Bringing truth to light
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By Kim Ji-myung
Kim Moon-ja is a Korean-Japanese historian born in 1951. I know almost nothing about her, except for the information printed in her book. She wrote “The Murder of Joseon Queen and the Japanese,” which was published in 2009 by Koubunken Co. in Japan.
The book is a revelation of facts based upon many decades of persevering research and investigation into records and evidence on the killing of Queen Min by Japan in 1895.
Of course, “The Murder” is not the first or only publication on the topic, but it is an indispensable and unprecedented achievement in that she reviewed all possible internal documents about Japan’s role. For example, a map of Gyeongbokgung, the main palace of the Joseon Kingdom, shows the intrusion route by the assassins — from the main gate of Gwanghwamun to the royal residence deep inside the palace compound.
Uchida Satasuchi, then consul general to Seoul, drew the route in a dotted red line, adding detailed information such as distances between spots and names of palace gates and pavilions. In this report sent to Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs Hara Takashi, Uchida provides the most detailed information about the actual scene of the killing. It is part of the documents housed at the Diplomatic Records Office of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Japan.
Points of important events are cross-marked at the residential quarter with numbers 1, 2, 3 and 4. On point 1 (at the corner of Jangan-dang Hall), the queen was first attacked, and then dragged out of the building to point 2 for certain assassination. Then her body was carried to a corner room at the end of a long corridor (point 3). Later on the same day, she was burned at point 4, on a foothill of low court garden Noksan (Deer Mountain).
Uchida wrote in the report that when he visited the site six weeks after the incident, he saw some charcoal and soot. Near the site he could also see the obvious shape of a temporary makeshift grave. There is no straightforward confession for Japan’s action in any part of this report of the killing.
But the author demonstrates many facts as recorded in correspondence, reports, official documents and private diaries — which fit into the big picture of the government-initiated “Fox Hunt” project of Japan.
The map is just one example of the many astonishing discoveries made by the author. The 364-page Japanese version carries official and behind-the-scenes movements around Korea, which culminated in the queen’s death. She traced back the process of preparation before and manipulations after the assassination We now have the wisdom of hindsight that the queen’s murder could have gone down in history as an unsettled incident as Japan designed.
Japanese Minister Miura Goro had prepared a step-by-step implementation scenario. The original copy has not been found, but diverse sources did support the fact that such a plan existed. The Japanese team would escort Prince Regent Daewongun, the father-in-law and antagonist of Queen Min, from his villa in Gongdeok-dong to enter the main palace at 4 a.m. on Oct. 8, 1895. On the way, Japanese guards would join in the group at the South Gate.
If everything went as planned, Daewongun would take power by removing his headstrong daughter-in-law.
Everything was scheduled to finish in the small dark hours of the day. A review of what actually happened that morning shows that two problems occurred. First was a delay.
Daewongun took a long time to agree to move, probably feeling reluctant at the last minute to play a role in the assassination. On top of this, the Japanese guards mistook the point of meeting with the group. When everyone finally met to move toward the palace, it was already dawn. Their delay meant their actions might turn out to take place in the light of dawn instead of full darkness. Because it was already starting to get light, they changed plans to enter the West Gate instead of the South Gate, where market people bustled early in the morning.
As we know, the assassins were seen by foreign diplomats and advisers who stayed in the court with the king or who hurried into the palace that morning.
Their reports documented history. The 429-page Korean version of “The Murder of Joseon Queen,” translated by Professor Kim Seung-il, was published by Taehaksa Publishing Co. in 2011.
I hope to meet the author someday. She finished her master’s degree in history in 1979. Since then, she has continued her research into Korean history.
She wrote papers and articles on the “gwageo” (civil service examination) system of the Joseon Kingdom in 1981 and on the March 1 Independence Movement of 1919 in Korea, in 1984.
As far as I know, Kim has been harassed and threatened by the rightist Japanese since the book was published.
She shuns exposure in the media. I could not get any meaningful information about her through my Internet search. I admire her courage and tenacity to dig out the historical truth. As Thomas Huxley said, people should “learn what is true in order to do what is right.”
The writer is the chairwoman of the Korea Heritage Education Institute (K*Heritage). Her email address is heritagekorea21@gmail.com.