In Korea with Marquis Ito

by George Trumbull Ladd

Of rudeness and petty assaults the Koreans have, no doubt, had much to endure at the hands of the coolies and other low-class Japanese. But not so much as the Burmese and East Indians have had to endure from the British soldier and petty official in their own home land; or the Chinese and Japanese on the Pacific Coast of the United States; and, probably, not more than the Japanese themselves during the earlier days of the entrance of foreigners into Japan. While the atrocious treatment of the natives by the Belgians in Africa, by the French in Madagascar, by the Russians in many parts of Asia, is as midnight darkness to twilight or full dawn when compared with anything done to Koreans of late years by the Japanese.

In order to understand, but not to excuse, this harsh and bullying attitude of the foreigner toward the native, two things need to be borne in mind. The first is this: Korea has never been a land where the common people have been treated with any decency, not to say respect. In the old days—the days to change which the Japanese Government is planning and doing more than any other human agency—the attendants of officials beat every commoner who came within their reach; this was as a matter of course; it was an evidence, not much resented by the people, of the superiority of their master. Lieutenant Foulk describes how, when he was travelling in the country, his chair coolies on approaching an inn would accelerate their pace and, rushing into the yard at the top of their speed, would begin to belabor every one in sight. “In 1885,” says Mr. Stevens, “I was riding through the streets of Seoul on official business. Among my attendants were several policemen armed with the many-thonged whips carried in those days. The policemen slashed with these at the curious who pressed around the chair, regardless of where the blows fell. One old woman, lashed in the face until the blood came, still pressed forward when the policeman had passed, eager to see the foreigner close at hand, and apparently regarding the blows as a matter of course.” To-day such cruelty is in no respect rare among the “amiable Koreans.” Indeed, without something of this kind, it is difficult in the country for the traveller, whether native or foreigner, to get anything done. “During the first two days,” says Mr. Henry Norman,[87] “I was greatly annoyed by my mapous, whom I could not get along at all. At the midday halt they would lie about for a couple of hours, and in the morning it was two or three hours after I was up before I could get them to start. On the third morning I lost my temper, and going into their room, I kicked them one after the other into the yard. This was evidently what they expected, for they set to work immediately. Unless they were kicked they could not believe the hurry was real. Afterward, by a similar procedure, I started whenever I wished.” Again, Mr. Angus Hamilton, after bringing a railing accusation against the Japanese for their bullying methods with the Koreans, recommends that the Korean interpreter “be flogged” if he suggests the employment of too many servants, asserts that “an occasional kick” is helpful to convert the Korean into a “willing if unintelligent servant,” and closes his book with the frank narrative of his falling into a blind rage and taking vengeance right and left because of his disappointment over the defeat of a scheme for an exploring and sporting trip to the northern part of the peninsula.[88]

The second consideration to which reference was made brings out the more humorous side of the picture. In Korea it makes a great difference, not only whose ox is gored, but who gores the ox. Small favors of the kind which are received uncomplainingly—almost gratefully—from their own officials, and even from other friends, are by no means just now received in the same way from the Japanese. Of this fact Dr. Gale gives an admirable description: it is that of a Korean lounging along in the middle of the road and smoking the pipe of contemplative abstraction—a habit indulged in by almost all Koreans in the most inconvenient places. A Japanese jinrikisha-man pushes him rudely to one side, and not being at all firm upon his legs, he goes sprawling on the ground (comp. [p. 172 f.]). Eyes raised to heaven, he calls upon the skies to fall; for the end of all things has come. “But,” says the passing stranger, “a missionary pushed you out of the way yesterday; another foreigner beat you the day before; your own people have always kicked and cuffed you.” “Yes, yes, but a Japanese! Only think of it—a Japanese!”

Among the partially true, but greatly exaggerated, charges of petty oppression and injustice must be classed the claim that the labor on the Japanese military railway was enforced by personal cruelties and paid for at unfair prices. Again, it must be remembered that the prompt conclusion of this work was a military necessity of the first importance. In the rush and confusion which accompanied its execution, it would have been strange if there had not been cases of harsh treatment of laborers by the Japanese sub-contractors. Where an appeal, accompanied by trustworthy evidence, was taken to the higher authorities, it was possible to obtain redress in almost every instance. But there was another class of cases where it was almost impossible to secure anything like decent reparation; these were chiefly under the management of the Koreans themselves. Concerning such cases, the statement of an authority, made on grounds of personal knowledge, is quoted below:

Complaints came from various sources, all of the same tenor. Laborers living long distances from the railway were compelled to come to work at wages which hardly paid for their food. Yet at this time the authorities were paying wages much higher than any that could be earned by these men in other occupations. As the laborers could not appeal, or did not appeal, directly to the military authorities, but usually waited until their return home to repeat the story of their wrongs, it was difficult to ascertain the truth. Whenever an investigation was possible, however, it was usually discovered that the ill-treatment was due to a combination between interpreters, sub-contractors, and local officials. The sub-contractors had to have men, and, either through interpreters or directly, would make contracts with the local officials to supply a certain number of laborers. These were almost invariably secured one or two day’s journey from the railway line; as it would not do to attract too much attention by interfering with the people living near the railway. The laborers would be compelled to work for about one-fourth of the wages really paid, and the balance would be divided between the interpreters and local officials. In certain cases the people were allowed exemption from this drafting system upon the payment of ransom, estimated upon the basis of the number of men which they had been asked to supply. Only recently an officer, who during the war had charge of the construction of an important section of the Seoul-Wiju line, related a case of this kind. He was paying one dollar and thirty cents, Korean money, as a day’s wages; the men were well treated, and food was cheap and abundant. Still there was constant trouble on account of insufficient supply of labor, the reason for which the closest investigation failed to reveal. But only a few months ago (more than two years, that is, after the experience) the officer met a man who explained the reason. It seemed that the Korean Governor of the province had an arrangement with the interpreters which was mutually profitable even when laborers were not actually procured for the work. The operations were carried on over a large extent of territory distant, as was customary, several day’s journey from the railway. As many laborers as could be induced, or forced, to come, were paid thirty-five cents a day—the conspirators pocketing the balance. In the majority of cases where the people preferred to purchase exemption, these precious rascals collected considerable sums. And, of course, the military authorities got all the blame, as all this was done in their name. Sometimes the sub-contractors assisted by sending out parties, Korean and Japanese, armed with swords and pistols, for the purpose of intimidating the unwilling or the recalcitrant. On several occasions condign punishment was inflicted for offences of this kind, but as actual violence was very rarely committed and the intimidation was carried on quietly, where it could not easily be discovered, it was difficult to secure convincing proof against the culprits.

Fair-minded persons, familiar with the facts, know that the military authorities did all that could have reasonably been asked to put a stop to such practices; but, occurring during a time of war, many of these irregularities were of a nature which it was difficult wholly to prevent. That officers in the field and at headquarters were always ready to listen to complaints and, so far as lay in their power, to rectify wrongs, is an indisputable fact.

The reputation of the Japanese—army, civil government, and the people generally—has suffered more from the long-standing and the more recent relations between Japan and Korea than is customary elsewhere under similar circumstances. This is due partly to inexperience and over self-confidence on their own part; but also in larger measure to the untrustworthy and corrupt witness of the Korean officials and to the ignorance and credulity of the Korean people; most of all, however, to the prejudiced or malignant, untrue reports of certain foreigners. During the occupation and transit of the Japanese army in the late war, the charges of cruelty and injustice on its part were not confined to the construction and service of the military railway. While the commissary department was paying to the Korean contractors the full market price for provisions and other supplies, the contractors were compelling the Korean people to furnish the supplies, either without pay or at greatly reduced rates. From time immemorial, the people of Korea have been accustomed to have their rice, chickens, ponies, and service, levied upon by their own officials; in the present case they, as a matter of course, attributed the same manner of getting what you want by taking what you see, to the Japanese.[89]

Ignorance of the Korean language and customs is another fruitful source of bad repute for the Japanese. Even now, in the city of Seoul, the Japanese who blunders into the women’s quarters, or even into their too near vicinity, in the discharge of his duty to collect a bill, to make an inspection or a report of some official character, or to inquire his way, is liable to be charged with an intent to commit rape or some other form of assault. The Japanese collector of taxes, or customs, or the Japanese policeman who protects the obnoxious Korean official, or even the “unpatriotic” Cabinet Minister, is a particular object of Korean falsehood and hatred. But all these complaints, although they have been made much of by the anti-Japanese “friends” of Korea, and in spite of the undoubted fact that they greatly increase the feeling of bitterness between the two peoples and interfere with the benevolent plans of the Resident-General, are in themselves comparatively trivial.

Wholly false charges of oppression and fraud of a much more important character have been made against the Japanese Government in Korea, either in ignorance or with malignity, and have industriously been spread abroad by the subsidized or the deceived “foreign friends” of the Korean Court. One of the most notable of such charges concerned the so-called “fisheries company.” Its history is briefly this. Certain Koreans came to a “missionary friend” complaining that the Resident-General had peremptorily dissolved a Korean company which had a legal concession to develop the fisheries industry, thus involving the shareholders in heavy losses. The presumption was that the unjust act was intended to further in the future the Japanese interest in this same industry. But the truth was that the Minister of Agriculture, Commerce and Industry had in the Fall of 1906, at the solicitation of a “Korean, notorious for previous participation in malodorous schemes,” secretly granted to a native company a monopoly of all the fishing rights upon the entire Korean coasts, except the whale fisheries. In addition to this, this same company was given the exclusive right of control over all the fish markets in the Empire, so that no fish could be sold except at places designated by it and upon payment to it of such sums as it might choose to exact. When, however, sufficient funds were not speedily available from Korean subscribers to float this monstrous and totally illegal monopoly, a Japanese visiting capitalist was approached by the Korean promoter and asked to buy a half-share of the enterprise. His mention of the investment offered to him gave to the Residency-General its first knowledge of the scheme. The Minister of Agriculture, Commerce and Industry was immediately informed that such a concession was in plain violation of treaty rights and highly prejudicial to Korean private and public interests. The Minister was also warned that the concession should be cancelled; he promised to do this, and it was supposed that he had kept his word. But either through cowardice or connivance at corruption, the promise was not fulfilled. Months later, therefore, the Chief of the Commercial Department of the Residency-General, Mr. Kiuchi, while making a tour of inspection in Southeastern Korea, received a petition from the fishermen of the district, complaining that this same company was levying taxes upon them and forbidding those who did not pay the taxes to continue their fishing. The complete dissolution of this illegal monopoly was saved from being the object of popular resentment only by the fact that its promoters had been ready to share their plunder with a Japanese![90]