Royal Asiatic Society-Korea Branch's brush with Japanese imperialism

Samuel H. Moffett, eldest son of Rev. S. A. Moffett, who was president of Soongsil College in Pyongyang during the March 1 Independence Movement in 1919, returns the Korean national flag to Soongsil University in this 1974 file photo. / Korea Times file p

By Steven L. Shields

Perhaps it was unavoidable. After all, foreigners residing in Korea were subject to the prevailing legal and government authorities, just as was everyone else. But the excitement was simply too much for three-year-old Samuel H. Moffett, whose father, Rev. S. A. Moffett, was president of Soongsil College in Pyongyang. When Japanese troops burst into their home, located next to the college, little Samuel burst out with “manse.”

He did not understand the cheer was a forbidden expression of the independence movement. The troops were looking for documents and demonstrators hiding from the law. The well-known missionary family was suspect.

In the college playing field, a ruckus ensued as Japanese soldiers were trying to take down the then-forbidden Korean flag. Thousands had gathered for a demonstration and had illegally raised the flag on the school's flagpole. The elder Moffett defused the situation by taking it down himself and promising the crowd he would keep it safe until such a time Korea could fly the flag again in freedom.

Rev. Moffett was a member of the

Korea Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (RASKB)

, the Seoul-based Korean studies association founded in 1900. The list of members for 1919 is a roll-call of some of the most important foreigners in the country at the time. There were businesspeople, diplomats and lots of missionaries. Some of the missionaries had been in Korea since the mid-1880s; some had been close confidants of the recently deceased Emperor Gojong.

None were engaged in politics directly. Even the few remaining diplomats were consular officials since all embassies had been closed in 1910 with Japan's annexation of Korea. Only a handful of names on the RASKB membership list are Japanese, including Isoh Yamagata, editor of the Japanese government newspaper “Seoul Press.” Yamagata also served a term on the RASKB Council.

The RASKB published only three Japanese-authored papers during the 1910-45 Japanese occupation (

downloadable here in Volume IV parts I and II

). One is a seemingly innocuous paper on the history of coinage, with photos of extant samples, from throughout Korea's history.

As he introduces his topic, Dr. M. Ichihara notes that it has been his duty for many years to find and destroy all old coins of Korea and replace them with the new ones of the Japanese Empire. Such destruction of antiquities was awful. But after a reasonably competent (but quite incomplete) catalog and recitation, his conclusion was cringe-worthy: “With the restoration of peace between Japan and Russia, [Korea] was made a protectorate of Japan…for Old Korea ends here and New Chosen begins its career with new vigor and strength as part of the Empire of Japan.”

Yamagata's paper on the 1592-98 Imjin War was generally critical of Japan's cruelty during the war, but his assessment of the outcome and history since then was perhaps even more cringe-worthy than that of Ichihara. Yamagata said, “Before that disastrous invasion Korea was the equal, if not the superior, of Japan in wealth, in culture and in civilization. That war was a death blow to poor Korea and the country since has been growing weaker and weaker. Today we are endeavoring to revive Korea…We are today doing our best to atone for the sins committed by our ancestors in Korea three centuries ago.”

Midori Komatsu, a lawyer, was director of foreign affairs for the Japanese government in Korea when he gave his paper in 1912. He did not attempt to be scholarly. He narrated legends and myths in such a way as to make sure his listeners understood that his position, and that of his government, was that Korea had been anciently and rightly should be in modern times an inherent part of the Japanese Empire.

Komatsu argued, “It is a well-known fact that Empress Jingo, the 15th imperial ruler of Japan conquered the three Han kingdoms in the Korean peninsula in the third Christian century…[they] were made Japanese territory…” Of course, he continued, such facts were long ago erased from Korean history. Nonetheless, he argued, “it is reasonable to conclude that the Japanese and Korean peoples formed for a long time one and the same nation. The recent annexation of Korea by Japan is therefore not the incorporation of two different countries…but it may rather be said to be the reunion of two sections of the one and same nation after a long period of separation…”

Komatsu applauded his government for relieving the Korean people of an arbitrary and increasingly lawless government, replacing it with a more humane administration that saw all people as equal, and afforded justice and lawfulness to the Koreans ― which brought peace of mind and saved the Koreans from indolence.

RASKB records are innocuous. There are no comments about papers delivered to the society at its meetings. It's difficult for us to know the mindsets of the diverse individuals who attended and heard this paper, or read it later in printed form. The response of the attendees was likely little more than polite applause. For a scholarly organization to do anything more would have been a difficult challenge. Like all who were resident in Korea, they were subject to the prevailing laws. Probably because of the high numbers of missionaries who were RASKB members, Japanese authorities watched the society carefully, especially after March 1, 1919, and well into the early 1940s when all Westerners were expelled from Korea.

Sadly, Rev. Moffett, who defiantly retrieved the outlawed Korean flag and kept it for the day Korea once again had freedom, died in 1938, never seeing the end of the war in 1945 that liberated the Korean people. He likely would have rejoiced that the grassroots independence movement kept on throughout all the difficult times until on Aug. 15, 1945, the Japanese Empire was brought to its knees and the Taegukgi once again flew proudly from the rooftops.

Steven L. Shields, a retired cleric, serves as a vice president of the Korea Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (www.raskb.com) and is a columnist for The Korea Times.