XII
THE MISSIONARIES
I have had occasion in previous chapters to make occasional reference to
the work of the missionaries in Korea. It is necessary now to deal with
them in detail, for they had become one of the great factors, and from the
Japanese point of view one of the great problems, of the country.
Long before Korea was open to the outside world, missionary pioneers tried
to enter it. The French Catholics forced admission as far back as the end
of the eighteenth century, and made many converts, who were afterwards
exterminated. Gutzaleff, a famous Protestant pioneer, landed on an island
at Basil's Bay, in 1832, and remained there a month, distributing Chinese
literature. Mr. Thomas, a British missionary, secured a passage on board
the ill-fated _General Sherman_ in 1866, and was killed with the rest of
the crew. Dr. Ross, the Scottish Presbyterian missionary of Moukden,
Manchuria, became interested in the Koreans, studied their language, talked
with every Korean he could find, and built up a grammar of the language,
publishing an English-Korean primer in 1876. He and a colleague, Mr.
McIntyre, published Gospels in the language, and opened up a work among the
Koreans on the north side of the Yalu. Those who can recall the state of
that district in the days before railways were opened and order
established, can best appreciate the nerve and daring needed for the task.
They made converts, and one of these converts took some newly printed
Christian books and set back home, reaching Seoul itself, spreading the new
religion among his friends.
It was two years after the opening of Korea to the West before the first
missionary arrived. In 1884 Dr. Allen, a Presbyterian physician (afterwards
United States Minister to Korea), arrived at Seoul. It was very doubtful at
this time how missionaries would be received, or how their converts would
be treated. The law enacting death against any man who became a Christian
was still unrepealed, but it was not enforced. Officialism might, however,
revive it at any time. It was thought advisable, when the first converts
were baptized in 1887, to perform the ceremony behind closed doors, with an
earnest and athletic young American educationalist, Homer B. Hulbert,
acting as guard.
Dr. Allen was soon followed by others. Dr. Underwood, brother of the famous
manufacturer of typewriting machines, was the first non-medical missionary.
The American and Canadian Presbyterians and Methodists undertook the main
work, and the Church of England set up a bishopric. Women missionary
doctors came, and at once won a place for themselves. Names like
Appenzeller, Scranton, Bunker and Gale--to name a few of the pioneers--have
won a permanent place in the history of missions.
The missionaries found a land almost without religion, with few temples and
few monks or priests. Buddhism had been discredited by the treachery of
some Japanese Buddhists during the great Japanese invasion by Hideyoshi in
1592, and no Buddhist priest was allowed inside the city of Seoul. Young
men of official rank studied their Confucius diligently, but to them
Confucianism was more a theory for the conduct of life and a road to high
office than a religion. The main religion of the people was Shamanism, the
fear of evil spirits. It darkened their souls, as the tales of a foolish
nurse about goblins darken the mind of a sensitive and imaginative child.
The spirits of Shamanism were evil, not good, a curse, not a blessing,
bringing terror, not hope.
Christianity was very fortunate in its representatives. I have seen much of
the missionaries of Manchuria and Korea. A finer, straighter lot of men I
never want to meet. The magnificent climate enables them to keep at the top
of form. They have initiative, daring and common sense. Those I have known
are born leaders, who would have made their mark anywhere, in business or
politics.
In the early days they had to be ready to set their hands to anything, to
plan and build houses and churches, to open schools, to run a boat down
dangerous rapids or face a dangerous mob, to overawe a haughty yang-ban or
break in a dangerous horse. They were the pioneers of civilization as well
as of Christianity.
Religion had to be commended by the courage of its adherents. When there
came a dangerous uprising, and every one else fled, the missionary had to
stay at his post. When an epidemic of cholera or yellow fever swept over a
district, the missionary had to act as doctor or nurse. Sometimes the
missionary died, as Dr. Heron died at Seoul and McKenzie at Sorai. Their
deaths were even more effective than their lives in winning people.
Dr. Allen gained a foothold soon after his arrival by sticking to his post
in Seoul during the uprising against foreigners that followed the attack by
the Japanese and the reformers on the Cabinet and their seizure of the King
and Queen. When Min Yung-ik, the Queen's nephew, was badly wounded, Dr.
Allen attended to him and saved his life. Henceforth the King was the
missionaries' friend. He built a hospital and placed Dr. Allen in charge.
Women missionary doctors were appointed Court physicians to the Queen.
There were years of waiting, when the converts were few, and when it seemed
that the barriers of four thousand years never would be broken down. Then
came the Chino-Japanese War. Koreans were forced to see that this Western
civilization, which had enabled little Japan to beat the Chinese giant,
must mean something. A young man from Indiana, Samuel Moffett, with a
companion, Graham Lee, had gone some time before to Pyeng-yang, reputedly
the worst city in Korea. Here they had been stoned and abused. When the
Chinese Army came to Pyeng-yang, and the country was devastated in the
great and decisive battle between the Chinese and Japanese, these two men
stayed by the Koreans in their darkest and most perilous hours. Koreans
still tell how "Moksa" Moffett put on the dress of a Korean mourner and
went freely around despite the Chinese, who would have almost certainly
devised a specially lingering death for him, had they discovered his
presence.
"There must be something in this religion," said the Koreans. Sturdy old
John Newton's belief that the worst sinner makes the finest saint was borne
out in the case of Pyeng-yang. It became in a few years one of the greatest
scenes of missionary triumph in Asia. The harvest was ripening now. In
Seoul men flung into jail for political offences turned to prayer in the
darkness and despair of their torture chambers, and went to death praising
God. The Secretary to the King's Cabinet preached salvation to his fellow
Cabinet Ministers.
The tens of converts grew to tens of thousands. From the first, the Koreans
showed themselves to be Christians of a very unusual type. They started by
reforming their homes, giving their wives liberty and demanding education
for their children. They took the promises and commands of the Bible
literally and established a standard of conduct for church members which,
if it were enforced in some older Christian communities, would cause a
serious contraction of the church rolls. The first convert set out to
preach to his friends. Latter converts imitated his example. From
Pyeng-yang the movement spread to Sun-chon, which in a few years rivalled
Pyeng-yang as a Christian centre. From here Christianity spread to the Yalu
and up the Tumen River.
The Koreans themselves established Christianity in distant communities
where no white man had ever been. Soon many of the missionaries were kept
busy for several months each year travelling with pack-pony and mafoo, from
station to station in the most remote parts of the country, fording and
swimming unbridged rivers, climbing mountain passes, inspecting and
examining and instructing the converts, admitting them to church membership
and organizing them for still more effective work.
When I hear the cheap sneers of the obtuse stay-at-home or globe-trotter
critics against missionaries and their converts, I am amused. It gives me
the measure of the men, particularly of the globetrotters. When the British
and American Churches seek to send out missionaries, the British and
American people will have registered the sure sign of their decadence. For
the Churches and nations will then cease to be alive. In travelling through
the north country I employed a number of the Christian converts, I found
them clean and honest, good, hard workers, men who showed their religion
not by talk, but by good, straight action. It is a grief to me to know that
some of these "boys" have since, because of their prominence as Christian
workers, been the victims of official persecution.
Under the influence of the missionaries many schools were opened; hospitals
and dispensaries were maintained, and a considerable literature,
educational as well as religious, was circulated.
When the Japanese landed in Korea in 1904, the missionaries welcomed them.
They knew the tyranny and abuses of the old Government, and believed that
the Japanese would help to better things. The ill-treatment of helpless
Koreans by Japanese soldiers and coolies caused a considerable reaction of
feeling. When, however, Prince Ito became Resident-General the prevailing
sentiment was that it would be better for the people to submit and to make
the best of existing conditions, in the hope that the harshness and
injustice of Japanese rule would pass.
Most of the Europeans and Americans in Korea at the time adopted this line.
I travelled largely in the interior of Korea in 1906 and 1907. Groups of
influential Koreans came to me telling their grievances and asking what to
do. Sometimes big assemblies of men asked me to address them. They believed
me to be their friend, and were willing to trust me. My advice was always
the same. "Submit and make yourselves better men. You can do nothing now by
taking up arms. Educate your children, improve your homes, better your
lives. Show the Japanese by your conduct and your self-control that you are
as good as they are, and fight the corruption and apathy that helped to
bring your nation to its present position." Let me add that I did what I
could in England, at the same time, to call attention to their grievances.
Prince Ito was openly sympathetic to the missionaries and to their medical
and educational work. He once explained why, in a public gathering at
Seoul. "In the early years of Japan's reformation, the senior statesmen
were opposed to religious toleration, especially because of distrust of
Christianity. But I fought vehemently for freedom of belief and religious
propaganda, and finally triumphed. My reasoning was this: Civilization
depends on morality and the highest morality upon religion. Therefore
religion must be tolerated and encouraged."
Ito passed off the scene, Korea was formally annexed to Japan, and Count
Terauchi became Governor-General. Terauchi was unsympathetic to
Christianity and a new order of affairs began. One of the difficulties of
the Christians was over the direction that children in schools and others
should bow before the picture of the Japanese Emperor on feast days. The
Japanese tried to maintain to the missionaries that this was only a token
of respect; the Christians declared that it was an act of adoration. To the
Japanese his Emperor is a divine being, the descendant of the gods.
Christians who refused to bow were carefully noted as malignants. In the
famous Conspiracy Case, the official Assistant Procurator, in urging the
conviction of one of the men, said: "He was head teacher of the Sin-an
School, Chong-ju, and was a notorious man of anti-Japanese sentiments. He
was the very obstinate member of the Society who, at a meeting on the first
anniversary of the birthday of the Emperor of Japan after the annexation of
Korea, refused to bow before the Imperial picture on the ground that such
an act was worshipping an image." This one item was the only fact that the
Assistant Procurator produced to prove the head teacher's guilt. He was
convicted, and awarded seven years' penal servitude.
A strong effort was made to Japanize the Korean Churches, to make them
branches of the Japanese Churches, and to make them instruments in the
Japanese campaign of assimilation. The missionaries resisted this to the
utmost. They declared that they would be neutral in political matters, as
they were directed by their Governments to be. Having failed to win them
over to their side, the Japanese authorities entered into a campaign for
the breaking down of the Churches, particularly the Presbyterian Churches
of the north. I am well aware that they deny this, but here is a case where
actions and speeches cannot be reconciled.
Attempts were pushed to create churches of Koreans under Japanese. Son
Pyung-hi, who had proved a good friend of Japan during the Chinese War, had
been encouraged by the Japanese some time before to start a religious sect,
the Chon-do Kyo, which it was hoped would replace Christianity, and prove a
useful weapon for Japan. Here a blunder was made, for later on Son Pyung-hi
flung all his influence against Japan and worked with the native Christian
leaders to start the Independence movement. More important than either of
these two things, however, direct persecution was begun. Several hundred
Korean Christian leaders in the north were arrested, and out of them 144
were taken to Seoul, tortured, and charged with a conspiracy to murder the
Governor-General. Various missionaries were named as their partners in
crime. The tale of the conspiracy was a complete fabrication manufactured
by the police. I describe it fully in the next chapter.
Following this came regulations aimed at the missionary schools and
institutions. At the time of annexation, almost the whole of the real
modern education of Korea was undertaken by the missionaries, who were
maintaining 778 schools. A series of Educational Ordinances was promulgated
in March, 1915, directing that no religious teaching is to be permitted in
private schools, and no religious ceremonies allowed to be performed. The
Japanese authorities made no secret of their intention of eventually
closing all missionary schools, on the ground that even when religious
teaching was excluded, pupils were influenced by their teachers, and the
influence of the foreign teachers was against the Japanization of the
Koreans. Mr. Komatsu, Director of the Bureau of Foreign Affairs, put this
point without any attempt at concealment, in a public statement. "Our
object of education is not only to develop the intellect and morality of
our people, but also to foster in their minds such national spirit as will
contribute to the existence and welfare of our Empire.... I sincerely hope
that you will appreciate this change of the time and understand that
missions should leave all affairs relating entirely to education entirely
in the hands of the Government, by transferring the money and labour they
have hitherto been expending on education to their proper sphere of
religious propagation.... Whatever the curriculum of a school may be, it is
natural that the students of that school should be influenced by the ideas
and personal character of its principal and teachers. Education must be
decidedly nationalistic and must not be mixed up with religion that is
universal." This is a much harsher regulation against missions than
prevails in Japan, where mission schools are allowed to continue their
work, with freedom to carry on their religious teaching.
The Government-General agreed to allow mission schools that had already
obtained Government permits to continue for ten years without having the
regulations enforced. Schools that had applied for the permit but had not
obtained it, owing to formal official delays, were ordered to obey or
close, and police were sent to see that they closed.
The Government commanded the mission schools to cease using their own
text-books and to use the officially prepared text-books. These are
carefully prepared to eliminate "dangerous thoughts," _i.e._, anything that
will promote a desire for freedom. They directly teach ancestral worship.
The missionaries have protested in every way they can. The
Government-General is adamant.
Before the start of the Independence movement the mission schools were
being carefully watched. Dr. Arthur J. Brown gives one example of their
experiences,[1] in connection with the graduating exercises at the
Pyeng-yang Junior College last year.
[Footnote 1: "The Mastery of the Far East," by Arthur Judson Brown.]
"Four students made addresses. The foreigners present deemed them
void of offence, but the police declared that all the speakers
had said things subversive of the public good. The students were
arrested, interrogated and then released, as their previous
records had been good. The provincial chief of gendarmes,
however, summoned the students before him and again investigated
the case. The president of the college was called to the office,
and strictly charged to exercise greater care in the future. The
matter was then reported to the Governor of the Province, and
then to the Governor-General. The latter wrote to the president
of the college that the indiscretion of the students was so
serious that the Government was contemplating closing the school.
A similar communication was sent by the Governor-General to the
provincial Governor, who thereupon called the president to his
office, and said that unless he was prepared to make certain
changes the school would have to close. These changes were
enumerated as follows: (1) Appointment of a Japanese head master;
(2) dismissal of three of the boys who had spoken; relief of the
fourth from certain assignments of teaching which he was doing in
the academy, and promise not to repeat the oratorical program in
the future; (3) secure more Japanese teachers, especially those
who could understand Korean; (4) do all teaching, except the
Chinese classics, Korean language and English, through the medium
of the Japanese language; prepare syllabi of the subjects of
instruction, so as to limit it to specified points, teachers not
to deviate from them nor to speak on forbidden subjects; (6)
conform to the new regulations. (That is, eliminate all Christian
instruction.) When the president replied that he would do all
that he could to make the first five changes desired, but that as
to the sixth change, the mission preferred to continue for the
present under the old permit which entitled the college to the
ten year period of grace, the official was plainly disappointed,
and he intimated that number six was the most important of all."
The Independence movement in 1919 enormously increased the difficulties of
the missionaries, although they refrained from any direct or indirect
participation in it, and the Koreans carefully avoided letting them know
anything ahead about it. The difficulties of the missionaries, and the
direct action of the authorities against Christianity at that time is told
later, in the chapters dealing with the movement.
The Japanese authorities will probably do two things. They will order the
closing of schools under various pretexts where Christian teaching is still
maintained. They will endeavour to secure the elimination of those
missionaries who have shown a marked sympathy with the Korean people. They
have ample powers to prosecute any missionary who is guilty of doing
anything to aid disaffection. They have repeatedly searched missionary
homes and missionaries themselves to find evidence of this. Save in the
case of Mr. Mowry, who was convicted of sheltering some students wanted by
the police, they have failed. Even in that case the original conviction has
been quashed on appeal. Such evidence does not exist, because the
missionaries have been really neutral. Neutrality does not satisfy Japan;
she wants them to come out on her side. Unfortunately her action this year
has turned many away from her who tried hard up to then to be her friends.
- The text in this document is from a Korea-related work more than 50 years after the death of the authour and thus has entered the public domain. No modifications should be made to the text as this is the source of the work itself, not a page to be collaboratively worked on and improved.
