Given at Hiroshima local court by Yoshida Yoshida, Judge of Preliminary inquiry, Tamura Yoshiharu, Clerk of the court.
Dated 20th day of the first month of the twenty-ninth year of Yeiji.
This copy has been taken from the original text.
Clerk of the local court of Hiroshima.”
This document needs no comment. Count Miura was recently restored to all his titles and dignities which had been temporarily removed.
CHAPTER X
The Palace after the Murder—Panic—Attitude of Foreign Legations—The King’s Life in Hourly Danger—Noble Refugees—Americans on Guard—Mistakes of the New Government—Objectionable Sumptuary Laws—A Plan to Rescue the King—One Night at the Palace—Forcing an Entrance—Our Little Drama—Escape of General Yun.
In the meantime the king and crown prince were held prisoners in their own palace by a cabinet composed of Koreans who were favorable to the Japanese government. Immediately after the death of the queen, before the soldiers and assassins had dispersed, the Japanese minister had come to the palace and requested an audience. According to the official report, Count Miura, with his secretary, Mr. Sugimma,[3] the Tai Won Kun, and a Japanese, who had led the soshi, were all present at this audience, and presented three papers to the king for signature, one being that the cabinet should henceforth manage the affairs of the country, one that Prince Yi Chai Miun should be minister of the royal household, and the other appointing a vice-minister of the household. The king shaken by the events of the night, and helpless in the hands of his enemies, signed all three. Then the Japanese troops were withdrawn, and the Kurentai alone left on guard. Soon after the ministers of war and police departments were changed for pro-Japanese, “so that all the armed forces of the government, and even the personal attendants of his majesty” were under the control of the opponents of the royal person and family.
[3] See “Korean Repository” official account of the murder of the queen.