Several independence manifestations by Koreans occurred last night in Seoul.  It is rumored that a declaration of independence has been signed by prominent Koreans.

All the officers of the recently formed “Women’s Patriotic League” have been taken into custody. 

13 Jan 1920

A Korean National Army has crossed the Siberian frontiers into Korea and has captured En Chin from the Japanese Provisional Government forces, according to a cablegram from Shanghai to the Korean National Association here.

9 Feb 1920

Active rebellion in Korea against Japanese rule, fostered by the Russian Bolsheviki, and characterized as “the beginning of a tremendous affair,” is in progress, according to official dispatches received today in Washington.

A recent clash between 2,000 Koreans, armed mainly by the Bolsheviki, and a Japanese army post of 700 men in Northern Korea, the message said, had resulted in defeat of the Japanese, 300 of whom were killed and the remainder routed.

According to official information, Bolshevist authorities are in close touch with the Korean leaders and are making every effort to provide their troops with adequate equipment.

Reports received here recently said the entire length of the branch of the Siberian Railroad running from Vladivostok west through Northern Manchuria had come under Bolshevist influence and that a movement was on foot to organize the local Bolshevist forces in combination with the numerous bands of Chinese brigands to invade Korea.

Three full Japanese divisions are in Korea, but it is said in Japanese circles that these have been so scattered to maintain order that they probably could offer little immediate resistance to an invasion.

[Report from London] Northern Korea has been evacuated by the Japanese, it is claimed in a wireless dispatch from Moscow today, quoting an Omsk message.  The population rose to aid Korean forces from Chinese territory, it is declared.

Officials here have known for some time that many thousands of Koreans who fled into Manchuria were meditating hostile action against Japan.  While there is no real Bolshevist feeling among these people, according to the authorities, they are so stirred by hostility to the Japanese that they probably are willing to join with any other elements in attacking them.

"[Japanese official] In regard to the Korean situation, I must first mention the primary object of annexation.  At that time the Japanese felt that the existing Korean administration was inadequate to life up the condition of the Koreans, develop their latent industrial capacity, and give them better educations. 

In annexing Korea it was our purpose to better the condition of the people without any idea of discrimination.  To my thinking, it is wrong to use the word colony for Korea, since it is a country with its own special historical development.  The recent unfortunate disturbance in Korea, which was due to lack of understanding, will turn out to be a great blessing to us, because it has aroused in us a renewed purpose to do our best for the improvement of Korean affairs.  I assure you there will be a remarkable change in the administration of Korea.”

The Baron [recently named the new head of the Japanese government in Korea] stated that it was his purpose to accord equal treatment to the Koreans in all respects, that much liberality would be shown them with reference to their own language, that the endeavor would be made to prevent all harshness and unkindness toward the people on the part of both officials and non-officials, and that he was planning to inaugurate a measure of self-government through the establishment of local popular assemblies.  He hoped that in the course of some years Korean representatives would be allowed to sit in the Japanese National Diet.  Baron Saito expressed high appreciation of the work of the missionaries, and said that their labors would be exceedingly helpful toward working out the welfare of the Korean people.

9 July 1922

10 Dec 1922

It’s an academic book – based on the author’s dissertation – but the close up look it gives of how power was wielded and contested in Chosun society is interesting to a more general audience, I think.  The author draws from Max Weber and looks at power-in-action at the highest level of society. 

If you look at the title of each chapter, you can get a good idea if it is something you’d be interested in.

CHAPTER ONE. The Monarchy And Ideology
I. Rectification of Name Theory and Korean Monarchy
II. Indoctrination of Monarch

CHAPTER TWO. The Monarchy and Decision Making
I. Constitution of The Decision-Making Body
II. Sphere of Conflict 

CHAPTER THREE. The Monarchy and The Historian
I. Historian’s Watch
II. Historical Notes
III. Compilation of Veritable Record

The king is supposed to be the father figure of the society in Confucianistic terms, but the book describes – in detail with personal examples – how Korean kings were forced by the scholar-officials to sit through demanding lessons on Confucianism and Confucian ethics, as well as lectures on how their (the king and his family and associates’) private actions (like too many falcon hunting trips) were detrimental to Confucianism and the health of the nation, to the point some kings chose to give up the thrown altogether — or so it seemed…

They would abdicate the throne in favor of the Crown Prince, but, because of Confucianism’s strong emphasis on filial piety, the father could expect his son to follow his advice — leaving the son to  “endure” the complaints and ideological brow-beating by the bureaucrats, while the father tried to relax behind the scenes.

Another thing I found interesting was how the usually youngish, idealistic officials of the Censorate could bring the entire government apparatus to a halt through sit-in strikes or simply refusing to put the Censorate’s signature on documents.

Reading this book, you get the sense that – really – times haven’t changed that much. 

The Korean (and Japanese) National Assembly has been known for its mass scrums on the house floor.  Britain has the PM questioning hour.  And the US just demonstrated its gridlock with the boondoggle marathon over raising the debt limit and spending cuts… 

“Every night I dream of the palace days,” Yi Seok began, in sometimes hesitant English. We leaned in. This is what we’d come to hear — the tale of a fortunate son born too late.

Yi Seok’s life story is best known for its low point and his rebirth: After decades of struggle, including immigrating illegally to the United States, he returned to Korea only to become homeless. In 2004, a Korean reporter found him sleeping in an all-night bathhouse in Seoul and wrote about his plight. The city of Jeonju, seeking to promote tourism as the birthplace of the Joseon dynasty’s founder, gave him a house and a new job as a spokesman for the past.

Today he gives tours in Jeonju and speaks about royal history at universities around the country. He’s invited to wave to crowds at festivals and ribbon cuttings and to kick the first ball in soccer games.  [Washington Post]

You can read the rest at the link, but he ultimately wants to have the monarchy re-established in Seoul in order to draw tourists.  I don’t see it happening, but his family’s ancestral home land in Jeonju seems happy to sponsor him though.

Village Gentleman

At some time (it may be in the very far distant past—yes, as much as ten generations ago) some of his ancestors held office and were considered gentlemen by the king; and by virtue of this fact he has inherited certain rights and privileges that do not come to the common herd. The fact that he is a gentleman is sufficient ground for him to excuse himself from everything in the shape and form of common labor.

Yangban Politeness and Patience

In all the arts of politeness our village gentleman is a past master of the first degree. From the time he can walk and talk, the study of polite forms of speech and action are his daily duties.

He can easily forgive one for telling a falsehood or for taking too large a per cent of an amount of trust funds that passed through his hands, but to show any signs of impatience or impoliteness would be sins not to be pardoned.

Yangban’s Place in the Village

Not only does he use the low forms of speech when addressing other people, but he requires other people to address him in the high forms of speech. Thus the very language itself is a means of ever widening the chasm that separates the classes living in the same little village. He has little regard for the rights of his neighbors; whatever they may have that he wants he appropriates at his own price or at no price, as the"’ notion strikes him.

Village Girl

Our village girl plays about the house and yard with the other children of the ‘village until she is seven or eight years old, at which time she must be separated from the boys and men, taking her place in the woman’s department of the house, where she is not to be seen by men or boys unless they be her near relatives.

This cannot be strictly applied in the case of the middle and lower classes, where the girls must be seen as they go about the work which they must do. If there be a baby in the family, from the time the little girl can carry it she will spend most of her time with the baby tied on her back. When she goes out to play with other children, the baby is on her back if she goes out to work, baby also goes, not to work, of course, but to ride while sister works. In some of the schools that have been started by missionaries for girls, the girls come to school with babies strapped on their backs.

The parents do not consider her as a permanent part of the family, but only as a burden which is to be carried till such a time as she |Can be disposed of to the best advantage to themselves. This period is not very long, since in most cases the girl is betrothed and often sent to the house of her husband to-be before she is twelve^ years old.

Mothers-in-Law

These girl wives are literally the slaves of the household into which they are carried. The mother-in-law rules with a hand of iron and a rod of

steel. Many women have two, three, four, or more of these young daughters-in-law under their care, and take peculiar pleasure in making them understand what is what and who is who.

Daughters-in-Law and Wives

Is it any wonder that these young wives often find their burdens greater than they can bear and end the matter by taking their own lives ? They go on and on in the hopeless way that lies before them, till at last in their bondage and degradation the blackness of despair settles over them and all hope is forever lost. Then it is that in the quietness of the night many of them steal out to the village well and, standing there at its mouth, doubtless look up into the blue sky and gaze at the twinkling stars and wonder why the great spirits do not hear and answer prayer; they wonder why the days are so long and the nights so dark; why the burdens are so heavy and the way so long and ever without a change; then with a last glance at the bright stars reflected in the deep cold water below—and she is gone! Next morning somebody’s daughter-in-law is fished out of the village well, wrapped in a bit of straw matting, and laid in a shallow grave on the hillside; and in less than ten days another daughter-in-law has been duly installed in her place.

The one bright star that shines in the life of our village girl is the hope that inspires her to say something like the following: "Some day I too will be the happy mother of a son, and then it will not be long till I too shall have a daughter-in-law, and then I shall get even with the world. I shall then settle up all old scores. I shall then pay back in the same coinage all that I am now receiving, with interest thrown in for good measure."

But, in fact, no one is married but once.  When a man loses his wife from any cause whatever and he wants another, he simply finds some woman that will go with him and he takes her to his house, and that settles it.

Widows Among the Non-Elite

In many cases a woman is compelled to go and live with some man when it is altogether against her will.  She is largely in the hands of her husband’s relatives, and they will dispose of her as they think best for their own interests.

When a widow is left with no one to protect her, it is no unusual thing for a crowd of men to come and take her away to be the wife of some one of their number.  This sometimes done the very day the husband is buried.

The Village Inn

The village inn is no small factor in most Korean villages which happen to be situated on one of the public roads.  It is often found in the more secluded country villages.   The Koreans as a people do much traveling, both on account of business and for pleasure. 

The merchants are itinerating merchants, and must have places to stop for the night as they travel from place to place.

Rural Markets

There are certain villages known as market towns which have been selected because of location and in these the market is held every five days.

…Here the people meet from all the country around, some to sell, others to buy, and still others to drink and gamble; while others come to see and to be seen and to hear what is going on in that part of the world which happens to lie beyond the borders of their own village.

(Image:  Shoe vendor)

Inn II

The inn can be told by the large front door, which is wide enough for the ponies [used as pack trains to transport goods for the traveling merchants] to enter with their loads on their backs…The house is built around a small court, which is used for the purpose of loading and unloading the packs. 

In the front the stalls will nearly always be found, and next to them come the rooms for the men, who always want to be near the ponies during the night to keep them from fighting.

The inns had two basically similar rooms – one for officials and elites and the other for the common man.

The guest room is usually about 8 to 16 feet, and is often occupied by 15 or 20 men at the same time.

Floor Heating System

The same fire that cooks the food for the ponies is also utilized in the warming the room where the guests sleep.  This is true in August as well as December, and adds no little discomfort to the guests when the weather is warm.

The warm floors contribute in another way to the discomfort of the guests:  They act as a sort of incubator for the hatching and rearing of innumerable insects and creeping things…

Sons in the Family

It is the desire on the part of the parents to train the boy so that he will not fail [in offering ancestral sacrifices] that leads them to humor the boy till he is spoiled.  They are afraid he will not look well to their interests after they are gone if they do not let him have his way while they are here.  According to their way of thinking, their eternal happiness will depend upon the way the ancestral worship is carried on after they are gone.  Daughters cannot perform these rites.

Eldest Sons

In the family circle he stands next to the father, and he lords it over his mother from the time he has the power of speech to command her.

So, we find him taking care of his little brothers and sisters while he is only a very small boy himself.  It is no unusual sight to see him with his baby brother or sister strapped hard and fast on his back, while he is engaged with the other boys of the village in the most exciting games of the season.

This book was published in 1911 – which is when Japan formally annexed Korea after virtually taking it over in 1905.   You can find a handful of books from around this time detailing the situation in Korea and the Japanese colonial effort. 

Some are written by missionaries.  Some by other long-time foreign residents in Korea.  Some by academics on contemporary politics.  (There are also numerous books at the rise of Japanese power in Asia and the potential clash with the United States.)

I skipped the first sections of the book that overview Korean history.  The part on the annexation by Japan might interest some.  Also, I am reading it on Kindle, so I won’t give page numbers, because there aren’t any…

Seoul

Here is an early note on Seoul that I found interesting.  It reminds me of horrible descriptions of London before modern sanitation:

All the streets are entirely innocent of sidewalks, but instead each is beautified with an open ditch with serves as a sewer for all manner of filth known to a great city like this.  The houses are built in long rows along the sides of these ditches, every house being provided with a convenient loophole through which all manner of filth is daily dumped into the open ditch.

No wonder the capital city was the focal point of life in Korea but so many people chose to live outside its walls.

There are but few temples in the city; in fact there is but one that is worthy the name.  This is the Temple of Heaven, where his Majesty is supposed to worship.

The last dynasty in Korea (Joseon/Chosun) was established in 1392 by mostly Confucian-oriented scholar-nobles.  They blamed the weakness of the Goryeo/Koryo government on Buddhism, and over a period of centuries, they dramatically limited Buddhist practice throughout the nation.  (The Confucian Transformation of Korea)

Shopping

The articles of trade are placed around the three sides of the room and piled about in different places, to display them to the passer-by.  The customer does not enter the shop, but stands in the street while he makes his purchase.. The merchant sits on a mat in the middle of the room, from which point he can reach almost everything in stock.

Economic Life

In the capital there are many people who have no business-that is to say, they are gentlemen of leisure.  They are gentlemen, and gentlemen are not supposed to meddle with such sordid matters as manufacture and merchandise-no, not even office work, unless it be an office connected with the government.

This is another aspect of the Confucianization of Korean culture.  That doesn’t mean that pre-modern Korean society was bustling with economic activity before Joseon.  It does mean that the type of economic development that took place in Japan in the 19th and 20th centuries was hampered in Korea by the strength of Confucianism. 

I haven’t read much on this in Korean literature and history, but the opening of Korea by the US and Western powers, and the encroachment of Japanese imperial power in the late 1800s led many Korean intellectuals to despise the Confucianization of the society.  (Evaluation of Confucianism and the “historical weakness” of Korea also led some of them to pro-Japanese activity – even if the idea was that a stronger Korea in the future would naturally pull back away from Japan.)

The business of a gentleman is to hold office and rule the people, and Seoul is supremely a city of gentlemen.

Many of these gentlemen spend the greater part of their lives hanging around waiting for some office-which they never get, for the simple reason that they cannot raise the money enough to pay for it.

In short, traditional Korean society (at least in Joseon) saw Big Government as the focal point of social aspirations.  Educated people studied for the Civil Service Exams (Gwageo/Kwago) in order to establish themselves at government – either in the capital or provincial or local levels.  (It is useful to remember that Korean society kept hold of the original principles of Neo-Confucianism more than even Chinese civilization.  Korean scholar-elites even sent criticism to the Chinese after reformations like that by Wang Yangming.)

That is not to say there was no business being done in the capital:

The markets are conducted every morning in the wide streets inside the South and East Gates.  They are open and the traders ready for business every morning long before sun up.

The Village

Plan, did I say?  There is hardly any plan to any of them. They all seem to have been built one house at a time, without the least reference to what would be needed in the future enlargement of the place.

No tubs are used, but water is poured over the clothes while they are being beaten with a paddle; and the water, after passing through the soiled clothes, often finds its way back into the well by the nearest route.

What in America would be called the backyard is always in the front yard in our village.  That is to say, the pigpen and all other outhouses that would be found in the backyard or in the garden of an American home are here found in the street or in the front.

Making a village house:

The foundation is prepared by first throwing up the dirt till it is higher than the surrounding ground.  It is a strange sight to see a crowd of men packing this foundation.  The leader of the band with a drum keeps time, while each man with a small stick pounds the ground, at the same time stamping it with his feet.

…[Walls] which are made by first weaving in a sort of basket-work of small sticks and tying them with straw rope.  Mud is plastered to this till the wall is about three inches thick.  The best of these walls are finished up with a coat of lime and sand, but the larger part of these houses never get this finishing touch.

Every house has at least two rooms, the living room ad the cook shed.  For the latter always, even in the best houses, there is nothing more than mother earth for the floor. 

Local Politics

The government of the village is very simple.  Every village has its elders, who are usually the older and more prominent men in the village…They are selected, however, by a sort of general consent of their fellow-villagers and confirmed by the county magistrate…Then, too, another important part of their business is to assist the tax collector in squeezing the people.

Village Life

There are no secrets in the village.  Everybody knows everybody else’s business equally as well as he knows his own…

In case of fire in a village, the people whose house is burning will do all they can to extinguish the flames, while their neighbors may be seen standing on the tops of their houses waving a pair of trousers in the air to keep the fire spirit from coming their way.

These villages are found not only along the main road, but they are to be found everywhere that farm lands can be obtained.  Often a large village of several hundred houses is found away back in some valley where nothing of the sort would be expected.

  The next chapter of the book covers Family Life and has an extended section about how the father, then eldest son, is the head of the family, with authority and responsibility, until he dies. 

I don’t know how much that is still true today (2011), but you could still see its influence among the adults I taught in the late-1990s.

Slavery

Slavery must be taken into account in discussing the family life of the well-to-do, since it is part of the social custom and law of the land.  There are no male slaves, though the condition of many men is little better than slavery. 

The women are real slaves, being bought and sold the same as pigs and cows, and are recognized as the property of their master.

In former times this was true of men also, but more than three hundred years ago, at the time of the great Japanese invasion, so many of the men were killed that a decree went forth that there were to be no more male slaves…

…The slave women are in some sense the freest women in the country…They go where they please, without regard to being seen by men, wearing no covering over their faces as do the other women.

Below are some more quotes from this summary.  If you go to the document itself, you’ll see below it is a lengthy account of the testimony from the tribunal.

Here is a long article

The article states that the Shenandoah was sent in part because rumors that reached authorities in China stated some of the Sherman sailors were still alive and in prison in Korea.

[Update:  From the foreign policy archives, I found the mention of possible General Sherman surivors:

Interesting.  Also interesting is that this is part of a letter to the Emperor of China asking him to talk to the Koreans to help clear up the Sherman Incident. ]

I looked around the online archives and came across this report on the US ship Wachusett that was earlier sent to investigate the Gernal Sherman incident.

The entry includes the report by the commander of the Wachusett:

They spoke with great reserve when questioned in reference to the General Sherman but every one of them told the same story which they said was known all over the country viz that the vessel was burned last September up the Ping Yang river and all of her people amounting to twenty seven persons were killed in a melee on shore by the natives and not by order of the mandarins.

There remains no reasonable doubt of these facts and no doubt whatever of the locality of that disaster.

He goes on to describe in harsh language his impression of the local government official who responded to his request to send a letter to the king.

He includes both the letter to the king and an introductory one to the local official.  They are worth reading.

Lastly, he includes a transcript of the interview with the local official.  (That official sounds a lot like Tom, seriously…)

Below these reports comes one by another vessel sent to scout a small island well off the coast of southern Korea.  The captain was to survey it as a possible naval post.  (Port Hamilton)

One interesting thing is that the reports give latitude and longitude readings for where the ships dropped anchor – and you can locate them via Google Earth…

Update – Book Source – 1870

This is a travelog of China and Japan including Korea (Corea), and it seems the author was aboard the Shenandoah.  As a travelog, it has more details and descriptions.  It also gives further light on the General Sherman:

The book also has some stuff about the persecution of Christians around this time in Korea:

Update II

Here is a mention of the General Sherman Incident from official US foreign policy papers:

The details were brought by, apparently, a party commissioned by the King of Korea to head off future trouble over the recent massacre of Catholics and the General Sherman Incident.  The comission seemed to have crisscrossed with that of the CSS Shenandoah.

This collection of foreign dispatches are interesting, if you like history, and show some other details about what was going on in Korea involving dastardly Americans:

I’m curious what the Korean archives have to say about all of this – in particular does it state that all the foreigners were killed or not?

Update III

From earlier Congressional documents, we have the initial account of the General Sherman Incident that was told to US authorities in China: