The War in the East: Japan, China, and Corea

by Trumbull White

At first the new dynasty sent tribute regularly to the shogun of Japan, but as intestinal war troubled the Island Empire and the shoguns became effeminate, the Coreans stopped their tribute and it was almost forgotten. The last embassy from Seoul was sent in 1460. After that they were never summoned, so they never came. Under the idea that peace was to last forever, the nation relaxed all vigilance; the army was disorganized and the castles were fallen into ruin. It was while the country was in such a condition that the summons of Japan’s great conqueror came to them, and the Coreans learned for the first time of the fall of Ashikaga and the temper of their new master.

As the Mongol conquerors issuing from China had used Corea as their point of departure to invade Japan, so Hideyoshi resolved to make the peninsula the road for his armies into China. He sent an envoy to Seoul to demand tribute, and then, angered at the utter failure of his mission, commanded the envoy and all his family to be put to death. A second ambassador was sent with more success, and presents and envoys were exchanged. Hideyoshi, however, became enraged at the indifference of the Coreans to assist him in his dealings with China, and resolved to humble the peninsular kingdom, and China, her overlord.

FIGHTING BEFORE THE GATE OF SEOUL.

The invasion of Corea was made as related in the earlier chapters on Japan. The Coreans were poorly prepared for war, both as to leaders, soldiers, equipments and fortifications. The Japanese swept everything like a whirlwind before them, and entered the capital within eighteen days after their landing at Fusan. The accounts of the war are preserved in detail, and are exceedingly interesting, but the limits of this volume compel their omission to provide space for the war of 1894-5. At first Chinese armies coming to reinforce the Coreans were defeated and turned back, but another effort of the allies was more effective and the Japanese troops found advance turned to retreat. The Japanese armies concentrated at Seoul to receive the advance of the allies numbering some two hundred thousand. The capital was burned by the Japanese, nearly every house being destroyed, and hundreds of men, women, and children, sick and well, living quietly there, were massacred. The allied troops were beaten back in a ferocious battle, but hunger reached both armies, pestilence entered the Japanese camp, and both sides were utterly tired of war and ready to consider terms of peace.

OLD MAN IN COREA.

Konishi, the general of the Japanese army, had been converted to Christianity by the Portuguese Jesuits. During this period of tiresome waiting he sent to the superior of the missions in Japan asking for a priest. In response to this request came Father Gregorio de Cespedes and a Japanese convert. These two holy men began their labors among the Japanese armies, preaching from camp to camp, and administering the right of baptism to thousands of converts, but their work was stopped by the jealousy of the Buddhist power. The Jesuits in Japan were then being expelled for their political machinations, and the chaplains in Corea were brought under the same ban. Konishi was called back to Japan with the priest and was unable to convince the shogun of his innocence. A few Corean converts were made during this time, and one of them a lad of rank, was afterward educated in the Jesuit seminary at Kioto. He endeavored to return to Corea as a missionary, but the condition of affairs in Japan interrupted his intentions and in 1625 he was martyred during the prosecutions of the Christians. Of the large number of Corean prisoners sent over to Japan, many became Christians. Hundreds of others were sold as slaves to the Portuguese. Others rose to positions of honor under the government or in the households of the daimios. Many Corean lads were adopted by the returned soldiers or kept as servants. When the bloody persecution broke out, by which many thousand Japanese found death, the Corean converts remained steadfast to their Christian faith, and suffered martyrdom with fortitude equal to that of their Japanese brethren. But by the army in Corea, or by the Christian chaplain Cespedes, no trace of Christianity was left in the land of Morning Calm, and it was two centuries later before that faith was really introduced.

The fortunes of the war alternated, and finally, after deeds of heroism on both sides, a period of inaction ensued, the result of exhaustion. At this time Hideyoshi fell sick and died, September 9, 1598, at the age of sixty-three years. Almost his last words were, “Recall all my troops from Cho-sen.” The orders to embark for home were everywhere gladly heard. It is probable that the loss of life in the campaigns of this war was nearly a third of a million. Thus ended one of the most needless, unprovoked, cruel, and desolating wars that ever cursed Corea. More than two hundred thousand human bodies were decapitated to furnish the ghastly material for the “ear-tomb” mound in Kioto. More than one hundred and eighty-five thousand Corean heads were gathered for mutilation, and thirty thousand Chinese, all of which were despoiled of ears and noses. It is probable that fifty thousand Japanese left their bones in Corea.

Since the invasion the town of Fusan, as before, had been held and garrisoned by the retainers of the Daimio of Tsushima. At this port all the commerce between the two nations took place. From an American point of view, there was little trade done between the two countries, but on the strength of even this small amount Earl Russell in 1862 tried to get Great Britain included as a co-trader between Japan and Corea. He was not, however, successful. A house was built at Nagasaki by the Japanese government which was intended as a refuge for Coreans who might be wrecked on Japanese shores. Wherever the waifs were picked up, they were sent to Nagasaki and sheltered until a junk could be dispatched to Fusan.