XIV. THE INDEPENDENCE MOVEMENT
The people of Korea never assented to the annexation of their country. The Japanese control of means of communication prevented their protests from being fully known by the outside world.
It was explained that the movement against the Japanese was due to the work of Koreans living outside of the land and to foreign agitators. The Japanese blamed the missionaries. They blamed foreign publicists. I understand that I was and am esteemed a special malignant. They never thought to blame themselves. As a matter of fact, missionaries and the rest of us had nothing to do with it. The real origin of the movement was among the people themselves, and it was fostered, not by outsiders, but by the iron and unjust rule of Japan.
At the same time, the Koreans living in freedom were naturally concerned over conditions at home. The large Korean communities in Manchuria and Siberia, estimated to number in all two millions, the flourishing colony in the United States and Hawaii, the Koreans in Mexico and China heard with indignation of what was happening. Young students and political prisoners released after torture, who escaped to America, fanned the flame to white heat. The Koreans living outside Korea formed a National Association, with headquarters in San Francisco, under the Presidency of Dr. David Lee, which in 1919 claimed a million and a half adherents.
The steps taken by the Japanese to suppress and prevent discontent often created and fostered it. This was specially illustrated in the schools. The new educational system, with its constant inculcation of loyalty to the Mikado, made even the little girls violently Nationalist. School children were spied upon for incipient treason as though the lisping of childish lips might overthrow the throne. The speeches of boys and girls in junior schools, at their school exercises, were carefully noted, and the child who said anything that might be construed by the Censor as "dangerous thought" would be arrested, examined and punished.
The effect of this was what might have been expected. "They compel us to learn Japanese," said one little miss, sagely. "That does not matter. We are now able to understand what they say. They cannot understand what we say. All the better for us when the hour comes." On Independence Day the children, particularly in the Government schools, were found to be banded together and organized against Japan. They had no fear in expressing their views and sought martyrdom. Some of them won it.
The Japanese hoped much from the Chon-do Kyo, a powerful movement encouraged by the authorities because they thought that it would be a valuable counteractive to Christianity. Its leader was Son Pyung-hi, an old Korean friend of Japan. As far back as 1894, when the Japanese arranged the Tong-hak Rebellion in Korea, to give them an excuse for provoking war with China, Son was one of their leading agents. He believed that Western influence and in particular Western religion was inimical to his country, and he hoped by the Tong-haks to drive them out.
As a result of his activities, he had to flee from Korea, and he did not return until 1903. He became leader of the Chon-do Kyo, the Heavenly Way Society, a body that tried to include the best of many religions and give the benefits of Christian organization and fellowship without Christianity. He had learned many things while in exile, and was now keen on reform and education. Many of his old Tong-hak friends rallied around him, and the Chon-do Kyo soon numbered considerably over a million members.
Son realized after a time that the Japanese were not the friends but the enemies of his people. He made no violent protestations. He still maintained seemingly good relations with them. But his organization was put to work. His agents went over the country. Each adherent was called on to give three spoonfuls of rice a day. Close on a million dollars was accumulated. Most of this was afterwards seized by the Japanese.
The Chon-do Kyo and the native Christian leaders came together. The Christian pastors had up to now kept their people in check. But the burden was becoming intolerable. They gave the missionaries no inkling of what was brewing. They did not wish to get them in trouble. Their real grief was that their action would, they knew, make it harder for the Churches.
Two remarkable characters took the lead among the Christians, Pastor Kil and Yi Sang-jai. Pastor Kil of Pyeng-yang was one of the oldest and most famous Christians in Korea. He had become a leader in the early days, facing death for his faith. A man of powerful brain, of fine character and with the qualities of real leadership, he was looked up to by the people as British Nonconformists a generation ago regarded Charles Spurgeon. In recent years Kil had become almost blind, but continued his work.
I have already described in an earlier chapter how Yi Sang-jai, once Secretary to the Legation at Washington, became a Christian while thrown into prison for his political views. He was now a Y.M.C.A. leader, but he was held in universal veneration by all men - Christian and non-Christian alike - as a saint, as a man who walked with God and communed with Him.
When things seemed rapidly ripening, President Wilson made his famous declaration of the rights of weaker nations. One sentence went round among the Koreans, and its effect was electrical.
"What is the task that this League of Nations is to do?
"IT IS TO PROVIDE FOR THE FREEDOM OF SMALL NATIONS, TO PREVENT THE DOMINATION OF SMALL NATIONS BY BIG ONES."
Here was the clarion call to Korea. Here was hope! Here was the promise of freedom, given by the head of the nation they had all learned to love. If any outsider was responsible for the uprising of the Korean people, that outsider was Woodrow Wilson, President of the United States of America.
"Now is the time to act," said the people. For a start, they resolved to send delegates to present their case to the Paris Conference. Three leaders in America were chosen but were refused passports. Finally another young leader, Mr. Kiusic Kimm, succeeded in landing in France. Perhaps it would not be wise to say, at this time, how he managed to get there. He soon found that his mission was in vain. The Paris Conference would not receive him. President Wilson's declaration was not to be put into full effect.
The people resolved, by open and orderly demonstration, to support their delegate in France. There were some who would have started a violent revolution. The Christians would have none of it "Let us have no violence," said they. "Let us appeal to the conscience of Japan and of the world."
There were no constitutional means for them to employ to make their case heard. But if ever there was an effort at peaceful constitutional change, this was it. Instructions were sent out, surely the most extraordinary instructions ever issued under similar circumstances: -
"Whatever you do
DO NOT INSULT THE JAPANESE
DO NOT THROW STONES
DO NOT HIT WITH YOUR FISTS.
For these are the acts of barbarians."
It was unnecessary to tell the people not to shoot, for the Japanese had long since taken all their weapons away, even their ancient sporting blunderbusses.
A favourable moment was approaching. The old Korean Emperor lay dead. One rumour was that he had committed suicide to avoid signing a document drawn up by the Japanese for presentation to the Peace Conference, saying that he was well satisfied with the present Government of his country. Another report, still more generally believed, was that he had committed suicide to prevent the marriage of his son, Prince Kon, to the Japanese Princess Nashinoto. The engagement of this young Prince to a Korean girl had been broken off when the Japanese acquired control of the Imperial House. Royal romances always appeal to the crowd. The heart of the people turned to the old Emperor again. Men, women and children put on straw shoes, signs of national mourning, and a hundred thousand people flocked to Seoul to witness the funeral ceremonies.
The funeral was to take place on March 4th. By now the Japanese suspected something to be afoot. The astonishing thing is that the Koreans had been able to keep it from them so long. A network of organizations had been created all over the country. The Japanese hurried their preparations to prevent popular demonstrations on the day of the funeral. The leaders learned of this, and outwitted the police by a simple device. They resolved to make their demonstration not on Tuesday, March 4th, but on the previous Saturday.
Gatherings were arranged for all over the country. A Declaration of Independence was drawn up in advance and delivered to the different centres. Here it was mimeographed, and girls and boys organized themselves to ensure its distribution. Meetings, processions and demonstrations in all the big cities were planned.
Thirty-three men chose martyrdom. They were to be the original signers of the Declaration of Independence. They knew that at the best this must mean heavy punishment for them, and at the worst might well mean death. They had no delusions. Pastor Kil's son had died from the effects of Japanese torture, Yang Chun-paik and Yi Seung-hun, two of the signers, had been victims in the Conspiracy case. The first two names on the list of signers were Son Pyung-hi, leader of the Chon-do Kyo, and Pastor Kil.
On the morning of March 1st the group of thirty-two met at the Pagoda Restaurant at Seoul. Pastor Kil was the only absentee; he had been temporarily delayed on his journey from Pyeng-yang.
Some prominent Japanese had been invited to eat with the Koreans. After the meal, the Declaration was produced before their guests and read. It was despatched to the Governor-General. Then the signers rang up the Central Police Station, informed the shocked officials of what they had done, and added that they would wait in the restaurant until the police van came to arrest them.
The automobile prison van, with them inside, had to make its way to the police station through dense crowds, cheering and shouting, "Mansei! Mansei! Mansei!" It was the old national battle cry, "May Korea live ten thousand years." Old flags had been brought out, old Korean flags, with the red and blue germ on the white ground, and were being widely waved. "Mansei!" Not only Seoul but the whole country had in a few minutes broken out in open demonstration. A new kind of revolt had begun.
Pastor Kil, arriving late, hurried to the police station to take his place with his comrades.
The Declaration of Independence is a document impossible to summarize, if one is to do full justice to it. It is written in the lofty tone of the ancient prophets. It was something more than the aspiration of the Korean people. It was the cry of the New Asia, struggling to find its way out of oppression and mediaeval militarism into the promised land of liberty and peace.
THE PROCLAMATION OF KOREAN INDEPENDENCE
"We herewith proclaim the independence of Korea and
the liberty
of the Korean people. We tell it to the world in
witness of the
equality of all nations and we pass it on to our
posterity as
their inherent right.
"We make this proclamation, having back of us 5,000
years of
history, and 20,000,000 of a united loyal people. We
take this
step to insure to our children for all time to come,
personal
liberty in accord with the awakening consciousness of
this new
era. This is the clear leading of God, the moving
principle of
the present age, the whole human race's just claim. It
is
something that cannot be stamped out, or stifled, or
gagged, or
suppressed by any means.
"Victims of an older age, when brute force and the
spirit of
plunder ruled, we have come after these long thousands
of years
to experience the agony of ten years of foreign
oppression, with
every loss to the right to live, every restriction of
the freedom
of thought, every damage done to the dignity of life,
every
opportunity lost for a share in the intelligent
advance of the
age in which we live.
"Assuredly, if the defects of the past are to be
rectified, if
the agony of the present is to be unloosed, if the
future
oppression is to be avoided, if thought is to be set
free, if
right of action is to be given a place, if we are to
attain to
any way of progress, if we are to deliver our children
from the
painful, shameful heritage, if we are to leave
blessing and
happiness intact for those who succeed us, the first
of all
necessary things is the clear-cut independence of our
people.
What cannot our twenty millions do, every man with
sword in
heart, in this day when human nature and conscience
are making a
stand for truth and right? What barrier can we not
break, what
purpose can we not accomplish?
"We have no desire to accuse Japan of breaking many
solemn
treaties since 1636, nor to single out specially the
teachers in
the schools or government officials who treat the
heritage of our
ancestors as a colony of their own, and our people and
their
civilization as a nation of savages, finding delight
only in
beating us down and bringing us under their heel.
"We have no wish to find special fault with Japan's
lack of
fairness or her contempt of our civilization and the
principles
on which her state rests; we, who have greater cause
to reprimand
ourselves, need not spend precious time in finding
fault with
others; neither need we, who require so urgently to
build for the
future, spend useless hours over what is past and
gone. Our
urgent need to-day is the setting up of this house of
ours and
not a discussion of who has broken it down, or what
has caused
its ruin. Our work is to clear the future of defects
in accord
with the earnest dictates of conscience. Let us not be
filled
with bitterness or resentment over past agonies or
past occasions
for anger.
"Our part is to influence the Japanese government,
dominated as
it is by the old idea of brute force which thinks to
run counter
to reason and universal law, so that it will change,
act honestly
and in accord with the principles of right and truth.
"The result of annexation, brought about without any
conference
with the Korean people, is that the Japanese,
indifferent to us,
use every kind of partiality for their own, and by a
false set of
figures show a profit and loss account between us two
peoples
most untrue, digging a trench of everlasting
resentment deeper
and deeper the farther they go.
"Ought not the way of enlightened courage to be to
correct the
evils of the past by ways that are sincere, and by
true sympathy
and friendly feeling make a new world in which the two
peoples
will be equally blessed?
"To bind by force twenty millions of resentful
Koreans will mean
not only loss of peace forever for this part of the
Far East, but
also will increase the evergrowing suspicion of four
hundred
millions of Chinese - upon whom depends the danger or
safety of
the Far East - besides strengthening the hatred of
Japan. From
this all the rest of the East will suffer. To-day
Korean
independence will mean not only daily life and
happiness for us,
but also it would mean Japan's departure from an evil
way and
exaltation to the place of true protector of the East,
so that
China, too, even in her dreams, would put all fear of
Japan
aside. This thought comes from no minor resentment,
but from a
large hope for the future welfare and blessing of
mankind.
"A new era wakes before our eyes, the old world of
force is gone,
and the new world of righteousness and truth is here.
Out of the
experience and travail of the old world arises this
light on
life's affairs. The insects stifled by the foe and
snow of winter
awake at this same time with the breezes of spring and
the soft
light of the sun upon them.
"It is the day of the restoration of all things on
the full tide
of which we set forth, without delay or fear. We
desire a full
measure of satisfaction in the way of liberty and the
pursuit of
happiness, and an opportunity to develop what is in us
for the
glory of our people.
"We awake now from the old world with its darkened
conditions in
full determination and one heart and one mind, with
right on our
side, along with the forces of nature, to a new life.
May all the
ancestors to the thousands and ten thousand
generations aid us
from within and all the force of the world aid us from
without,
and let the day we take hold be the day of our
attainment. In
this hope we go forward.
THREE ITEMS OF AGREEMENT
"1. This work of ours is in behalf of truth, religion
and life,
undertaken at the request of our people, in order to
make known
their desire for liberty. Let no violence be done to
any one.
"2. Let those who follow us, every man, all the time,
every hour,
show forth with gladness this same mind.
"3. Let all things be done decently and in order, so
that our
behaviour to the very end may be honourable and
upright."
The 4252nd year of the Kingdom of Korea 3d Month.
Representatives of the people.
The signatures attached to the document are:
Son Pyung-hi, Kil Sun Chu, Yi Pil Chu, Paik Yong
Sung, Kim Won
Kyu, Kim Pyung Cho, Kim Chang Choon, Kwon Dong Chin,
Kwon Byung
Duk, Na Yong Whan, Na In Hup, Yang Chun Paik, Yang Han
Mook, Lew
Yer Dai, Yi Kop Sung, Yi Mung Yong, Yi Seung Hoon, Yi
Chong Hoon,
Yi Chong Il, Lim Yei Whan, Pak Choon Seung, Pak Hi Do,
Pak Tong
Wan, Sin Hong Sik, Sin Suk Ku, Oh Sei Chang, Oh Wha
Young, Chung
Choon Su, Choi Sung Mo, Choi In, Han Yong Woon, Hong
Byung Ki,
Hong Ki Cho.