16 Aug 1919 – Accuses Japanese of ‘Orgy’ in Korea

Professor Homer E. Hulbert, who was for twenty-three years a resident of Korea and was an official adviser of the former Korean Emperor, filed a statement with the Senate Ctme on Foreign Relations today in which he said that the Japanese had ruled that country, against the will of its people, with an iron hand, committing atrocities, and in other ways had proved the hardest kind of taskmasters to the Koreans.

People remotely familiar with Korean history will have heard of this man’s name.  If you go to Google Books, you can read his work on Korea for free.

As I mentioned in the review of the news archives for the Russo-Japanese War 1904-1905, Hulbert represents a trend among the mostly missionary American expats who tried to convince people in the US and West that Japan’s actions against Korea were not good.  They stood in opposition to the (seemingly) majority opinion among the foreign policy crowd that thought some good could come out of Japan “modernizing” Korea.  Pres. Teddy Roosevelt was in that crowd.

“The time has come,” says Professor Hulbert in his statement to the Foreign Relations Cmte, “when it seems necessary to lay before the American people some facts bearing upon the request of the Korean people that they be freed from the tyranny of the Japanese.  This request was made by millions of that nation in a perfectly peaceful way on March 1, 1919, and was met by a perfect orgy of abuse and persecution on the part of the military authorities there.  Thousands of people were beaten, tortured and even killed, and women were treated with obscene brutality.”

The article might be worth reading in full even for those familiar with Hulbert.  I’ll jump ahead to quote an interesting part about how the crackdown and recognition of it by the world community (perhaps) led to some changes:

“The people of America…have read in all the papers indescribable atrocities of which Japan has been guilty during the last few months.  And now Japan, whipped to it by public opinion, says that the military party has gone too far and reforms will be instituted.  The apologists of Japan have been saying that the civil party will change all that.  Well, I ask the American public to note that the following things were common occurrences in Korea when the civil party was dominant there and Prince Ito was the Governor General:

Because three Koreans, maddened by the fact that all their land had been taken by the Japanese for railroad purposes, without a cent of immediate or prospective payment, went out one night and tore up a few feet of a construction track, they were taken out and crucified and then shot to pieces.  There are hundreds of photographs of this event.

When a telegraph line was cut near a country village by parties unknown but presumably by Korean guerrilla fighters, the Japanese came and burned down ten villages and left the people to freeze and starve during the Winter.  One old man over eighty years old, on his knees, begged them to spare his home.  The Japanese ran him through with their swords and threw his body into the burning rafters of his own home.

18 Aug 1919 – Japanese Continue Beating Koreans – 90 Strokes of the Bamboo is Punishment Frequently Given to Prisoners

The article starts with a “hopeful” note from a preacher with The Commission on Relations with the Orient of the Federal Council of the Churches of Christ in America:

“The decision of the Hara Cabinet, as reported by cable from Premier Hara to this commission, to undertake a thorough going administrative reform is under way…  The Japanese Privy Council has given prolonged consideration to the Hara proposals.  There apparently has been active opposition from the militarists, but enough has been given to the public to warrant belief that the Hara plan to give Korea a new civil administration has been accepted.

The reverend goes on to say some interesting things about how the March 1st Movement was playing out in Japanese society:

The judgment is virtually unanimous that the real cause of the tragedy is the military method by which Korea has been governed since its annexation.  These are condemned, Japanese in Korea, as well as the Koreans, are calling for the abolition of the military system.”

The last part talks about the 90 strokes by bamboo – given over a 3 day period with 30 each.  One thing to keep in mind is — this was before antibiotics – any kind of beating like that stood the chance of becoming infected and then causing death…

18 Aug 1919 May Talk All Day With Wilson Today

The last installment of this look at the NY Times Archives for the March 1st Movement showed some pretty interesting political cat fights in the US Congress.  One thing I don’t remember hearing people emphasize that much concerning the March 1st Movement is what was going on in the US with Pres. Wilson and the Paris Peace Treaty.

All arrangements have been completed for the historic meeting at the White House tomorrow morning when Pres. Wilson will begin his discussion of the treaty and the League covenant with the members of the Senate Foreign Relations Cmte, calling by appointment to seek information from him.

Of course, we know Wilson was unable to get the US congress (and people) to agree to join the League of Nations he so championed…

We saw last month how Sen. Borah was a key combatant on the Senate floor.  Here is an interesting note concerning the upcoming meeting:

…Senators Borah and Fall, who were not willing to attend the conference unless every word spoken was taken down by stenographers……the minutes will be given out in relays to the press for immediate publication.

Korea comes up when Sen. Borah lays out his objection to the US joining the League – he mentions several colonial hotspots and says:

…that under Article 10 of the League of Nations covenant, touching upon the guarantee of political independence and territorial integrity of members of the League, the US, if it joined the League, would be obliged to assist any country in putting down an uprising.

Mr. Borah said that Japan intended to dominate the Far East through her privileges in Korea and Shantung, and referred to reports of Japanese cruelties in Korea.

This is a long article, and much of it talks about Japan – if you want to read it…

An interesting part is:

Sen. King of Utah interrupted to ask if it were not true that Japan has a “special interest in the Orient, the same as the US insists upon having in the Western Hemisphere.”

That is something to let sink in for a second.  He goes on:

Obviously, Japan must have some place in the sun,” said Sen. King.  “She cannot expand to the east, she is forbidden to go into Australia or New Zealand.  Manifestly, her destiny leads her into Asia.”

That’s slick and smart — bringing up the Monroe Doctrine and Manifest Destiny here.

Something else to note is that, I can’t remember the name of it, but I remember reading some years ago about how Japan justified expansion in similar social-Darwinian terms as Hitler — about the need for “living space” to handle the natural expansion of the population and economic might.

This is also curious in terms of sides — Sen. King seems clearly to be talking against the previous senator who portrayed Japan’s expansion as bad.  But that other senator was like Borah in objecting to the League of Nations because it would pull the US into colonial struggles.

King certainly isn’t a fan of Wilsonism here.  So I don’t see why he would support the League…???…

It seems other senators wondered about this too:

“Well, what would become of the doctrine of self-determination and the new theory that ‘weak nations are to be protected from the strong.’” asked Sen. Reed, “if we go back to the old barbarian principles which we have heard so much denounced, that power and strength shall multiply itself and march forward with resistless force and take whatever it wants to take?”

King attempts a rebuttal, but it doesn’t fly very well:

“A recognition of the proposition that Japan is entitled to have a special interest in the Orient is not to be confused…with the idea of the right of self-determination or the right of nationality and sovereignty that belongs to all nations.  We assert a special interest in the Western Hemisphere for our republic.  We do not mean by the assertion of that special interest that we are interfering with the sovereignty or the rights or the liberties or the freedom of any peoples upon the Western Hemisphere.”

Well, what we meant by the Monroe Doctrine was that European colonial powers should get out and stay out.  That it was our sphere of influence and ours alone.

This doesn’t really work for Japan in 1919:  Much of Asia was already long colonized.  And all the great powers were antsy about what the others had in mind for China — this was true going back a few decades…

If Japan wanted to have a sphere of influence in greater Asia, it’d have to deal with other powers already there – which it did in WWII…

And Sen. Reed shot back fairly along these lines:

“That is just the difference between American civilization and Japanese barbarism…They do mean to assert,  and they are asserting, the right of national robbery and universal theft.”

The full  text of the meeting can be found here.  It is huge, and I have yet to read it, and I won’t quote from it.  You’ll have to see it for yourself…It probably has some good barbs in it…

21 Aug 1919 – Doesn’t Satisfy Koreans

[lead paragraph] Dr. Syngman Rhee, President of the “Republic of Korea,” whose HQ is now in Washington, issued a long statement tonight on the Japanese announcements on the future of Korea.

“This cable means only that they have added another Governor to Korea, a civil Government, subordinate to the military governor.  It certainly does not mean the withdrawal of the military government in Korea and the establishment of a civil one, which Japan promised.

“Any reform in Korea at this time will stimulate rather than quiet down the spirit of independence on the part of Koreans, and, therefore, the Japanese Government cannot substitute for military rule a civil one.”

“Koreans will not be satisfied with anything less than complete independence.  They do not want reforms either military or civil emanating from Japanese.  They want the right to govern themselves in their own way, but a representative form of government.  They want self-determination.  They are entirely competent to do this.”

“Japan came into Korea by trick and subterfuge, first claiming a great friendship for the Korean people and loudly proclaiming that Korea was an independent nation: then step by step Japan obtained control, not by reason of mental or moral superiority, but by brute force and intimidation.”

21 Aug 1919 – To Rule Koreans Like Japanese; Emperor and Premier Announce That All Distinctions Will Be Removed

[Statement by Premier Hara]  It is specifically declared by the Premier “that Korea and Japan proper forming equally integral parts of the same empire, no distinction should, in principle, be made between them, and it is the ultimate purpose of the Japanese government , in due course, to treat Korea as in all respects on the same footing with Japan proper.”

They reprint the statement in full, and it is rather long, so you can have a look at it yourself.

21 Aug 1919 – M’Cormick Fears New Imperialism

I noted last installment that this news coverage had opened up a new window on this topic by seeing that more power players in the US government were against Japan’s actions in Korea than I had noted before.  I had always focused on Pres. Roosevelt’s ideas and the opposition that came from missionaries in Korea.  There was more going on than that:

“For thirty-five years,” said the Senator from Illinois, “Japan’s foreign policy in Asia has been one of consistent perfidy and aggression.  I defy any one to make candid answer to that charge.

The diplomacy of Japan has been patterned after that of Frederick the Great in its disregard of truth, solemn pledges and human rights.  If any one doubts this, let him review his own memory of Japan’s relations with China and Korea, her secret and newly discovered violation of the pledges exchanged with the Gov. of the US.”

Here is something to think about:  There were Congressmen and newspaper men saying all this at a time the President Wilson was encouraging colonial people’s around the world to believe some powerful nations were willing to urge their independence…

…but the US remained largely isolationist.  The Congress, backed by the people, refused to join the League of Nations – regardless of what it was or wasn’t supposed to do.

10 years prior, you had President Roosevelt who didn’t look so unkindly on Japan’s moves in Korea, though he had his doubts, and you still had an American society defined by the desire to remain apart from entanglement in foreign affairs that might lead to conflict.  It wasn’t until WWII that that changed.

“It was not until 1908,” said Mr. McCormick, “that the protectorate over Korea was at last proclaimed.  In the following year marquis Ito categorically declared that Japan had no intention of annexing Korea.  Two years later-fifteen years after Japan had fought China to assure Korean independence-in 1910, there were published to the world the abdication of the Korean Emperor and the annexation of Korea to Japan.

The senator goes on to rip into the British, French, and Japanese for their colonial efforts elsewhere.  I’ll just quote one good line:

“Look at the map.  Trace the boundaries and the history of the European invasion of Africa and of Asia and see upon what exemplars Japan has patterned her policy.”

I was also unaware before about how much the opposition to the League of Nations stemmed from the idea that it was going to codify colonial gains instead of pushing Pres. Wilson’s idea of self-determination:

Their dominion now extends over a third of the habitable surface of the globe….The covenant and the treaty which was are asked to approve consolidates the interests, as the diplomats say, and guarantees the territorial acquisitions of the three principle powers holding dominion over subject peoples-Britain, Japan, and France.”

He finished with a flourish:

If we shirk from our duty, if we consent to the guarantee of territories, if we consent that America shall be an instrument to repress revolution, we shall not only consecrate the wrongs of the past, but by our act we shall pledge America against conscience and judgment to take part in the great war which the treaty promises, our young will go forth to defend cities of which they never heard.  In the high places of Asian the snow will cover the frozen bodies of Americans perhaps now unborn, and little girls today playing in the Summer airs about the door yards will morn their sons, fallen in the desert wastes of Syria and Egypt.

Well, he was close…

I remember reading about how people in the US saw the treaty that ended WWI as a guarantee WWII would happen.  And everything the senator predicted did come true – but not exactly like he said:

Powers on his side kept the US out of WWII until we were directly attacked.  It was only after being brought into the war that way that what he saw as the future happened…

…Also…I don’t think you can say that WWII was fought to keep colonial possessions or that the UN that grew out of the ashes of WWII and the failed League of Nations proved at least an effective tool of the colonial powers – as he describes the League:  Because, WWII (and WWI) so sapped the strength of the colonial powers, they started losing control of their colonies one by one.  It took a few decades to happen, but it was the general path after WWII…

23 Aug 1919 – Japanese Assailed by Korean Envoys

It seems the Koreans sent to Paris to try to get their voice heard at the Peace Talks made their way to Washington.

One of them, spelled Kiusic Kimm by the paper, also makes a prediction that turned out fairly true:  he predicted change would not come until war had reshaped Asia:

He said he believed it probable that there would be conflict and that eventually the Far East would be reconstituted, Korea would be reestablished as an independent State, and Japan would be confined to close limits of expansion.

The 24th has a fair sized statement from Rhee.