Japan Suspected Gojong Behind An’s Killing of Ito
By Sunny Lee
Contributing Writer
Japan strongly suspected that a Korean emperor was directly behind the patriot An Jung-geun's assassination of a ranking Japanese diplomat, secret Japanese documents at that time showed.
On Oct. 26, 1909, An Jung-geun was arrested in Harbin, a city in northern Manchuria, after gunning down Hirobumi Ito, the first Japanese prime minister, who architected Japan's colonial ambition on the Korean Peninsula.
Ito, fatally wounded, was quickly transferred to Japan, but died there soon.
After the incident, Japan suspected that Gojong, the Korean king (1852-1919), was very likely behind the incident, a three-part intelligence report, sent by "Komura," a Japan's diplomat based in Vladivostok, to the Japanese government during the Feb.-March period of 1910, showed.
Japan's suspicion wasn't unreasonable because Gojong dispatched two envoys to Russia and China to lobby for the change of jurisdiction for An's trial from the Japanese court to the Russian court, in a bid to save An, a local daily, Chosun Ilbo, reported Saturday.
Harbin where An killed Ito was under the control of Russia at that time.
According to the Japanese intelligence, the two envoys were Song Sun-chun and Cho Byung-han. Song, who was about 37 to 38 then, was fluent in Japanese and English and had previously traveled to both countries, the intelligence report showed.
Dressed in Western suit, with cropped hair (in contrast to the traditional long hair of Korean men at that time), Cho and Song arrived in Vladivostok and sought help from the Korean residents there, explaining to them that they "came with the order from Gojong to save An Jung-geun who was imprisoned in Lushun, in order to try to change his trial jurisdiction from that of Japan to Russia," according to one of the documents, dated Feb. 17, 1910.
A subsequent report, which was written five days later, said people were at first suspicious but the two soon earned the trust of people.
A March 2 report confirmed that Song and Cho were genuine envoys from Gojong, adding they also secured a 7,000-yen fund for their activities at a house that belonged to a person, named Choi Bong-jun.
The document also said, "The origin of this 'anti-Japan mission' is of course the Korean emperor," adding two previous protest movements, incited by Koreans who came from Seoul and Pyongyang, had also been masterminded with the fun from the emperor's office.
While the two Korean envoys were working on extending their network with the Korean people in Russia, a Shanghai-based British lawyer was also heading to Lushun where An's trial court was.
The lawyer, identified only as Douglas, was hired by Min Young-ik, a close aide to Gojong.
Douglas was able to reach Lushun and was present during Ahn's trial. But he was barred from legally defending Ahn for the reason that he was a foreigner.
The Japanese court sentenced Ahn to death by hanging.
The article didn't mention the whereabouts of Song and Cho afterwards.
The Japanese documents are currently held by Lee Tae-jin, a professor emeritus of history at Seoul National University. The piece didn't say how Lee obtained the documents.
"These two envoys were likely members of Yik Mun Sa, an intelligence body Gojong set up in 1902 to gather intelligence both at home and abroad," said professor Lee in the piece.
"The Japanese documents point out that Japan likely paid attention to the link between An's assassination of the Japanese official in Harbin and the anti-Japanese resistance base Gojong established in the far eastern region of Russia at that time," Lee said.
Saturday marked the 99th year of Korea being annexed by the Japanese imperial forces. Koreans call the day "the day of national shame."