Korea's Fight for Freedom Part 22

2. The lives and property of foreigners shall be respected.

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.

The National Council issued a statement of its aims and purpose:

_April 22 1919._ We, the people of Korea, represented by thirty-three men, including Son Pyeng Heui, have already made the Declaration of Independence of Korea, found on the principle of righteousness and humanity. With a view to upholding the authority of the Declaration, solidifying the foundations of the Independence, and meeting the natural needs of humanity, we, by combining the large and small groups and the provincial representatives, have organized the Korean National Council, and hereby proclaim it to the world.

We, the people of Korea, have a history of over forty-two centuries, as a self-governing and separate state, and of special, creative civilization, and are a peace-loving race. We claim a right to be sharers in the world's enlightenment, and contributors in the evolution of mankind. With a distinctive and world-wide glorious past, and with our healthy national spirit, we should never be subjected to inhuman and unnatural oppression, nor a.s.similation by another race; and still less could we submit to the materialistic subjugation by the j.a.panese, whose spiritual civilization is 2,000 years behind ours.

The world knows that j.a.pan has violated the sworn treaties of the past and is robbing us of the right of existence. We, however, are not discussing the wrongs done us by the j.a.panese in the past, nor considering their acc.u.mulated sins; but, in order to guarantee our rights of existence, extend liberty and equality, safeguard righteousness and humanity, maintain the peace of the Orient, and respect the equitable welfare of the whole world, do claim the independence of Korea. This is truly the will of G.o.d, motivation of truth, just claim, and legitimate action. By this the world's verdict is to be won, and the repentance of j.a.pan hastened.

At this time, when the militarism which once threatened the peace of the world is brought to submission, and when the world is being reconstructed for a lasting peace, will j.a.pan refuse self-reflection and self-awakening? Obstinate clinging to the errors, which have gone contrary to the times and nature, will result in nothing but the diminution of the happiness of the two peoples and endangering of the peace of the world. This council demands with all earnestness that the government of j.a.pan abandon as early as possible the inhuman policy of aggression and firmly safeguard the tripodic relations.h.i.+p of the Far East, and further duly warn the people of j.a.pan.

Can it be that the conscience of mankind will calmly witness the cruel atrocities visited upon us by the barbarous, military power of j.a.pan for our actions in behalf of the rights of life founded upon civilization? The devotion and blood of our 20,000,000 will never cease nor dry under this unrighteous oppression. If j.a.pan does not repent and mend her ways for herself, our race will be obliged to take the final action, to the limit of the last man and the last minute, which will secure the complete independence of Korea. What enemy will withstand when our race marches forward with righteousness and humanity? With our utmost devotion and best labour we demand before the world our national independence and racial autonomy.

THE KOREAN NATIONAL COUNCIL

Representatives of the thirteen Provinces:

Yee Man Jik Kim Hyung Sun Yee Nai Su Yu Keun Pak Han Yung Kang Ji Yung Pak Chang Ho Chang Seung Yee Yeng Jun Kim Heyen Chun Choi Chun Koo Kim Ryu Yee Yong Kiu Kim Sig Yu Sik Kiu Chu Ik Yu Jang Wuk Hong Seung Wuk Song Ji Hun Chang Chun Yee Tong Wuk Chung Tam Kio Kim Taik Pak Tak Kang Hoon

RESOLUTIONS

That a Provisional Government shall be organized.

That a demand be made of the Government of j.a.pan to withdraw the administrative and military organs from Korea.

That a delegation shall be appointed to the Paris Peace Conference. That the Koreans in the employ of the j.a.panese Government shall withdraw.

That the people shall refuse to pay taxes to the j.a.panese Government.

That the people shall not bring pet.i.tions or litigations before the j.a.panese Government.

It was expected in Korea that there would be an immediate agitation in America to secure redress. The American churches were for some weeks strangely silent. There is no reason why the full reasons should not be made public.

The missionary organizations mainly represented in Korea are also strongly represented in j.a.pan. Their officials at their headquarters are almost forced to adopt what can be politely described as a statesmanlike att.i.tude over matters of controversy between different countries. When Mr.

Armstrong, of the Presbyterian Board of Missions of Canada, arrived in America, burning with indignation over what he had seen, he found among the American leaders a spirit of great caution. They did not want to offend j.a.pan, nor to injure Christianity there. And there was a feeling--a quite honest feeling,--that they might accomplish more by appealing to the better side of j.a.pan than by frankly proclaiming the truth. The whole matter was referred, by the Presbyterian and Methodist Boards, to the Commission on Relations with the Orient of the Federal Council of the Churches, a body representing the Churches as a whole.

The Secretary of that Commission is the Rev. Sydney Gulick, the most active defender of j.a.panese interests of any European or American to-day. Mr.

Gulick lived a long time in j.a.pan; he sees things, inevitably, from a j.a.panese point of view. He at once acted as though he were resolved to keep the matter from the public gaze. This was the course recommended by the j.a.panese Consul-General Yada at New York. Private pressure was brought on the j.a.panese authorities, and the preparation of a report was begun in very leisurely fas.h.i.+on.

Every influence that Mr. Gulick possessed was exercised to prevent premature publicity. The report of the Federal Council was not issued until between four and five months after the atrocities began. A Presbyterian organization, The New Era Movement, issued a stinging report on its own account, a few days before. The report of the Federated Council was preceded by a cablegram from Mr. Hara, the j.a.panese Premier, declaring that the report of abuses committed by agents of the j.a.panese Government in Korea had been engaging his most serious attention. "I am fully prepared to look squarely at actual facts."

The report itself, apart from a brief, strongly pro-j.a.panese introduction, consisted of a series of statements by missionaries and others in Korea, and was as outspoken and frank as any one could desire. The only regret was that it had not been issued immediately. Here was a situation that called for the pressure of world public opinion. In keeping this back as long as possible Mr. Gulick, I am convinced, did the cause of Korean Christianity a grave injury, and helped to prevent earlier redress being obtained.

"No neutrality for brutality" was the motto adopted by many of the missionaries of Korea. It is a good one for the Churches as a whole. There are times when the open expression of a little honest indignation is better than all the "ecclesiastical statesmans.h.i.+p" that can be employed.

In j.a.pan itself, every effort was made by the authorities to keep back details of what was happening. Mr. Hara, the Progressive Premier, was in none too strong a position. The military party, and the forces of reaction typified by Prince Yamagata, had too much power for him to do as much as he himself perhaps would. He consented to the adoption of still more drastic methods in April, and while redress was promised in certain particular instances, as in the Suigen outrage, there was no desire displayed to meet the situation fully. Taxed in Parliament, he tried to wriggle out of admissions that anything was wrong.

The att.i.tude of the people of j.a.pan at first was frankly disappointing to those who hoped that the anti-militarist party there would really act. One American-j.a.panese paper, the j.a.pan _Advertiser_, sent a special correspondent to Korea and his reports were of the utmost value. The j.a.pan _Chronicle_, the English owned paper at Kobe, was equally outspoken. The j.a.panese press as a whole had very little to say; it had been officially "requested" not to say anything about Korea.

The j.a.panese Const.i.tutional Party sent Mr. Konosuke Morya to investigate the situation on the spot. He issued a report declaring that the disturbances were due to the discriminatory treatment of Koreans, complicated and impracticable administrative measures, extreme censors.h.i.+p of public speeches, forcible adoption of the a.s.similation system, and the spread of the spirit of self-determination. Of the a.s.similation system he said, "It is a great mistake of colonial policy to attempt to enforce upon the Koreans, with a 2,000-year history, the same spiritual and mental training as the j.a.panese people."

By this time the j.a.panese Churches were beginning to stir. The Federation of Churches in j.a.pan sent Dr. Is.h.i.+zaka, Secretary of the Mission Board of the j.a.pan Methodist Church, to enquire. Dr. Is.h.i.+zaka's findings were published in the _Gokyo_. I am indebted for a summary of them to an article by Mr. R.S. Spencer, in the _Christian Advocate_ of New York:

"Dr. Is.h.i.+zaka first showed, on the authority of officials, missionaries and others, that the missionaries could in no just way be looked upon as the cause of the disturbances. Many Koreans and most of the missionaries had looked hopefully to j.a.panese control as offering a cure for many ills of the old regime, but in the ten years of occupation feeling had undergone a complete revulsion and practically all were against the j.a.panese governing system. The reasons he then sketches as follows: (1) The much-vaunted educational system established by the Governor-General makes it practically impossible for a Korean to go higher than the middle schools (roughly equivalent to an American high school) or a technical school. Even when educated Koreans were universally discriminated against. In the same office, at the same work, Koreans receive less pay than j.a.panese.

(The quotations are from the translation of the j.a.pan _Advertiser_.) 'A Korean student in Aoyama Gakuin, who stayed at Bishop Honda's home, became the head officer of the Taikyu district office. That was before the annexation.... That officer is not in Taikyu now. He is serving in some petty office in the country. The Noko Bank, in Keijo (Seoul) is the only place where the j.a.panese and Koreans are treated equally, but there, also, the equality is only an outward form.' (2) The depredations of the Oriental Improvement Co., the protege of the government, resulted in the eviction of hundreds of Korean farmers, who fled to Manchuria and Siberia, many dying miserably. The wonderful roads are mentioned, it being shown that they are built and cared for by forced labour of the Koreans. That most galling and obnoxious of all bureaucratic methods, carried to the nth power in j.a.pan--the making out of endless reports and forms--has created dissatisfaction. Dr. Is.h.i.+zaka relates how an underling official required a Korean of education to rewrite a notice of change of residence six times because he omitted a dot in one of those atrocious Chinese characters, which are a hobble on the development of j.a.pan. This last opinion is mine, not the doctor's. (3) The gendarmerie, or military police system, is mentioned, 13,000 strong, of whom about 8,000 are renegade Koreans. Admittedly a rough lot, these men are endowed with absolute power of search, personal or domiciliary, detention, arrest (and judging from the reports, I would say torture) without warrant. Bribery is, of course, rampant among them. (4) a.s.sociated closely with the police system, indeed controlling it and the civil administration and everything else, is the military government. The Governor-General must be a military officer. Dr.

Is.h.i.+zaka says: 'Militarism means tyranny; it never acts in open daylight, but seeks to cover up its intentions. The teachers in primary schools and even in girls' schools, that is, the men teachers, wear swords.' (5) Lastly, Dr. Is.h.i.+zaka speaks of the method, which we can easily recognize as to source, of trying to 'a.s.similate' the Koreans by prohibiting the language, discarding Korean history from the schools, repressing customs, etc.

"In conclusion Dr. Is.h.i.+zaka points out that not alone must these errors be righted, but that the only hope lies in the a.s.sumption on the part of j.a.panese, public and private, of an att.i.tude of Christian brotherhood towards the Koreans. He announces a campaign to raise money among j.a.panese Christians for the benefit of Koreans and their churches."

The j.a.panese Government at last came to see that something must be done.

Count Hasegawa, the Governor-General and Mr. Yamagata, Director-General of Administration, were recalled and Admiral Baron Saito and Mr. Midzuno were appointed to succeed them. Numerous other changes in personnel were also made. An Imperial Rescript was issued late in August announcing that the Government of Korea was to be reformed, and Mr. Hara in a statement issued at the same time announced that the gendarmerie were to be replaced by a force of police, under the control of the local governors, except in districts where conditions make their immediate elimination advisable, and that "It is the ultimate purpose of the j.a.panese Government in due course to treat Korea as in all respects on the same footing as j.a.pan." Admiral Saito, in interviews, promised the inauguration of a liberal regime on the Peninsula.

The change unfortunately does not touch the fundamental needs of the situation. No doubt there will be an attempt to lessen some abuses. This there could not fail to be, if j.a.pan is to hold its place longer among the civilized Powers. But Mr. Hara's explanation of the new program showed that the policy of a.s.similation is to be maintained, and with it, the policy of exploitation can hardly fail to be joined.

These two things spell renewed failure.

XIX

WHAT CAN WE DO?

"What do you want us to do?" men ask me. "Do you seriously suggest that America or Great Britain should risk a breach of good relations or even a war with j.a.pan to help Korea? If not, what is the use of saying anything?

You only make the j.a.panese harden their hearts still more."

What can we do? Everything!

I appeal first to the Christian Churches of the United States, Canada and Britain. I have seen what your representatives, more particularly the agents of the American and Canadian Churches, have accomplished in Korea itself. They have built wisely and well, and have launched the most hopeful and flouris.h.i.+ng Christian movement in Asia. Their converts have established congregations that are themselves missionary churches, sending out and supporting their own teachers and preachers to China. A great light has been lit in Asia. Shall it be extinguished? For, make no mistake, the work is threatened with destruction. Many of the church buildings have been burned; many of the native leaders have been tortured and imprisoned; many of their followers, men, women and children, have been flogged, or clubbed, or shot.

You, the Christians of the United States and of Canada, are largely responsible for these people. The teachers you sent and supported taught them the faith that led them to hunger for freedom. They taught them the dignity of their bodies and awakened their minds. They brought them a Book whose commands made them object to wors.h.i.+p the picture of Emperor--even of j.a.panese Emperor--made them righteously angry when they were ordered to put part of their Christian homes apart for the diseased outcasts of the Yos.h.i.+wara to conduct their foul business, made them resent having the trade of the opium seller or the morphia agent introduced among them.

Your teaching has brought them floggings, tortures unspeakable, death. I do not mourn for them, for they have found something to which the blows of the lashed twin bamboos and the sizzling of the hot iron as it sears their flesh are small indeed. But I would mourn for you, if you were willing to leave them unhelped, to shut your ears to their calls, to deny them your practical sympathy.

What can we do? you ask. You can exercise the powers that democratic government has given you to translate your indignation into action. You can hold public meetings, towns meetings and church meetings, and declare, formally and with all the weight of your communities behind you, where you stand in this matter. You can make your sentiments known to your own Government and to the Imperial j.a.panese Government.