence of Korea and the latter guaranteed material aid to 
 Japan in the later prosecution of the war against Russia. 
 
 IV. 
 "Transaction* in Freedom." 
 
 It was to protect and maintain the independence and terri- 
 torial integrity of Korea that Japan professed to have fought 
 her first continental wars against China in 1894-S. 
 
 And a similar purpose was alleged when Japan challenged 
 and defeated the Tsardom in 1904-5. 
 
 That Japan emerged out of these two wars with an inter- 
 national prestige which no mere military victories could 
 have won her is mainly to be assigned to the knightly 
 gesture expressed in what seemed in the eyes of men as 
 high transactions in freedom. 
 
 V. 
 Prussia and Japan. 
 
 The falseness of it all is now plain. And what must be 
 termed the bad faith and duplicity of Japan cannot fail to 
 
THE PEACE CONFERENCE. 75 
 
 arrest the attention of a world already outraged by the un- 
 moral acts of a race whose home is the "spiritual home" of 
 the leaders of Japan. 
 
 Like Prussia in her two wars against Austria and against 
 France, Japan "prepared" for her two wars against China 
 and against Russia; and as Prussia became the leading mili- 
 tary Power in Europe, so Japan has become the leading 
 military Power in Asia as a result of her "defensive" wars 
 against the two countries that stood in the path of her con- 
 tinental ambitions. And in quite a true sense, it may be 
 said that Prussia and Japan are the two modern Powers 
 which have profited greatly from the business of war. 
 
 If there be any difference between these two predatory 
 Powers, the same lies in the deeper immorality of Japan. 
 Prussia conceived, prepared and won her two wars in order 
 to forge an Imperial Germany as an instrument of European 
 hegemony. She did not load her crime with the death of a 
 nation whose independence and integrity had been guaran- 
 teed by her in solemn treaties. Nor did she vulgarize her 
 great sin by meanly lying to the world and representing her 
 policy of plunder and aggrandizement in the sense of 
 knightly action undertaken for the protection of an en- 
 dangered people. 
 
 All this and more Japan has done. 
 
 VI. 
 
 The Protectorate of Korea. 
 
 Within a few months of the last of the Treaties in which 
 Japan guaranteed the perpetual independence and integrity 
 of Korea, the Treaty of Portsmouth was concluded in which 
 Japan compelled Russia to acknowledge that "Japan possesses 
 in Korea paramount political, miUtary and economical in- 
 terests" and to "engage neither to obstruct nor interfere with 
 the measures of guidance, protection and control which the 
 Imperial Government of Japan may find it necessary to 
 take in Korea." 
 
76 THE TRUTH ABOUT KOREA. 
 
 Three weeks later — ^i. e., on September 27, 1905 — the 
 second Treaty of Alliance between Japan and Great Britain 
 was published. The independence of Korea, which was 
 expressly recognized in the first Anglo-Japanese agreement, 
 was significantly omitted in this renewal of the alliance. 
 
 This sinister omission was quickly followed, twenty days 
 later, by the conclusion of the Treaty subjecting Korea to 
 the protectorate of Japan. It is safe to say that this trans- 
 action is without parallel in civilized history. An account 
 of the crime can be read in the pages of McKenzie's 
 "Tragedy of Korea" and in the "Passing of Korea," by 
 Homer B. Hulbert. 
 
 The Treaty of Portsmouth was hardly signed when the 
 Marquis Ito arrived at Seoul and instantly set about to 
 impose on Korea "measures of guidance, protection and 
 control." The story reads like some devilish episode in the 
 days when Europe lay in darkness. 
 
 Ito — "the Bismarck of Japan" — packed the streets of Seoul 
 with Japanese soldiers, surrounded the Palace with a cordon 
 of troops and forced the distraught Emperor and his Min- 
 isters, literally at the point of the bayonet, to sign the in- 
 famous Treaty of Seoul. But despite all this coercion, the 
 Treaty was signed by neither the Emperor's Prime Minister 
 nor his Minister for Foreign Affairs. And the Treaty was 
 vitiated by the non-affixion of the great seal of the State 
 Council and of that of the Foreign Office. Even under force, 
 the great seal was not produced; and like a gesture of 
 despair, the seal of the Foreign Office was flung into a lotus . 
 pond just as the Ministers were being driven into the Coun- 
 cil Chamber by armed Japanese. 
 
 The history of Korea during the five years of the Pro- 
 tectorate is a record of deeds of fraud and terrorism pos- 
 sible only in the case of a Power like Japan whose soul is 
 mediaeval but whose methods are Prussian in their ruth- 
 lessness and efficiency. It is the record of a scientific bar- 
 barism applied to the work of stabbing a nation to death. 
 
THE PEACE CONFERENCE. 77 
 
 VII. 
 The Annexation of Korea. 
 
 And death soon came to Korea. In the words of a 
 French writer "le Japon couronnait son oeuvre en Coree" in 
 the Treaty done at Seoul on August 22, 1910, which pur- 
 ported to hand over to "His Majesty the Emperor of Japan" 
 an ancient Kingdom with its population of over fifteen mil- 
 lion, as if cattle — not men — were under traffic. 
 
 Against this extinction of Korean sovereignty and the 
 incorporation of their country as a province of Japan, the 
 Korean People and Nation have strenuously protested and 
 do still protest. 
 
 VIII. 
 Japanization and Prussianization, 
 
 This protest is founded not only on the forcible destruc- 
 tion of Korean liberties but on the fiercer application, by 
 Japan in Korea, of the principles and methods practiced b}' 
 the Tsardom in Finland and in Russian Poland and by the 
 German teachers of Japan in the Eastern Provinces, in 
 Schleswig-Holstein and in Alsace-Lorraine as well as by 
 the unspeakable Turk in Armenia. 
 
 The political cruelties involved in the Prussianization of 
 the Poles in the Eastern Provinces, of the Danes in Schles- 
 wig and of the French in Alsace-Lorraine are surpassed by 
 the political enormities accompanying the Japanization of 
 Korea. 
 
 Although fundamental human instincts and the barrier of 
 geography oppose her work in Korea, Japan is determined 
 to make the country, not only in name but in reality, a 
 Japanese province. She is trying to do this by a pitiless at- 
 tempt to extirpate the great roots of patriotism; love of the 
 soil, language of the people and the history of the country. 
 And she is also "controlling" the two means which might 
 render futile this organized attempt to extinguish the light 
 of patriotism in Korea — education and wealth. 
 
78 THE TRUTH ABOUT KOREA. 
 
 IX. 
 Expropriation of Korean Landowners. 
 
 Korean ownership of land binds Korean hearts to the 
 ancient soil of Korea and is therefore a vigorous "root" of 
 Korean patriotism. This ownership of land by the Korean 
 farmer and peasant prevents also the success of Japanese 
 colonization in Korea, the best arable lands of the country 
 being naturally in the hands of the Korean agriculturists. 
 For this double reason, the expropriation of the Korean 
 landowner is a cardinal aim of Japanese policy in Korea. 
 
 Accordingly, a company has been organized by direction 
 of the Japanese Government and is supported by an annual 
 subsidy of $250,000 from the Imperial Treasury. According 
 to an article in the "New York Times" of January 26, 1919, 
 the purpose of the company "is to colonize Korea with 
 Japanese who are unable to make a living in Japan proper. 
 A Japanese emigrant receives free transportation to Korea 
 and is provided with a home and a piece of land, together 
 with implements and provisions . . . the colonization 
 company sought to buy the lands of the Korean farmers. 
 There are eighty thousand square miles of land in Korea, 
 supporting a population of fifteen millions, mostly agri- 
 culturists, and these natives declined to part with their 
 heritage." 
 
 "Here was where the aid of the Japanese Government," 
 the article continues, "was besought and secured, and the 
 manner in which the solution of the problem was obtained 
 was peculiarly Oriental in its subtlety. In Korea all the 
 financial machinery centers in the Bank of Chosen, controlled 
 by the Government and located at Seoul, the capital. Through 
 its branches the powerful financial institution, corresponding 
 to the Bank of England or the Treasury of the United States 
 or the Bank of France, perhaps, called in all the specie in 
 the country, thus making, as far as a circulating medium 
 was concerned, the land practically valueless. In order to 
 pay taxes and to obtain necessaries of life the Korean must 
 
THE PEACE CONFERENCE. 79 
 
 have cash, and in order to get it he must sell his land. 
 Land values fell rapidly, and in some instances land was 
 purchased by the agents of the Bank of Chosen for one-fifth 
 of its former valuation.'" 
 
 "More than one-fifth of the richest lands in Korea," the 
 article adds, "are in the hands of the Japanese immigrants 
 who have been sent over through the operation of this 
 scheme." 
 
 Banning the Korean Language and Hittory. 
 
 A systematic attempt is being made to replace the Korean 
 by the Japanese language. In the schools Korean children 
 are compelled to salute and greet their own Korean teachers 
 in the Japanese language; and in the law courts, the judges 
 are Japanese and the entire proceedings are conducted in 
 the Japanese language with the result that the Korean liti- 
 gant generally fails to understand what transpires, the official 
 interpretation of the trial being always imperfect. 
 
 The teaching of Korean history is prohibited. And im- 
 prisonment, torture, banishment or worse might be the 
 penalty if some Korean should be tempted to recite to 
 children of the soil a traditional story or song or some 
 folklore telling how men fought and died for Korea in 
 other days. 
 
 XI. 
 "Controlling" Korean Education. 
 
 It is Japan's "control" of the education of the Korean 
 people which strikingly reveals the "egoism" of her policy 
 in the Peninsula. 
 
 Korea has been known as a land of scholars. And just as 
 some countries may be said, broadly, to specialize in some 
 particular sphere of learning and culture, so Korea in the 
 past "specialized" in scholarship. The Italian, for instance, 
 loves not song and music more than doth the cultured 
 
80 THE TRUTH ABOUT KOREA. 
 
 Korean love the things of the scholar. He is an artist in 
 scholarship. 
 
 But to be a scholar, one must be educated. An educated 
 Korean, however, is a unit of protest and resistance against 
 Japanese tyranny in Korea, since education — ^particularly 
 modern education — breeds thoughts and ideals that deny 
 the right of one nation holding another nation in political 
 serfage. 
 
 Therefore, not only is the teaching of Korean history pro- 
 hibited in Korean schools, but any and every department of 
 Western learning calculated, if pursued beyond a certain 
 point, to encourage what Count Terauchi — the Japanese pro- 
 consul who "annexed" Korea — calls "dangerous thoughts,'' 
 is either forbidden or taught in an emasculated sense. 
 
 This policy of a "limited education" explains why the 
 Korean student is denied free access to the road to higher 
 learning in arts, sciences, laws, politics, economics and in- 
 dustries and is also absolutely prohibited from going to 
 Europe or the United States to seek a Western or modern 
 education, even at his or her own expense. 
 
 This same policy also explains the forcible suppression of 
 360 Christian schools and hundreds of other private insti- 
 tutions in Korea. It further explains the following statistics 
 published in the report of the Government-General in Korea 
 for the year ending 1917. 
 
 For a population of 16,648,129 Koreans, the Japanese au- 
 thorities established schools at which only 86,410 Korean 
 pupils were being taught as follows: 
 
 441 Common or Primary Schools 81,845 pupils 
 
 7 Higher Common Schools , 1,791 " 
 
 74 Elementary Schools of Agriculture, 
 
 Commerce and Industry 2,029 " 
 
 1 Law School 138 " 
 
 1 Medical School 2S3 " 
 
 1 Industrial School 282 " 
 
 1 School of Agriculture and Forestry 12 " 
 totaling S26 schools of all grades, attended by 86,410 pupils. 
 
THE PEACE CONFERENCE. 81 
 
 Whereas for a Japanese immigrant population of 320,938, 
 the authorities established 367 special Japanese schools of all 
 grades, which were attended by 42,467 Japanese pupils as 
 follows : 
 
 342 Primary Schools 37,911 pupils 
 
 3 Middle Schools 1,478 "' 
 
 10 Girls' High Schools (public) 1,648 " 
 
 7 Commercial Colleges 899 " 
 
 1 Colonial School of the Oriental De- 
 velopment Company 18 " 
 
 4 Private Schools, Commercial and 
 
 Technical 513 
 
 The foregoing facts justify the following statement of 
 Japan's educational policy in Korea, which has appeared in 
 the American press and stands uncontradicted: "Under 
 Japanese rule all national aspirations [in Korea] are opposed 
 and measures are taken to prevent the development of 
 patriotism. This is done systematically, in many different 
 ways. One of the greatest and most effective agencies used 
 by Japan to this end is the stifling of higher education and 
 the limitations placed upon the schools. Korean history 
 cannot be taught and after the student has advanced a little 
 way he must stop school altogether . . ." 
 
 XII. 
 "Controlling" Korean Wealth. 
 
 Nearly every wealthy Korean is obliged to have a Japanese 
 overseer at his house, controlling his properties and finances. 
 
 Koreans with deposits in the banks — which are all Japanese 
 institutions — cannot withdraw large amounts at one time 
 without disclosing to the banks the purpose or purposes for 
 which the money is to be used. 
 
82 THE TRUTH ABOUT KOREA. 
 
 xni. 
 
 The Korean Kitchen Knife. 
 
 Koreans are generally prohibited the use of firearms^ or 
 having the same in any shape or form in their possession. 
 
 And it is not a little interesting to note that an American 
 investigator, in the course of his inquiries into the state of 
 Korea under the Japanese, found that no family in some 
 places was permitted to own the Korean kitchen knife which 
 has been in common use from time immemorial. One such 
 knife had to be shared by five or six families and, when not 
 in use, it had to be hung at a spot in full view of the beat 
 of a Japanese gendarme. The report of this American in- 
 vestigator has not been published owing to the official view 
 regarding the inexpediency of its publication. 
 
 XIV. 
 Japan's Hostility to Christianity. 
 
 In the belief that Christianity breeds a spirit of self- 
 respect inconsistent with the state of submission demanded 
 by Japanese policy in Korea, the Mikado's government has 
 been envisaging the work of the Christian Missions in the 
 country as opposed to vital Japanese interests. For this 
 reason every effort is made by the Japanese authorities — 
 particularly through their police agents^to discourage and 
 obstruct Christian missionary work in Korea. 
 
 A signal instance of this official Japanese hostility to 
 Christianity in Korea is afforded by the cruel persecution 
 of Korean Christians involved in what is known as "The 
 Korean Conspiracy Case" (b). 
 
 Is not the gravest indictment of Japan's work in Korea to 
 he read in the fact that Christianity is seriously regarded as 
 a force hostile to the success of the Japanese system of 
 government in the country? 
 
 (b) See Appendix No. 2. 
 
THE PEACE CONFERENCE. 83 
 
 XV. 
 Korea as "One Big Fortreaa." 
 
 With a gesture of achievement Japan points to the mate- 
 rial improvements effected by her in Korea. She has built 
 railroads that extend beyond the frontier and penetrate into 
 South Manchuria, which is already within the grip of the 
 Korean railway system. She has constructed highways and 
 streets and set up imposing modern buildings for the housing 
 of the Japanese army of officials "running" the country. And 
 no doubt the sanitary condition of certain urban centers has 
 been improved. 
 
 About all this work of "improvement and progress" in the 
 material life of Korea, you can read — every twelvemonth — 
 in the splendidly illustrated pages of the "Annual Report" 
 issued by the "Government-General of Chosen (Korea)." 
 No expense seems to be spared in the preparation and pro- 
 duction of this annual publication. It is reckoned among the 
 chief weapons of Japanese propaganda abroad. 
 
 But in spite of the "reforms" yearly listed in the "Annual 
 Report," the following arraignment of Japan's policy in 
 Korea continues true and imanswerable. It is from a lead- 
 ing article in the "Shin Nippon," a Japanese newspaper, 
 which had the courage to criticize the Japanese authorities 
 in connection with the "Korean Conspiracy Case": 
 
 "Count Terauchi is trying by every means to crush the 
 rising of the native Koreans against his administration, 
 even at the expense of his countrymen's interest in the 
 peninsula. His press censorship, espionage policy, and 
 factory legislation were all due to his fear of a rising of 
 the Koreans. . . The Governor-General's desire is 
 to make the peninsula one big fortress, and he seems to 
 regard all those engaged in industrial or commercial 
 work in Korea as mere camp followers within the walls 
 of the barracks." 
 It is also well to remember that "most of these reforms, 
 
84 THE TRUTH ABOUT KOREA. 
 
 valuable as they are, may be found in a well-regulated penal 
 colony" (c) and that all of them have been effected or intro- 
 duced at the expense of the Korean taxpayer in the interett 
 and for the benefit of the Japanese Settler for whom the 
 Japanese authorities desire to make Korea an attractive field 
 of colonization. 
 
 XVI. 
 Anglo-Saxon Work in Asia. 
 
 These are only .a few of the ruthless facts featuring the 
 work of Japan in Korea. In aim and spirit, as well as in 
 methods, this work differs greatly from the labors of Anglo- 
 Saxon workers in Asia. 
 
 In India and Further India, the Englishman today rules in 
 the interest of the native. He has committed mistakes, and, 
 maybe, he still blunders. But he administers these great 
 regions of Asia as a trust and in the spirit of a trustee. 
 
 It is, however, in the Philippines that the work of the 
 Anglo-Saxon as a trustee-nation is seen in terms unobscured 
 by what may be called the ambiguities of imperialism. Here, 
 the American has not been satisfied to work as a trustee for 
 an indefinite period. He has educated the Filipino not only 
 to assist but eventually to replace him in the government of 
 the country. 
 
 And late advices from Washington, D. C, indicate that the 
 American is already viewing the independence of the Philip- 
 pines as a necessary term of the international settlement 
 which is to make the world safe for democracy. 
 
 XVII. 
 The Policy of the Prize-Pig. 
 
 But in Korea, the Japanese rules and administers the 
 country in the spirit and by the methods of a Master-Nation 
 or, more accurate, a Profiteer-Nation. 
 
 Except in the sense that cattle or slaves must be taken 
 
 (c) "The Korean Conspiracy Case,'' by Arthur Judson Brown, New 
 York. 
 
THE PEACE CONFERENCE. 85 
 
 care if of they are to be of value to their owner, the wel- 
 fare of the Korean people is not an aim of government with 
 Japan. 
 
 The "improvements" loudly advertised in the annual re- 
 ports of the Korean Government-General are made either 
 for the encouragement of Japanese settlers or in the interests 
 of what may be truly described as the policy of the prize- 
 pig, i. e., for much the same reason that a breeder fattens 
 his pig for a show. 
 
 XVIII. 
 Japan Contra Mundum. 
 
 In addition to these reasons connected directly with the 
 fate of the Korean people, the vital interests of the world — 
 particularly the Asiatic interests of France as well as the 
 Asiatic and Pacific interests of Great Britain and the United 
 States — demand the dis-annexation of Korea and the libera- 
 tion of her people from Japan. 
 
 Reference has already been made to Japan's envisagement 
 of Christianity in Korea as an inimical force. And it is 
 possible that the Mikado's advisers bethink themselves of 
 the anti-Christian policy of Caesarian Rome. But the Caesars 
 opposed Christianity as a religion and not— as in the case 
 of. Japan today— in the belief that it was a moral and in- 
 tellectual force that challenged the subjection of an entire 
 nation and its exploitation by the methods of a political 
 slavery. 
 
 In trade and commerce, Japan is gradually eliminating the 
 Western trader and merchant in Korea and transferring to 
 the exclusive hands of her own people a business which has 
 had its origin in the series of treaties of peace and com- 
 merce concluded between Korea and the Foreign Powers. 
 
 In this elimination of Western competition Japan con- 
 tinues true to that instinct for exclusion which, in the past, 
 found expression in her rigidly guarded isolation and which 
 today expresses itself, for instance, in the prohibition of 
 
86 THE TRUTH ABOUT KOREA. 
 
 foreign ownership of land in Japan and in the attempt to 
 exclude foreign influence in Far Asia through the application 
 of a false Monroe Doctrine for the Far East. 
 
 XIX. 
 Japan's Continental Policy. 
 
 It is, however, in the far-reaching political aims of Japan 
 — realizable eventually through her continued annexation 
 of Korea — that France as well as England and America 
 must be vitally interested. 
 
 The danger to the non-Japanese world, including espe- 
 cially the three Latin and Anglo-Saxon powers, lies in 
 Japan's unfettered prosecution of her continental policy. 
 
 This policy aims, first, at the seizure of the hegemony of 
 Asia through the domination and control of the man-power 
 and the ''natural resources" of China — possible only by the 
 Japanese possession of the continental point d'appui of 
 Korea — and, next, at the mastery of the Pacific Ocean as the 
 sole means of forcing an entrance for Japanese Emigrants, 
 into the rich lands of the Australias and the Pacific seaboard 
 of the United States. 
 
 XX. 
 The Policy in Operation. 
 
 The continental policy of Japan has already found its par- 
 tial expression in the two successful wars waged by Japan 
 against China in 1894-S and against Russia in 1904-S and in 
 the annexation of Korea on August 22, 1910. 
 
 The Japanese possession of Korea renders Chinese sov- 
 ereignty in South Manchuria and Eastern Inner Mongolia 
 impossible. And with the eventual inclusion of these stra- 
 tegic regions within the territorial framework of Japan's con- 
 tinental policy, the military or the "pacific" conquest of the 
 fat lands of China and 400,000,000 Chinese is inevitable. 
 
 This is not the language of hypothesis or prophecy. It is 
 a simple statement of the deliberately expressed intention 
 
THE PEACE CONFERENCE. 87 
 
 and plan of the Japanese Government as set forth in the 
 famous set of twenty-one demands which Tokio presented 
 to Peking on January 18, 1915, and secured in certain treaties 
 and notes signed by the Chinese Government in compliance 
 with an ultimatum threatening war (d). 
 
 XXI. 
 The Menace to France. 
 
 The eventual domination of China — which the continued 
 subjugation of Korea will enable Japan to secure — is a spe- 
 cific menace to France as an Asiatic power. 
 
 The subjugation of China to the military will of a war- 
 organized state like Japan and the necessary entrenchment 
 of the latter in the Chinese province of Yunnan, which 
 abounds in tin and dominates the rear of I'lndo-Chine, must 
 constitute an obviously political and "strategic" menace to the 
 Asiatic dominions of France. And as the continued pos- 
 session of these dominions by France is a vital element in 
 the prestige and glory of the Third Republic as a world- 
 power, the Quai d'Orsay must, of course, realize the signifi- 
 cance of a Japanese hegemony in Asia which is based on 
 the control and direction of Chinese man-power and re- 
 sources by Japan. 
 
 But the menace to France is not a mere "strategic deduc- 
 tion." It is a political reality. Indeed, it is one of the three 
 unavowed aims of Japan; and because it is rooted in re- 
 vanche, the Japanese menace to France will continue an 
 actual danger to the Third Republic. 
 
 The Treaty of Shimonoieki. 
 
 France's war-debt to Japan dates from the revision of the 
 Treaty of Shimonoseki in 1895, when the Tokio Government 
 was forced to agree to the retrocession to China of the 
 Liaotung peninsula, including the great fortress of Port 
 
 (d) The Chinese delegation to the Peace Conference are reported 
 to be claiming the abrogation of these treaties and notes on the 
 ground, inter alia, that they subject China to Japanese domination. 
 
88 THE TRUTH ABOUT KOREA. 
 
 Arthur, whose cession "in perpetuity and full sovereignty" 
 had been secured by Japan as one of the fruits of her vic- 
 tory over China. 
 
 Russia, Germany and France viewed the cession of the 
 Liaotung peninsula as an act demanding their joint inter- 
 vention and insisted on its cancellation and the withdrawal 
 of Japan from the Asiatic mainland. 
 
 Japan obeyed. But she instantly began to work for the 
 reversal of the decree of the Triple Powers, since the pos- 
 session of the Liaotung peninsula was a vital factor in the 
 successful prosecution of her continental policy. It meant 
 the possession of the threshold of Far Asia, with direct 
 entrance into Manchuria and Korea. 
 
 Not only the "necessities" of high policy, but the spirit 
 of revenge spurred on Japan to the vast preparations which 
 culminated in her victorious war with Russia in 1904-5 and 
 regained her the coveted piece of Chinese territory. 
 
 The outbreak of the war in 1914 gave her another oppor- 
 tunity to work out her continental policy with its edge of 
 revenge against Germany. Just as she had defeated Russia 
 and supplanted her in South Manchuria so she next defeated 
 Germany in Kiaochow and supplanted her in the Chinese 
 province of Shantung. 
 
 The "Ignominious Triple Interference." 
 
 It is significant that, while this triple intervention used to 
 be ascribed — before the Russo-Japanese war — to the action 
 of "Russia, Germany and France" and since that war, but 
 before the ejection of Germany from Kiaochow — to the 
 action of "Germany, France and Russia," the Japanese are 
 now referring it to the action of "France, Germany and 
 Russia." For instance, in a recent statement of "The Case 
 for Japan," Baron Makino deemed it necessary to empha- 
 size the fact that the retrocession of the IJaotung peninsula 
 was due to the "force majeure" of a "protest from France, 
 Germany and Russia." And Viscount Chinda, another of 
 the Japanese Peace Delegates, has also considered it expe- 
 
THE PEACE CONFERENCE. 89 
 
 dient to explain that his people regard the said intervention 
 as an "ignominious triple interference" (e). These references 
 may seem a little meticulous to the French mind; but they 
 are big with meaning and menace when you know the Jap- 
 anese mind with its strange, subtle mode of working. 
 
 And not the least important consideration in this connec- 
 tion is the fact that a successful Japanese war with France 
 might mean the extension of the territorial system of Japan 
 to I'lndo-Chine which would bring Japan within swifter 
 striking power of Middle Asia and those islands of the South 
 Seas, regarded by responsible Japanese publicists as the 
 ■'necessary tropical complement" of a Greater Japan, puis- 
 sant and self-sufficing. 
 
 XXII. 
 The Mattery of the Pacific. 
 
 Japan's continental policy menaces the Anglo-Saxon pow- 
 ers just as much as it does France, if not more so. 
 
 Japanese imperialists claim that Japan's yearly surplus 
 population justifies the demand for territorial extension in- 
 volved in her continental policy. And it is said that the 
 "exportable margin" of her population must be sent to 
 Korea, to South Manchuria and Eastern Inner Mongolia 
 and the historic provinces of China. 
 
 While the emigration of this "exportable margin" may 
 become a serious question in about five more decades if the 
 "Sexual Law" of the Jungle continues in operation in Japan, 
 it appears that Japanese propaganda is deliberately exagger- 
 ating the facts of the case in order to create a belief abroad 
 that Japanese emigration is at once an economic and politi- 
 cal necessity that demands immediate relief. 
 
 According to Japanese political thought, this "immediate 
 relief" must be secured through Japanese colonization in 
 Korea and China and, if possible, through Japanese emi- 
 gration to Australasia and America. 
 
 (e) "Washington Star," February 20, 1919. 
 
90 THE TRUTH ABOUT KOREA. 
 
 But the Japanese know that they suffer from disabilities of 
 physique and character which must prevent them from suc- 
 cessfully colonizing either Korea or China in the sense of 
 finding a new home in either of these countries. 
 
 Their insular and physiographical environment has de- 
 veloped the Japanese into a physical type that cannot thrive 
 on continental Asia and is unfitted, for instance, to with- 
 stand the rigours of life on the wind-swept plains of Man- 
 churia and Eastern Inner Mongolia. And the conditions of 
 their island-existence have rendered it impossoble for the 
 Japanese to live in tracts of country without that element of 
 the picturesque which the sea and the volcanic origin of the 
 islands of Japan have introduced into every Japanese land- 
 scape. 
 
 There are historic areas in China where, no doubt, the 
 Japanese could live. But these "places in the sun" — as the 
 Prussian teachers of Japan would call them — are and have 
 been for centuries over-populated by the Chinese them- 
 selves. 
 
 It is, therefore, elsewhere than on the continent of Asia 
 that Japan must send her "exportable margin" of population. 
 And responsible Japanese publicists make no secret of the 
 national desire for an outlet in the lands of promise lying in 
 Australia and the United States. Thither, however, the 
 Japanese may not go. But thither he is "determined" to go. 
 
 And just as Japan "prepared" for the war against China 
 and for the war against the Tsardom and was ready when 
 fortune placed Germany within her power and is today 
 "waiting" for the hour when France shall make amends for 
 her participation in the "ignominious triple interference,'' so 
 Japan is now engaged at the work of "preparation" which is 
 to give complete expression to her continental policy, i. e., 
 A colossal struggle with the Anglo-Saxon powers to end in 
 the conversion of the Pacific into a "Japanese Lake" and 
 the unrestricted entrance of the Japanese immigrant into 
 Australasia and the United States. 
 
THE PEACE CONFERENCE. 91 
 
 A Policy of World-Conqueat. 
 
 A bold conception ... a thing of audacity; and, per- 
 haps, the Anglo-Saxon may envisage it as a dream beyond 
 man's attempt. But similar schemes of world conquest are 
 not unknown in history; and the great war has revealed the 
 harboring of a like scheme by the German mind. And let it 
 be remembered that the rulers of Japan have organized her 
 as a war-state after the Prussian type and that her conti- 
 nental policy, that is, her POLICY OF WORLD-CON- 
 QUEST, has already found expression : 
 
 (a) in two successful wars which have made her the 
 greatest military power in Asia in much the same way 
 as Prussia's two wars made her the greatest military 
 power in Europe; 
 
 (6) in the annexation of Korea; 
 
 (c) in the gradual substitution of Japanese for Chi- 
 nese authority in South Manchuria and Eastern Inner 
 Mongolia ; 
 
 (d) in the attempt now being made to secure at the 
 Peace Conference the succession of Japan to German 
 holdings and privileges in the sacred Chinese province 
 of Shantung, including Kiaochow; 
 
 (e) in the growing subjection of China, with her in- 
 calculable man-power and resources, to Japanese domi- 
 nation by and through the same set of methods which 
 made the annexation of Korea a "political necessity" ; and 
 
 (/) in the Japanese possession of the "South Sea 
 Islands north of the Equator,'' which brings JAPAN 
 NEARLY TWO THOUSAND MILES CLOSER TO 
 AUSTRALIA and gives the Japanese Navy a base which 
 dominates the most strategic and important region of the 
 Pacific. 
 
 XXIII. 
 The Japanese as the "Eternal Priestess." 
 
 The Korean people and nation finally submit that the 
 
92 THE TRUTH ABOUT KOREA. 
 
 imposition of Japanese civilization on Korea (/) and its 
 spread, through Japan's continental policy, in Asia and the 
 regions of the Pacific are opposed to the interests of the 
 world and to the moral progress of the human race. 
 
 Japanese life is disfigured by its dangerous looseness of 
 views regarding the relations of the sexes. Impartial foreign 
 investigators report that, while prostitution infests cities in 
 the West, the vice infests cities and VILLAGES in Japan. 
 It is not only the Government official and narikin (nouveau 
 riche) who are clients of the geisha, but even the village 
 schoolmaster. 
 
 It has been estimated that Japan made, at one time, more 
 out of her women engaged in prostitution abroad than out 
 of her export of coal. This estimate was based on the fact 
 that, when a Japanese sells his daughter for service, he re- 
 ceives Yen 250 per annum for three years. This sum is the 
 equivalent of interest at S% p.a. on a capital sum of 5,000 
 Yen. And in pre-war days, there were in Irkutsk 110 Jap- 
 anese houses of ill fame; and the Japanese as an "ETER- 
 NAL PRIESTESS" was to be found in large numbers in 
 every city in Eastern Siberia — in Habarovsk, Blagovest- 
 chensk, Vladivostok. 
 
 Today, a moderate estimate fixes the number of Japanese 
 prostitutes in Manchuria at 10,000. It is calculated that the 
 consular fees paid by these women cover the entire cost of 
 the Japanese civil administration in the province, each having 
 to pay a monthly sum of (Mexican) $3 to her consul. 
 
 The Japanese prostitute is also to be found in every treaty 
 
 (f) "Shortly after annexation the Japanese Government permitted 
 Japanese agents to travel through the country selling morphia and 
 developing the morphine habit among the Koreans. Then came pros- 
 titutes. Today there are thousands of prostitutes brought over from 
 Japan, who are inoculating Korean society with those terrible evils of 
 social vice for which Japan as a lace is almost proverbial. There arc 
 the public baths which the Japanese have instituted, where bathing is 
 promiscuous. To Korean modesty and Korean standards of virtue this 
 IS a serious menace and will have on the growing generation far- 
 reaching consequences. Between prostitution, public baths and 
 gambling old Korean ideals stand in great peril." — From a recent 
 pamphlet on the Korean Question by J. E. Moore, an American born 
 in Korea. 
 
THE PEACE CONFERENCE. 93 
 
 port in China, in Saigon and other places in I'lndo-Chine, 
 in Bangkok and elsewhere in Siam, in Singapore— where one 
 report states "there are streets of them"— in Penang and 
 then on to India. Here the note of a British observer may 
 be textually quoted: "Streets of Japanese prostitutes in 
 Bombay and Kurrachee. Industry is thriving. They are 
 only waiting the opportunity to push their way into Meso- 
 potamia and challenge competition with the Armenians." 
 
 She also flourishes in Borneo, Madagascar, Zanzibar, South 
 Africa; and at one time the "monopoly of recognized prosti- 
 tution round the coast of Australia was in the hands of the 
 Japanese." 
 
 "From Yunnan City to Urga." 
 
 A concluding note must be added. It is a quotation from 
 a striking article which appeared in a recent issue of the 
 "North China Daily News," the leading British paper in the 
 Far East. The facts disclosed in the article have com- 
 pelled the Japanese Government through the Japanese Em- 
 bassy in London to promise remedial action: 
 
 "Everywhere Japanese prostitution, the systematic exten- 
 sion of which from Yunnan City to Urga is such an inspir- 
 ing evidence of our Asiatic allies, goes hand in hand with 
 the sale of morphia. 
 
 "Morphia, no longer purchasable in Europe, is manu- 
 factured now in well-equipped laboratories in Japan and 
 in Formosa. During recent years the bulk of the Persian 
 opium coming into the market has been purchased by 
 Japan for conversion into morphia, for Persian opium 
 yields a larger percentage of morphia than Indian opium. 
 Opium grown in Korea, the cultivation of which it is 
 interesting to note followed immediately upon the closing 
 of the opium shops in Shantung (by the Chinese authori- 
 ties) — Japanese officials providing the seeds — is an ever- 
 expanding source of the supply of morphia, and, it may 
 be added, of opium required by the (Japanese) adminis- 
 tration of Formosa." 
 
APPENDICES 
 
"THE KOREAN CONSPIRACY CASE." 97 
 
 No. 1. 
 
 THE ANNEXATION OF KOREA 
 
 The following treaty was signed at Seoul on August 22, 
 1910: 
 
 S.M. I'Empereur du Japon et S.M. I'Empereur de Coree, 
 en vue des relations speciales et etroites entre leurs pays 
 respectifs, desirant augmenter le bien-etre commun des deux 
 nations et assurer la paix permanente en Extreme-Orient, et 
 etant convaincues que ces buts pourront etre le mieux at- 
 teints par I'annexion de la Coree a I'empire du Japon ont 
 resolu de conclure un traite de cette annexion et ont nomme 
 a cet effet pour leurs plenipotentiaries, savoir: 
 
 S.M. I'Empereur du Japon, 
 
 Le Vicomte Masakata Terauchi, son Resident general, et 
 
 S.M. I'Empereur de Coree, 
 
 Yen Wan Yong, son Ministre-president d'fitat, 
 
 Lesquels, par suite des conferences et deliberations mutu- 
 elles, sont convenus des articles suivants: 
 
 Article premier. — S.M. I'Empereur de Coree fait la ces- 
 sion complete et permanente a S.M. I'Empereur du Japon de 
 tours les droits de la souverainete sur la totalite de la Coree. 
 
 Art. 2. — S.M. I'Empereur du Japon accepte la cession men- 
 tionnee dans I'article precedent et consent a I'annexion com- 
 plete de la Coree a I'empire du Japon. 
 
 Art. 3.— S.M. I'Empereur du Japon accordera a LL. MM. 
 I'Empereur et I'ex-Empereur et a S.A. le prince heritier de 
 Coree et a leurs epouses et heritiers, des titres dignites et 
 honneurs qui sont appropries a leurs rangs respectifs, et des 
 dons annuels seront faits pour maintenir ces titres, dignites 
 et honneurs. 
 
 Art. 4. — S.M. I'Empereur du Japon accordera aussi des 
 honneurs et traitements appropries aux membres de la 
 maison imperiale de Coree et a leurs heritiers autres que 
 ceux mentionnes dans I'article precedent; et des fonds neces- 
 saires, pour maintenir ces honneurs et traitements leurs 
 seront octroyes. 
 
98 THE TRUTH ABOUT KOREA. 
 
 Art. S.— S.M. I'Empereur du Japon conferera la prairie et 
 des dons pecuniaires a ceux des Coreens qui, a cause de 
 services meritoires, sont consideres dignes de ces recon- 
 naissances speciales. 
 
 Art. 6. — Par suite de I'annexion ci-dessus mentionnee, le 
 gouvernement du Japon prend le gouvernement et I'adminis- 
 tration de la Coree et s'engage a accorder I'entiere protec- 
 tion aux personnes et proprietes des Coreens qui obeissent 
 aux lois en vigueur en Coree et a accroitre le bien-etre de 
 tous ces Coreens. 
 
 Art. 7. — ^Le gouvernement du Japon, en tant que les 
 circonstances le premettent, emploiera dans les services pub- 
 lics du Japon en Coree, ceux des Coreens qui acceptent le 
 nouveau regime loyalement et de bonne foi et y sont dument 
 qualifies. 
 
 Art. 8. — Le present traite ayant ete approuve par S.M. 
 I'Empereur du Japon; et par S.M. I'Empereur de Coree, 
 produira son effet a partir du jour de sa promulgation. 
 
 En foi de quoi, etc. 
 
 No. 2. 
 "THE KOREAN CONSPIRACY CASE" 
 
 The following extracts are from a pamphlet entitled "The 
 Korean Conspiracy Case," issued in New York on Novem- 
 ber 20, 1912, as the "outcome of a conference of representa- 
 tives of all the missionary organizations of the United States 
 . . . conducting work in Korea with several eminent 
 laymen . . . connected with these organizations and 
 whose counsel was sought because their international repu- 
 tation and their detachment from the missionary interests 
 immediately involved fitted them to. give dispassionate ad- 
 vice." 
 
 * * * * 
 
 The interest of the civilized world has been aroused by 
 the difficulties that have developed in Korea and which 
 
"THE KOREAN CONSPIRACY CASE." 99 
 
 have culminated in the arrest, trial and conviction of a large 
 number of Korean Christians on a charge of conspiring to 
 assassinate Count Terauchi, the Governor General. The cir- 
 cumstances raise some grave questions in which Western 
 peoples are deeply concerned. It is true that from the view- 
 point of international law and diplomatic intercourse these 
 questions primarily relate to Japan's treatment of her own 
 subjects; but it is also true that it may be said of nations, as 
 of individuals, that "none of us liveth to himself." Man- 
 kind has passed the stage where it is indifferent to what any 
 government does to a subject race. 
 
 * * * * 
 
 Evidences have been multiplying for more than a year that 
 (the Japanese) military party is now in the saddle. Uni- 
 formed gendarmes swarm in Korea, particularly in the north. 
 Secret police are ubiquitous. Spies attend every meeting of 
 Koreans. All organizations are suspected of revolutionary 
 designs. We do not know that they had, but every country 
 in Asia is honeycombed with guilds and societies of various 
 kind, many of them more or less political. The Koreans 
 would be lacking in the commonest elements of human 
 nature if some of them might not have thought of doing 
 what every subject people has done since the world began— 
 take secret counsel as to how the yoke of the alien con- 
 queror might be thrown off. 
 
 * * * * 
 
 From all political movements, however, the missionaries 
 and the leading Korean Christians resolutely sought to keep 
 the churches aloof. Obedience to the "powers that be" was 
 preached from evfery pulpit. The church must have nothing 
 to do with politics, the Christians were told. ... So 
 strong was this determination of the Missionaries and 
 Korean church leaders that it was not uncommon for 
 Koreans outside the churches to taunt Christians with being 
 on the side of the enemies of their country and for the 
 
100 THE TRUTH ABOUT KOREA. 
 
 missionaries to be told that if it were not for them, a revo- 
 lution would have been started long ago. 
 
 * * * * 
 
 The missionaries are the great men of Korea. While they 
 cannot control the political activities of the hundreds of 
 thousands of Korean Christians, they have used their great 
 influence to induce the Koreans to acquiesce in the Japan- 
 ese rule. Indeed, it has often been said that if it had not 
 been for the missionaries, a revolution would have broken 
 out when Korea was annexed to Japan. The Japanese fully 
 appreciate this; but they are restive under a situation in 
 which foreigners apparently have power to make or unmake 
 a revolution among their own subjects. Japanese national 
 pride demands Japanese supremacy within Japanese territory. 
 A Japanese official who sees himself overshadowed by an 
 American Missionary is more or less unconsciously jealous 
 and is apt to feel that such pre-eminence is prejudicial to 
 the interests of Japan and that it must be broken. 
 
 * * * * 
 
 In the fall of 1911 the Japanese suspicion of the churches 
 began to find more open expression in the arrest of leading 
 Korean Christians . . . many of the men and boys 
 were kept in jail for months without food or clothing for 
 the cold weather, without knowing the charges against them, 
 and without being permitted to have legal counsel. Other 
 arrests were made in other places until a considerable num- 
 ber of Christians were in jail. . . . The number of ar- 
 rested men that were sent from the provincial towns of 
 Seoul . . . were said by the "Seoul Press" of April 
 19, 1912, to have been ISO. 
 
 * * * * 
 
 . the Japanese authorities announced that they had 
 discovered a conspiracy, that the specific charge against the 
 men and youths whom they had arrested was a participation 
 in a plot to murder Governor General Terauchi, and that 
 under preliminary police examination the accused men had 
 ■'confessed" their guilt. The public trial began June 28, 
 
"THE KOREAN CONSPIRACY CASE." 101 
 
 1912, before the District Court of Seoul. . . . It is 
 deeply to be regretted that the trial proved to be of such a 
 character as to strengthen the grave fears regarding the 
 methods of the Japanese. The methods of procedure impress 
 a Western mind as peculiar. The lawyers for the defense 
 were not permitted to confer with their clients until shortly 
 before the public trial, months after the prosecution had 
 prepared its case with freest secret access to the prisoners. 
 When their lawyers were given permission to see them, the 
 conversations were in the presence of a scowling police so 
 that the sorely beset men could imagine what their jailers 
 would do to them afterwards if anything was said that did 
 not please them. The enormous voluminous records of the 
 case were not made accessible to the counsel for the defense 
 until it was too late to give them proper study or to verify 
 the allegations of facts. In court, all questions were asked 
 and witnesses examined through and at the option of the 
 presiding Judge. The jury system has not reached Japan, 
 and the whole course of trial showed that the judges had 
 made up their minds before the trial and that they were in 
 effect judges, jury and prosecuting attorneys combined. 
 . . . As the trial proceeded the hostile and unprejudicial 
 attitude of the court became more and more apparent. In- 
 numerable questions by the judges were clearly intended to 
 be traps for the men whom they were trying. When one 
 of the pastors was tripped in a slight verbal inaccuracy, the 
 presiding judge loudly called him "a lying Jesus doctrine 
 pastor" and peremptorily dismissed him. At this the whole 
 court laughed heartily. . . . 
 
 Finally, the perversion of justice became so gross that on 
 July 17th, the counsel for the defense boldly refused to pro- 
 ceed and announced that they "felt it proper to state their 
 opinion that the trial was not being conducted in a regular 
 manner and in accordance with Art. 41 in the Code of Crim- 
 inal Procedure, for the honour of the Imperial Judiciary 
 and with a view to the full defense of the accused," and 
 they therefore applied for the unseating of the Chief Judge 
 
102 THE TRUTH ABOUT KOREA. 
 
 Tsukahara and his colleagues and for a new trial under 
 diflferent judges. The court announced a suspension of the 
 trial, pending appeal to a higher court for the assignment 
 of other judges. The appeal was overruled, and after some 
 delay, the trial was resumed August 23rd, but was brought 
 to a close in the unexpectedly short period of four days. 
 The judges reserved their decision till September 28th when 
 they sentenced 105 of the defendants to terms of imprison- 
 ment — 6 for ten years, 18 for seven years, 39 for six years, 
 42 for five years. . . . Among those who received the 
 ten-year sentence was Baron Yun Chi Ho, President of the 
 Southern Methodist College at Songdo and Vice-President 
 of the Korean Y. M. C. A. 
 
BIBLIOGRAPHY 
 
 THE PASSING OF KOREA— An excellently illustrated 
 work, giving a thorough understanding of the Korean peo- 
 ple, their life, literature, customs and oppression under the 
 Japanese rule. By Homer B. Hulhert. 
 
 THE FAR EAST— Has a portion devoted to Korea, giv- 
 ing many interesting facts about the country and people. 
 By Archibald Little. 
 
 *THE STORY OF KOREA— An illustrated volume on 
 the life, customs and Japanese achievements in the pen- 
 insula. By Joseph Henry Longford. 
 
 KOREA AND HER NEIGHBORS— A work depicting 
 the life and customs in Korea during the latter part of the 
 last century. By Isabella Lucy Bishop. 
 
 *IN KOREA WITH MARQUIS ITO— A tale of Korea 
 during the rule of Marquis Ito, with an appreciation for the 
 Japanese administration. By George Trumbull Ladd. 
 
 *KOREA — ^A comprehensive review of the history, 
 people and commerce written through the courtesy of Jap- 
 anese officials. By Augustus Hamilton. 
 
 A CHRONOLOGICAL INDEX OF HISTORICAL 
 EVENTS — A chronological index of some of the chief 
 events in the foreign intercourse of Korea from the begin- 
 ning of the Christian era to the twentieth century. By 
 Horace N. Allen. 
 
 COREA, THE HERMIT NATION— A volume of 
 merit dealing with the people and customs. By William 
 Elliot Griffis. 
 
 *THE JAPANESE EMPIRE— Contains a number of 
 chapters giving a condensed review of Korea as a province 
 of the Japanese Empire. By Joseph Dautremier. 
 
 TREATIES AND CONVENTIONS— A volume gotten 
 out under the auspices of the United States Government, 
 reviewing the treaties and conventions between the United 
 
104 THE TRUTH ABOUT KOREA. 
 
 States and China and Korea. By William Woodville Rock- 
 hill. 
 
 KOREAN TREATIES— The most important documents 
 negotiated between Korea and the great powers. By Henry 
 Chung. 
 
 THE KOREAN CONSPIRACY CASE— A review of 
 the famous Conspiracy Case of 1912. By Arthur Judson 
 Brown. 
 
 KOREAN COMMERCE — A United States Government 
 publication published by the Department of Commerce and 
 Labor. 
 
 *THE JAPANESE YEAR BOOK FOR 1916— Has a 
 number of pages devoted to statistical information about 
 Korea or "Chosen." 
 
 ♦OFFICIAL GUIDE TO EASTERN ASIA, voL 1— A 
 traveler's guide giving much general information, maps, etc., 
 and prepared by the Imperial Japanese Government Rail- 
 ways. 
 
 ♦RESULTS OF THREE YEARS' ADMINISTRA- 
 TION OF CHOSEN— A Japanese Government publica- 
 tion, showing the progress in Korea during the first three 
 years after Japanese annexation. 
 
 ♦ANNUAL REPORTS AND REFORMS AND 
 PROGRESS IN CHOSEN— A well-illustrated Japanese 
 Government publication enumerating the achievements of 
 Japanese rule in Korea. 
 
 PAMPHLETS: Japanese Diplomacy and Force in 
 Korea, by Arthur MacLennon; Korea's Appeal for Self- 
 Determination, by /. E. Moore; Independence for Korea. 
 
 *Books marked with an asterisk are either a part of Japanese Gov- 
 ernment propaganda or show pro-Japanese influence.