In Korea with Marquis Ito

by George Trumbull Ladd

In the many public addresses which followed, at the various banquets and receptions given to the Marquis, he took pains to make it perfectly clear that his benevolent intentions toward the Korean people had in no respect suffered a change. Of himself he declared that he was neither elated in spirit over the success of the new treaty, nor depressed in spirit before the new difficulties which must be encountered. He wished his countrymen to remember that the Korean problem was not political, not one of the successful exploitation of a weaker nation by a stronger, but a question of that policy which should be for the highest interests and best welfare of both nations. The need of the hour was the need of men—both Japanese and Koreans—who could stand in the places of responsibility and influence, and discharge their duties faithfully, honestly, unselfishly. The work which he had undertaken to do in Korea was only a beginning; and on account of advancing age he must soon let it go from his hand. At present, however, he was in harness and must remain so. When the time came for him to resign, he hoped sincerely that some able and wise successor in the office—now so increasingly responsible—of Japanese Resident-General in Korea might somewhere be found.

This historical and critical sketch of the relations between the two nations of Japan and Korea fitly closes with the visit of Marquis—now Prince—Ito to Tokyo in August of 1907. The results to follow from the plans which were then matured for the administration of the offices of the Residency-General and for the more ultimate solution of the delicate and complex problem of bringing about a state of affairs which shall at the same time redeem Korea and deliver Japan from the constant menace which the peninsula has hitherto been—and not only this, but shall bind the two nations together in a common prosperity under terms of friendship and good-will, are destined to form important items in the future history of the Far East. It remains only to add that no one who could have heard the firm and feeling-full declaration made to the writer by His Excellency when the latter was on the eve of returning to Seoul, would question the wisdom, honesty, or benevolence of the Japanese Resident-General in Korea. As fast and far as he can have his way, this long-time misgoverned and wretched nation will be reformed and uplifted to an unwonted economical and political prosperity.

CHAPTER XIX
THE SOLUTION OF THE PROBLEM

The rôle of the prophet in his predictive function, and with reference to the destiny of nations, is always a delicate and dangerous part to play. The danger is particularly great when the complex and largely unfamiliar ideas and emotions of Oriental peoples constitute the controlling factors in the situation; it is made still greater at the present time, as regards the future of the Far East, by the increasing admixture of foreign and Western influences. Above all, however, is the situation complicated by the unsettled and totally uncertain condition of China. Here are countless millions of an industrious, patient, and thrifty, but almost incredibly ignorant and superstitious, population; corrupt and intriguing official classes and an essentially foreign Court; indefinitely great resources of soil and mines, and an almost limitless capacity for foreign trade, which makes it the coveted territory for exploiting schemes by both European and Asiatic nations. Into this hitherto relatively inert mass the ferment of new conceptions of civilization and of life, of the things which are worth the having and which may be had, if men will struggle and fight for them, is now being everywhere introduced. The restlessness of feeling, with its stimulus to violence, which has formerly resulted for the most part in local uprisings against excessive squeezing from their own officials, or against too obvious interference with their ancient institutions and present material interests by foreigners, is now taking the form of a purpose which may quickly change, and by bloody revolution if necessary, the character of the Chinese Government and even the nature of Chinese characteristic civilization. What will be the effect of all this upon the entire Far East, is a question which would require of any student of history a bold, an audacious front to answer in a confident tone.[111]

In this uncertainty as to the future of the Far East, Korea shares, as a matter of course, to a large extent. For, even now that certain important factors in the problem of the Japanese Protectorate over Korea seem to be relatively stable, the problem as a whole remains exceedingly difficult and complex. How will Japan succeed in solving this problem? Will it be by the way of developing the material resources of the land, on the whole peacefully, and chiefly for the benefit of the Koreans themselves; of reforming the economic, administrative, and judicial condition of the common people; and of making a foreign rule to be esteemed a blessing rather than an odious imposition? Or, will it be by the way of reducing Korea to a condition of virtual vassalage, and of making its people a dissatisfied nation, ever ready for revolt and only kept down from successful revolt by the strong arm of a foreign police and a foreign military force? Will Japan really succeed in solving this problem at all? All suggestions in answer to these and similar questions are of value only as they are rendered more or less probable in view of such facts as those to which attention has been directed in the preceding chapters of this book.

The future of Korea and of the Japanese Protectorate over Korea will inevitably depend upon the action and reaction of three classes of factors. These are the attitude and behavior of other foreign nations; the native capacity for self-government and the actual conduct of the Koreans themselves; and the policy of Japan, not as a theory or an experiment merely, but as embodied in industries, laws, institutions and other forms of practical effect.

In all past time, but especially during the last half-century, the relations of Japan and Korea have been chiefly determined by the attitude and behavior of other foreign nations, both toward and within the Korean peninsula. It was the desire of Japan to get at China through Korea, and the determination of the Chinese Government to resist and thwart this desire, and to retain for itself the supremacy in the control of Korean affairs, which brought about the invasion of Hideyoshi, with its persistent train of consequences lasting well down into modern times. Until the end of the Chino-Japan war, and especially in the events of 1882 and 1884, as well as in those events which immediately preceded the war, it was what China did or proposed to do, which formed the principal influence to determine the relations of Japan and Korea. After this war had definitively and finally delivered the peninsula from all Chinese claims to suzerainty, or even to predominating influence, it was chiefly the attitude and actions of Russia which decided the more active relations of Japanese to the Korean Government. France and Germany at the close of the war with China, and France during the period just preceding the war with Russia, exercised considerable influence—of a less obvious and direct character, however—upon the relations of these two governments. During the last three or four years which cover the period that began toward the close of the Russo-Japanese campaigns, Great Britain and the United States have powerfully, but for the most part indirectly, affected the newer relations that have been in the process of forming between Japan and Korea. The Government of Great Britain has been the fair ally and sensible counsellor of the Japanese Government; the United States, while maintaining an official attitude distinctly favorable to giving the Residency-General a “free hand” for his plans to accomplish reforms in Korea, has been, by complicity of some of its private citizens with a false and corrupt Emperor, a no inconsiderable source of embarrassment. The same thing would have to be said of some of the British residents in Korea.

Recent Treaties and Conventions with Great Britain, France, and Russia, have now, however, made it as certain as anything in the political future of human affairs can well be, that none of these powerful nations will for some years to come interfere in the policy or administration of the Japanese Protectorate in Korea. So far as their action is concerned, Japan has only to maintain her pledges of “equal opportunity,” the “open door,” and “hands-off” from China for purposes of plundering its territory, and she may now try without foreign interference her plans for the improvement of her relations with this hitherto most troublesome neighbor. Indeed, the way in which the Convention of July, 1907, with its increase of legal rights to control the internal administration and reshape the entire code and economic and social system of the Korean peninsula, has been received by the Powers generally, shows that no formidable objection from without would be raised if Japan should substitute out-and-out annexation for the now-existing Protectorate. The four great nations whose territorial possessions give them a supreme interest in the Far East, have already formally accepted the existing situation; there is less and less likelihood of meddling, as authorized by other European or American nations, on the part of their diplomatic representatives.

Furthermore, in Korea itself, those squabbles with foreigners which have arisen out of conflicting promoting schemes and claims to concessions, since order is being rapidly brought out of the confusion they have occasioned, are likely to cut less of a figure in the future. The anti-Japanese missionaries and other foreign residents in Seoul are being either won over, or their complaints silenced, by the policy of the Residency-General. If the criticisms of the dealings of Japan with Korea were much more just and severe, they would not be likely to involve international complications of any serious magnitude. Only China remains—huge, mysterious, incalculable both for good and for evil, a vast overhanging cloud, with here and there a flash of lightning or streak of sunlight shining through. But for some time to come it is altogether unlikely that the Celestial Empire will be able, however willing, to re-establish any claims to a dominating influence, much less to a restored suzerainty, in the Korean peninsula. This first class of factors, which have been so influential and even determinative in the past, may therefore not improperly be eliminated in making up one’s calculations as to the probable future. In other words, the issue will now be determined by the behavior toward each other of the two peoples immediately concerned. Japanese and Koreans will now be allowed to work out the problem of the relations—for the weal or for the woe of both peoples—to exist and prove effective between Japan and Korea.