XVIII
WORLD REACTIONS
On April 23rd, at a time when the persecution was at its height, delegates,
duly elected by each of the thirteen provinces of Korea, met, under the
eyes of the Japanese police, in Seoul, and adopted a constitution, creating
the Republic.
Dr. Syngman Rhee, the young reformer of 1894, who had suffered long
imprisonment for the cause of independence, was elected the first
President. Dr. Rhee was now in America, and he promptly established
headquarters in Washington, from which to conduct a campaign in the
interests of his people. Diplomatically, of course, the new Republican
organization could not be recognized; but there are many ways in which such
a body can work.
The First Ministry included several men who had taken a prominent part in
reform work in the past The list was:
Prime Minister........................Tong Hui Yee
Minister Foreign Affairs..............Yongman Park
Minister of Interior..................Tong Yung Yee
Minister of War.......................Pak Yin Roe
Minister of Finance...................Si Yung Yee
Minister of Law.......................Kiu Sik Cynn
Minister of Education.................Kiusic Kimm
Minister of Communications............Chang Bum Moon
Director Bureau of Labour.............Chang Ho Ahn
Chief of Staff........................Tong Yul Lew
Vice Chief of Staff...................Sei Yung Lee
Vice Chief of Staff...................Nan Soo Hahn
The Provisional Constitution was essentially democratic and progressive:
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 representatives chosen a
Provisional Government to carry on to completion 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 proclaims.
1. The Korean Republic shall follow republican principles.
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 common, rich and
poor, shall have equality.
4. The citizens of the Korean Republic shall have religious
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.
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 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 assimilation by another race; and still less could we submit
to the materialistic subjugation by the Japanese, whose spiritual
civilization is 2,000 years behind ours.
The world knows that Japan 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 Japanese in the
past, nor considering their accumulated 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 God,
motivation of truth, just claim, and legitimate action. By this
the world's verdict is to be won, and the repentance of Japan
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 Japan 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 Japan abandon
as early as possible the inhuman policy of aggression and firmly
safeguard the tripodic relationship of the Far East, and further
duly warn the people of Japan.
Can it be that the conscience of mankind will calmly witness the
cruel atrocities visited upon us by the barbarous, military power
of Japan 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 Japan
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 Japan 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 Japanese
Government shall withdraw.
That the people shall refuse to pay taxes to the Japanese
Government.
That the people shall not bring petitions or litigations before
the Japanese 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 Japan. Their officials at their headquarters are almost
forced to adopt what can be politely described as a statesmanlike attitude
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
Japan, 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 Japan 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 Japanese interests of any European or American to-day. Mr.
Gulick lived a long time in Japan; he sees things, inevitably, from a
Japanese 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
Japanese Consul-General Yada at New York. Private pressure was brought on
the Japanese authorities, and the preparation of a report was begun in very
leisurely fashion.
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 Japanese Premier, declaring that
the report of abuses committed by agents of the Japanese 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-Japanese 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 statesmanship" that can be employed.
In Japan 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 attitude of the people of Japan at first was frankly disappointing to
those who hoped that the anti-militarist party there would really act. One
American-Japanese paper, the Japan _Advertiser_, sent a special
correspondent to Korea and his reports were of the utmost value. The Japan
_Chronicle_, the English owned paper at Kobe, was equally outspoken. The
Japanese press as a whole had very little to say; it had been officially
"requested" not to say anything about Korea.
The Japanese Constitutional 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 censorship
of public speeches, forcible adoption of the assimilation system, and the
spread of the spirit of self-determination. Of the assimilation 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 Japanese people."
By this time the Japanese Churches were beginning to stir. The Federation
of Churches in Japan sent Dr. Ishizaka, Secretary of the Mission Board of
the Japan Methodist Church, to enquire. Dr. Ishizaka'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. Ishizaka 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 Japanese
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 Japanese 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 Japanese.
(The quotations are from the translation of the Japan
_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 Japanese and Koreans are treated equally, but there, also,
the equality is only an outward form.' (2) The depredations of
the Oriental Improvement Co., the protégé 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 Japan--the making out of endless reports and forms--has
created dissatisfaction. Dr. Ishizaka 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 Japan. 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)
Associated 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.
Ishizaka 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. Ishizaka speaks of the
method, which we can easily recognize as to source, of trying to
'assimilate' the Koreans by prohibiting the language, discarding
Korean history from the schools, repressing customs, etc.
"In conclusion Dr. Ishizaka points out that not alone must these
errors be righted, but that the only hope lies in the assumption
on the part of Japanese, public and private, of an attitude of
Christian brotherhood towards the Koreans. He announces a
campaign to raise money among Japanese Christians for the benefit
of Koreans and their churches."
The Japanese 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 Japanese Government in due course
to treat Korea as in all respects on the same footing as Japan." Admiral
Saito, in interviews, promised the inauguration of a liberal régime 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 Japan is to hold its place longer among the
civilized Powers. But Mr. Hara's explanation of the new program showed that
the policy of assimilation is to be maintained, and with it, the policy of
exploitation can hardly fail to be joined.
These two things spell renewed failure.
- 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.
