Government of Korea

“ In case the welfare of the Imperial House of Korea or the territorial integrity of Korea is endangered by aggression of a third Power or internal disturbances, the Imperial Government of Japan shall immediately take such necessary measures as the circumstances require; and in such cases the Imperial Government of Korea shall give full facilities to promote the action of the Imperial Japanese Government. ”

“ All classes of wrongs done the Koreans by the Japanese—important and trivial, real, exaggerated, or falsely claimed—are fast diminishing and are destined in time to be reduced to a minimum. The Korean Central Government is now more genuine, more intelligent, and more efficient—as distinguished from the mere wilfulness of the ex-Emperor—than it has ever been before. ”

“ Korea is, inherently considered, capable of reform; but at present it is not capable of self-government, much less of self-instituted and wholly self-controlled reform. Japan has taken upon herself the task of furnishing example, stimulus, guidance, and effective forces, to set this desirable ideal into reality. No other nation has this task; no other nation is going seriously to interfere with Japan in its task. On the Japanese Government and the Japanese people rests the heavy responsibility of securing a new and greatly improved national life for the millions of the Korean peninsula ”

“ The Military Government in Korea, which is currently being turned over to American and Korean civilians, is the only government in South Korea. The immediate and primary objectives of the American Military Commander in Korea are to maintain law and order in the face of subversive uprisings in the American zone, to care for and safeguard American noncombatants and property, and to operate a military government which looks toward the future political independence of Korea together with its economic and social rehabilitation. ”

“ Korea is an independent state which was first introduced into the family of nations by the advice of Japan. China has, however, habitually called Korea her dependency, and openly and secretly interfered with her domestic affairs. At the time of the recent insurrection in Korea, China dispatched troops thither, alleging that her purpose was to rescue the dependent state from its difficulties. We, in virtue of the treaty concluded with Korea in 1882, caused a military force to be sent to that country, in order to be able to meet possible emergencies. ”

“ The action of Japan, therefore, in insisting upon the suspension of the prohibition in order that the interests of some half-dozen Japanese rice merchants might not suffer, deserves the utmost condemnation. The primary responsibility for this great loss of life rests entirely with the Japanese Government. In terrorising the Government of Korea into an act, the consequences of which brought death to one million people, the Japanese Government committed themselves to a policy which traversed alike the dictates of reason and common sense, and outraged every principle of humanity. ”

“ Korea, it should always be remembered, had since prehistoric ages been trained in that school of experience in which she found herself eking out her bare existence between stronger surrounding nations, which she was wont either to propitiate or to set one against another for her precarious safety. The Koreans had thus by habit and by conviction grown up an opportunist nation. They gratified Japan by complying with her wish to declare them independent, while, at the same time, they courted China's favor by maintaining their vague dependency upon that empire. ”

“ At first, and for a long time to come, it should be pretty strictly limited to fitting the Koreans themselves for a serviceable life, in Korea, and under the conditions, physical, social, and economic and political, of Korea. To educate—after the fashion followed too much by Great Britain in India—thousands of Korean babus, who thus become unfitted for the pressing needs of their country at this present day, and inclined to idleness rather than any hard and disagreeable but useful work, would be a mistake which neither the Government nor the Missions can afford to make. ”

“ The complications and embarrassments which would inevitably arise from such a complete dissociation of the two functions of government would far outweigh the advantages. One of the most fruitful sources of international difficulties in Korea has always been found in domestic misgovernment. Having assumed the responsibility and the obligations incident to the direction of foreign affairs, Japan has the right to ask, and, if need be, to insist, that her task shall not be made heavier by Korea herself. ”

“ The exposure of the Agrarian Reform as a fraud had hurt the Communists, and the disinterested spirit of the United States occupation was gaining recognition throughout Korea in spite of initial blunders. Pyongyang could not afford to let South Korea take the lead in forming a government, and July 1948 dated the creation of a Communist state known as the People’s Democratic Republic of Korea. After adopting a constitution modeled after that of Communist Bulgaria, the Supreme People’s Council claimed to represent all Korea. ”

“ This is only to say that in Korea, as everywhere else in the ancient and the modern world alike, the real and lasting success of the government must depend upon its intelligence and its righteousness. It is to be hoped that the capacity for both these essential classes of qualifications for self-government is in the Korean blood, if only it can have tuition, example, and freedom for development. ”

“ In other words, the feudal system is a chrysalis state from which a people are prepared to leap into the full light of free self-government. Neither China nor Korea has enjoyed that state, and it is therefore manifestly impossible for them to effect any such startling change as that which transformed Japan in a single decade from a cruel and bigoted exclusiveness to an open and enthusiastic world-life. Instead of bursting forth full-winged from a cocoon, both China and Korea must be incubated like an egg. ”

“ In consequence of the aforesaid annexation, the Government of Japan assumes the entire government and administration of Korea, and undertakes to afford full protection for the property and person of Koreans, obeying the laws then in force, and to promote the welfare of all such Koreans.
Article 7. The Government of Japan will, so far as circumstances permit, employ in the public service of Japan in Korea those Koreans who accept the new regime of Japan loyally and in good faith, and who are duly qualified for such service. ”

“ It will need no argument for those familiar with the habitual ways of the Korean Government in dealing with foreign affairs to establish the necessity that Japan should make more definite, explicit, and comprehensive, the Protocols of February 23 and August 22, 1904. Foreign affairs have always been with the Emperor and Court of Korea a particularly favorable but mischievous sphere for intrigue and intermeddling. The Foreign Office has never had any real control over the agents of the government, who have been the tools of the Emperor in their dealings with foreign Legations. ”

“ Nothing reveals more clearly the fundamental weakness of the political consciousness of the Korean people than their conduct at this critical stage of their existence. A message was sent to Li Hung Chang in China asking his instruction as to what answer should be given the Japanese minister. The telegraph line toward Wiju was interrupted, and Li's reply—recommending again the ambiguous definition that Korea was at once dependent and independent—had not been received before Korea had at length to reply after three days' deliberation that she was independent. ”

“ Educated, he may easily make the best sovereign Korea has enjoyed for centuries.
At once also the Resident-General began to mature the larger plans for carrying out his purposes toward Korea which the new Convention made possible. For now upon the Japanese Government in Korea rested the responsibility, not only for the satisfactory and safe management of the country’s foreign relations, but directly and more heavily than ever before, the readjustment, reform, and successful management of all its internal affairs. ”

“ The resources of the Korean peninsula have never been systematically developed; indeed, until a very recent date no intelligent attempt has ever been made to determine what they actually are. The Korean Government has usually been content with such an adjustment of “squeezes” as seemed best to meet the exigencies of the times—administered according to the temperament and interests of the local magistracy. At intervals, however, the Court officials have carried their more erratic and incalculable method of extortion and of plundering the people rather widely into effect. ”

“ Neither officials nor people shall depend upon foreign aid, but shall do their best to strengthen and uphold the imperial power. All documents pertaining to foreign loans, the hiring of foreign soldiers, the granting of concessions, etc., in fact every document drawn up between the Korean government and a foreign party or firm, shall be signed and sealed by all the Ministers of State and the President of the Privy Council. ”

“ Japan’s policy toward Korea has since been unchanged; in other words, her object has always been to assist and befriend this country. It is true that at times incidents of an unpleasant nature unfortunately interfered with the maintenance of unsuspecting cordiality between the two nations. But I may conscientiously assure you that the real object of the Japanese Government has always been to render assistance to Korea in her noble endeavors to be a civilized and independent state. ”

“ This poverty-stricken country, with an imbecile sovereign at the helm of state, and with no organized array, is practically under the control of the Chinese government, though nominally she is independent. Some European powers, who seem to consider that the greatness of a nation is commensurate with its success in its territorial aggrandizement are casting eyes at her, in vain let us hope, for the sake of Korea. While the influence of China is so predominant, she cannot accomplish much. ”

“ On an “institution” so venerated and time-honored, and so bound up with Korean nationality (for the Korean, though remarkably destitute of true patriotism, has a strongly national instinct) , the decree of the 30th of December, 1895, practically abolishing the Top Knot, fell like a thunderbolt. The measure had been advocated before, chiefly by Koreans who had been in America, and was known to have Japanese support, and had been discussed by the Cabinet, but the change was regarded with such disgust by the nation at large that the Government was afraid to enforce it. ”

“ These same Conventions which confer certain rights upon the Japanese Government in Korea just as plainly put this Government under certain solemn obligations. The foreign Powers have, strictly speaking, no diplomatic corps at Seoul. Their Ambassadors and Ministers at Tokyo are their representatives for Korea as well as for Japan. All foreign Powers are represented by officials residing in the capital city of Korea who have consular functions only. ”

“ Wishing to free Korea for all time from disturbance and to insure her security for the future, and thereby to maintain the general peace of the East, Japan invited China's coöperation for the accomplishment of that object. China, however, advanced several pretexts and declined Japan's proposals. Thereupon, Japan advised Korea to reform her administration, so that order and tranquility might be firmly established at home and the rights and duties of an independent state might be maintained abroad. ”

“ The government was not yet ready to publish its full list of reforms, based upon the demands already made by the Japanese Minister, but the king immediately declared that as it was necessary to secure good men to administer the Government in Seoul and in the provinces, the demarcation between the upper and lower classes was a thing of the past and all men of all grades were eligible to office, and at the same time he declared the abolition of the great political parties and forbade the apportionment of government offices along party lines. ”

“ Advise the Korean authorities to carry out reforms in various directions, help them to enlarge the schools, and to select capable men for the Government service; then the three countries, Korea, China, and Japan, shall stand in the same line, strongly united and esteemed by foreign nations. ”

“ And yet, at last, it should have been perfectly evident to every true friend of both countries that the Korean Government—traditionally corrupt, cruel, and regardless of the Korean nation—must no longer be allowed to stand between this nation and the plans for bringing it into an improved internal condition and into safer relations with foreign Powers. That formal annexation was never contemplated by the Tokyo Government became evident when, on the evening of July 21st, a congratulatory telegram was received by the new Emperor from His Imperial Majesty, the Emperor of Japan. ”

“ We then ordered Li Hung Chang to dispatch troops to Korea. As soon as they reached Asan the rebels scattered. But the Wojên [a familiar and contemptuous name for the Japanese] , without cause, sent their soldiers suddenly into Seul, and reinforced them with more than ten thousand men. Japan then forced Korea to change her system of administration, and unreasonably made various demands. According to our method of ruling the tributary state [Korea] , the latter's internal affairs are left to its self-government. ”