Burnt by the Sun. The Koreans of the Russian Far East - Jon K. Chang

Intervention 37

skii in July 1920 when Chinese soldiers (partisans) were requisitioning sup-
plies from the local villages at gunpoint. The Rus sian villa gers, instead of
seeking aid from Whites, zemstvo, or Bolsheviks, went straight to the Japa-
nese army and requested their help in tracking down the Chinese.^24
Japan quickly established herself as one of the world powers after the
Russo- Japanese War. Leroy- Beaulieu called China “the sick man of Peking”
while praising Japan as “an equal to that of any of the other nations of the
world. The Japa nese people are the only Oriental people who have under-
stood the conditions necessary to attain this aim.” However, “empire” would
have to be maintained through social relations, diplomacy, and trust. The
Japa nese military essentially established a non- negotiable state of martial
law, which brutalized not only Chinese and Koreans, but Rus sians, Cos-
sacks, and Ukrainians in villages across the RFE.^25 Japa nese Pan- Asianism
was shown to be a house of cards. Intervention indelibly established Japan as
an “ e nemy nation” that did not value the lives of others. I shall now turn to
examining the effect of the Intervention on Soviet Koreans, their strug gles
to define themselves, and their growth in the RFE’s urban environs.

THE BAT T LE AGAINST TSARIST VIEWS AND URBAN LIFE

Korea had been occupied by Japan since the 1905 Eulsa Treaty that ap-

pointed Japa nese residents- general to govern Korea. In Article 1 of the

Declaration of the (formal) Annexation of Korea (1910), Japan requested

that Rus sia renounce citizenship rights granted to all Koreans residing in

Rus sian territory. Rus sia refused. Koreans fled as refugees to Hawaii, Amer-

i a, Mexico, and South Amerc i ca, but mostly to China (Manchuria), Rus sia,

and Japan. During the Russo- Japanese War, the Japa nese administration in

Manchuria dispossessed Chinese peasants of their land and then recruited a

small number to become spies.^26 When Japan annexed Korea (1910), it began

a land census. This census forced thousands if not hundreds of thousands of

Koreans into exile, because the Japa nese administration required Western-

style land deeds in order to keep land that one had worked or lived on for

hundreds of years. Peasants who had worked specific plots for generations,

landowners, and land agents (saum) lost their rights to thousands of parcels

of land if they could not produce a Western- style deed of owner ship. These

newly vacated lands were quickly resold to Japa nese colonists, conglomerates,

and small land companies.^27 Despite the Rus sian civil war, Koreans contin-

ued to migrate to Rus sia.

In June 1918, Koreans in Rus sia from the Transbaikal (Chita and Ir-

kutsk) to Vladivostok held a Second- All- Korean Congress to gauge po liti cal

support for the vari ous Rus sian factions. Most Koreans were already inclined