Emperor’s secret letter over protectorate treaty

This is the 23rd in a 60-part series featuring 60 major events in Korea's modern history from 1884 till now. The project is part of the 60th anniversary of The Korea Times, which falls on Nov. 1.

By Robert Neff
Korea Times columnist

On Nov. 17, 1905, Korea and Japan signed a treaty that established Korea as Japan's protectorate. Almost immediately there was outrage. Chang Chi-yon, the editor of the Hwangsung Sinmun, wrote an editorial entitled "On this Day we Weep Bitterly With All Our Voices".

Homer B. Hulbert and Frederick A. McKenzie were extremely verbose in their accusations that Japan had forced the Korean government to sign the treaty under duress. Their accounts are well known but there are other lesser-known but equally damning accounts. Stephen L. Selden, a lawyer in Seoul, wrote in late November 1905:

"It has been officially announced that an agreement has been reached with Korea, and such

announcement has undoubtedly gone out to the world as a fair and unbiased contract. But when it becomes known that the so called agreement was signed by only four of the eight Ministers, and those four only through fear of losing their lives if they refused; when the world learns that the Emperor and his Prime Minister refused to sign and that in order to get the seal of his office attached to the document, they sent to his house a detachment of police and took by main force the box which contained the seal, and carried it to the Place, broke open the box, and the Japs themselves took it out and applied the seal to the instrument as a legal proceeding."

In his diary, Charlie Clark, an American missionary, wrote: "Six thousand Japanese soldiers surrounded the Korean palace and compelled the king to sign a request for aid in governing his kingdom." Some Western newspapers, such as the London Times, echoed these charges.

Other newspapers, mainly Japanese, insisted Emperor Kojong had readily agreed to the treaty. Durham W. Stevens, a Korean advisor appointed by the Japanese declared in a letter to a friend, "The Treaty of Nov. 17 was negotiated without any of those dire and dreadful happenings which were reported." He did, however, acknowledge that the "Emperor would not have yielded if he could have helped himself."

It was these conflicting accounts that aroused the curiosity of Douglas Story, a well-known war correspondent, and subsequently led him to Korea in early January 1906 to discover for himself the truth.

Fate seemed to be with Story for he managed to obtain passage from Kobe, Japan, to Korea with S. Tsuruhara, the newly appointed Director-General in Seoul, and a group of Japanese officials. Undoubtedly they provided him with their opinions of the true state of affairs in Korea, but Story was also very observant and formed his own opinion.

From Busan they traveled to Seoul on a well-guarded train that stopped in each station and was greeted with Japanese officials and school children. There were speeches and banners that praised Marquis Ito Hirobumi, the Resident General, as a "genius" and for his display of "great tact."

According to Story, the Korean peasants were prohibited from approaching the stations and merely watched from afar, "dumbly contemplative" and apparently unaware that they had lost their own country.

When they arrived in Seoul, Story found the Korean palace to be a "hotbed of Japanese spies" and that Emperor Kojong lived in constant fear of being assassinated by the Japanese or their minions. One account claims that "the first message from the Emperor was piteous, appealing to [Story] to save him from assassination."

While in Seoul, Story registered at an unnamed hotel. This might have been Sontag Hotel which was described by one Japanese high official as a "consultation centre for diplomatic conspiracies" in Seoul. Story, for the most part, did not stay in the hotel but merely stored his baggage in his room and spent his nights at various homes in the city where he "learned a lot that did not penetrate the foreign Legations."

It was while he was at one of these homes that a member of the palace arrived at 4 a.m. and presented Story with a message from the emperor. In order to avoid its interception by the Japanese, the servant had smuggled it out of the palace hidden in his baggy trousers.

The message, which was dated Jan. 29, 1906, declared emphatically that the emperor had not signed or approved the treaty with Japan. Furthermore, the emperor "invite[d] the great powers to exercise joint protectorate over Korea for a period not exceeding five years, with respect, to the control of Korean foreign affairs." The message was signed with the emperor's own seal.

Realizing what he possessed, Story confided in a fellow European, possibly Ernest T. Bethell ― the editor of the Korea Daily News. He then copied the letter, sealed it, and left it in a safe spot. He then returned to his hotel only to discover that his room had been ransacked and his personal belongings searched, presumably by the Japanese secret service. This was not an uncommon occurrence. In 1908, Thomas F. Millard, a correspondent for New York Times, wrote:

"Foreigners are also handicapped by an elaborate system of espionage, which goes so far as to open and retard, often altogether to stop, private correspondence and telegrams. Even official consular mail bags have been opened. In the room where I now write Japanese secret service men searched, in his absence, the personal effects of Douglas Story, an English correspondent, in a vain attempt to find an important communication which had been sent to him by the deposed Emperor. I would not think of entrusting this letter to the post but will send it to be mailed outside of Korea by a friend."

But it wasn't only the ransacking of his room that convinced Story that the Japanese knew of the message and would stop at nothing to obtain it. According to Story, shortly after his return to his hotel someone tried to shoot him!

Fearing for his life, Story made his way "through the Japanese cordon" to Chemulpo where he booked passage on a Norwegian steamer bound for Chefoo, China. Unfortunately, the weather was extremely cold and Chemulpo harbor was closed due to ice.

For six days he was trapped aboard the iron-decked steamer before the Captain, despite telegraphic orders from Seoul telling him not to, steamed out of Chemulpo. The steamer arrived safely at Chefoo on February 7.

As soon as they arrived, Story telegraphed his article to the Tribune in London declaring that the Korean-Japanese treaty had been signed under duress and that the Korean emperor had never approved it. He also noted that he had proof ― a letter from the emperor with his seal. He reported that Kojong was a virtual prisoner of the Japanese ― his palace guarded by Japanese soldiers and swarming with spies.

While at Chefoo, Story once again took extraordinary measures to prevent the message from being destroyed. He went to Pierre Essex O'Brien-Butler, the British consul in Chefoo and asked him to have the document copied. O'Brien-Butler, not trusting his own Chinese subordinates, copied the document himself and then kept it for safe-keeping. Story showed his original to Sir Ernest Satow, the British Minister in Peking (Beijing) but Satow apparently was unimpressed and did nothing.

The Japanese, however, reacted quickly. The Japanese ambassador in London denied Story's accusations. He acknowledged the emperor had not signed the Korea-Japan Protectorate Treaty but said that it was not unusual. He pointed out that King Edward had not personally signed the Anglo-Japanese Alliance and had instead let his representative sign it.

In an interview with the Japan Weekly Chronicle, Marquis Ito Hirobumi steadfastly denied Story's allegations that the treaty had been signed under duress. He also questioned the authenticity of the alleged document Story was said to possess.

"Mr. Story believes that the letter he has come from the Emperor but I am certain that it did not come from the Sovereign himself. Moreover, the Emperor has never seen Mr. Story."

Ito did, however, make allowances that "the letter may have come from someone about the Court, but it certainly did not come from the Emperor." Ito claimed he knew this because he had personally asked Kojong who "at once denied that he had sent any such letter, [and] if [Ito] thought it necessary, the Emperor was willing to write one and state his formal denial…"

Later, in January 1907, a proclamation was printed in the Korean Official Gazette also denying the existence of such a letter.

"His Majesty the Emperor never entrusted such a letter and is in fact deeply appreciative of the growing friendship and intimacy between Japan and Korea."

Story continued to denounce the legitimacy of the treaty. His efforts to help Korea and the emperor were futile, as were the emperor's own attempts to gain world support and recognition. On July 27, 1907, Kojong was forced to abdicate his throne to his son.

Was the Nov. 17th Treaty legitimate? George Trumbull Ladd, a fervent supporter of Ito, wrote that Korea had not entered in the treaty with "a willing heart ― much less, in a jubilant spirit" but had done so "under a sort of compulsion." But Ladd justified Japan's actions by declaring that "if all treaties made under such conditions may be repudiated…the peace of the world cannot be secured or even promoted by any number of treaties."

Korea had been lost for the false promise of regional peace.