A few days after our arrival our host gave us an afternoon reception at the Residency House. It was a beautiful day; and the grounds, which had been decorated as it is difficult for other than the Japanese professionals to do, were beautiful as was the day. The first two hours were spent upon the hill above the Residence, from which there are fine and extensive views of Seoul and its environing mountains. There, in the several well-situated booths and tea-houses, light refreshments were served. There, too, we were introduced to the whole of Seoul “society,” some of whom we were glad to call our “friends,” when we parted from them nearly two months later. The Japanese officials, the foreign Consuls, with their wives and daughters, the Korean officials without their families, the Roman Catholic Archbishop and the Protestant missionaries, and a few of the leading business people, made up that sort of a gathering which is most thoroughly human and most interesting. A collation, with chatting and hand-shaking, in the Marquis’ apartments closed a delightful afternoon.
Of the various garden parties, luncheons, dinners, and receptions, which followed and not only enlivened the otherwise somewhat dull life of lecturing, reading, consulting, and observing, it is not necessary to speak in detail. The visit of Prince Tokugawa and his party to Seoul, which was extended for some ten days, was very properly made the occasion of a series of festivities, at most of which they were the guests of honor; but at the last of which—a reception given in Miss Sontag’s house—Prince Tokugawa was himself the host. The unaffected friendly bearing of these Japanese gentlemen toward the Koreans, with whom they were thus brought in contact, helped to soften the anti-Japanese feeling; and since on one, at least, of these occasions, the reception given by Mr. Megata, not only the foreign diplomats but also a number of the foreign missionaries were invited, it gave to the latter a somewhat unaccustomed opportunity to observe at close hand the enlightening fact that Japan, like all other so-called civilized nations, does not have its true character best represented by its coolies, low-lived adventurers, camp-followers, and land-grabbing pioneers.
I close this brief description of our varied experiences in Seoul with a warning against a very common but, in my judgment, quite fallacious view of the relation in which the capital city stands to the entire country of Korea. It is customary to say that “Seoul is Korea” just as “Paris is France.” But this is even less true in the macrocosm of Seoul than in the macrocosm of Paris. It is indeed true, as Dr. Jones has said, that “as the capital of the Empire its political pre-eminence is undisputed. Intellectually and socially it has ruled Korea with an iron hand for half a millennium.” But it is also true that the real interests and undeveloped material and human resources of the nation are in the country; and that the uneconomical, ignorant, and depressed condition of the people outside of Seoul is the chief concern of all who really care for the welfare of Korea. The local magistrates must be reformed, or the well-nigh hopeless task of reforming the corrupt Court at Seoul would be, if it could be accomplished, of little value to the nation. And if it becomes necessary, in order to effect this reform, and so to bring about the redemption, industrially, educationally, morally and religiously, of the people of the country, then the “iron hand” which rules them from Seoul must be either gloved or broken in pieces. But, in truth, the idol at Seoul which the Koreans worship is an image of clay.
CHAPTER V
A VISIT TO PYENG-YANG
From the historical, as well as the geographical and commercial points of view, the city of Pyeng-yang (spelled also Pyong-yang and in various other ways) is the most important place in all Northern Korea. It has frequently been besieged and assaulted, both by Japanese invaders from the south and by various forces—Mongolian, Chinese, Manchu—coming down from the north to pour their devastating hordes over the country. It was hither that the Korean king fled before the armies of “men in fierce-looking helmets and bright armor with little pennons at their backs bearing their names and family badges,” which were sent against him by Hideyoshi more than three hundred years ago. The city is beautifully situated; it is by nature constituted for all time as a principal centre for distributing over the Yellow Sea the industrial products of fertile North Korea and for receiving in return whatever the adjoining parts of China and Manchuria may furnish for coastwise trade.
Previous to the China-Japan war there were probably not more than a half-score of Japanese within the walled city of Pyeng-yang. But some two years after the end of this war the Japanese colony had grown to several hundred souls. During and after the war with Russia, however, the increase of this colony was so rapid that it could find no room within the walls of the city. It therefore burst through, as it were, the barrier of these walls and built a new city for itself outside the South Gate, which, like all similar enterprises in Korea, by its neat dwellings and shops, its clean and broad streets, and its general air of prosperity, contrasts with, and forms an object lesson to, the Korean city within the walls.
The original inhabitants of the Japanese city were by no means altogether of the class most creditable to Japan, or comfortable as neighbors for the Korean population. There were many adventurers, hangers-on and panderers to the army, who did not stop at either fraud or violence in their treatment of the native population of Pyeng-yang. And while the Japanese army during the war behaved with most admirable moderation and discipline here, as elsewhere in Korea and Manchuria, at its close even the military authorities were not as scrupulous as they should have been by way of appropriating land and other necessaries for their permanent occupation. The wrongs which were then committed are, however, as far as possible in such cases, now being measurably remedied or compensated for; and in spite of the fact that the withdrawal of the divisional headquarters of the Japanese army has affected somewhat seriously the retail trade, and there still continues to be more or less of disturbing friction between dealers of the two nationalities, and a crop of disputes over land-claims that need settlement, there is now a prosperous Japanese city, with some 5,000 inhabitants. The Korean city is also growing in numbers and prosperity. As the two nationalities come to know and understand each other better, that will inevitably, but happily, take place here which has already taken place at Chemulpo. They will learn the better to respect each other, and each other’s rights; and to live together in freedom from outbreaking strife and sullen bitterness, if not in perfect harmony. It was a good indication of this possibility to learn that the Japanese Resident in Pyeng-yang already has coming to his court for adjustment more cases of Koreans against Koreans than of Koreans against his own countrymen.
The invitation to visit this interesting and important city was most prompt and cordial. It came within a few days of our arrival in Seoul. In spite, therefore, of the fact that I was suffering from a somewhat severe attack of influenza, brought on in the quite ordinary way of breathing in the dust of the streets of the capital city, we started for Pyeng-yang, accompanied by Mr. Zumoto, by the early morning train of April 5th. To make the journey more surely comfortable, and to emphasize the relation of the travellers to the Resident-General, the party was escorted about half-way by one railroad official, who, having committed us to another that had come on from Pyeng-yang for the purpose, himself returned to his duties at Seoul.
The night before had been rainy—a somewhat unusual thing in such abundance at this time of year; but by noon the sky and air had cleared, and the strong sunlight brought out the colors of the landscape in a way characteristic of the usual climate of Korea in the early Spring. The railway from Seoul to Wiju is being very largely built over again; so that part of the time our train was running over the permanent way and part of the time over the military road which was quite too hastily constructed to be left after the war in a satisfactory state. This process of reconstruction consists in straightening curves, adjusting grades, erecting stone sustaining-walls and heavy, steel bridges; as well as in making the old bed, where it is followed, more solid and better ballasted. The part of Korea through which we were now passing was obviously more fertile and better cultivated than the part lying between Fusan and Seoul. There were even some portions of the main highway which resembled a passable jinrikisha road in Japan, instead of the wretched and well-nigh impassable footpaths which are often the only thoroughfares further south. In places, also, the peasants seemed to have overcome their fears, both of the laws punishing sacrilege and also of the avenging spirits of the dead; for the burial mounds had been replaced by terraces which enabled the fields to be cultivated nearly or quite to the tops of the hills.