Chapter 9 Korea 365orders of retreat. At the last battle of the war attempting to evacuate Japanese
troops, Admiral Yi was struck by a Japanese bullet and died on his flagship.
Japan’s long interest in Korea as a foothold on the continent, as a land
route to China, as a source of raw materials, and as a starting point for imperial
expansion was enhanced by the history of European imperialism, to which we
turn in the next chapter. Korea was viewed as backward and corrupt, much as
was Qing dynasty China—and a great opportunity. The social disturbances of
the nineteenth century, such as the Tonghak movement, weakened the Korean
state, while Japan, after centuries of isolation similar to those of Korea—“The
Hermit Kingdom,” (1897–1910)—had transformed itself with the Meiji Resto-
ration and embarked on a vigorous and successful modernization effort. A pre-
tense for taking over was sought. Perhaps a punitive expedition over the refusal
to acknowledge the legitimacy of Emperor Meiji? Japanese agents assassinated
Korea’s Empress Myeongseong in 1895 for advocating stronger ties with Rus-
sia in the face of growing Japanese aggression. In 1904–05 Japan and Russia
fought a brief war, which Japan won. The triumph of an Asian power over a
European power shocked the world. The impact on Korea was more concrete:
in the terms of the peace treaty Russia acknowledged Japan’s “paramount,
political, military, and economic interest” in Korea, essentially granting Japan
the right to take over Korea. Two months later Japan declared Korea a “protec-
torate,” using a term straight out of the European imperial toolkit. Emperor
Gojong was forced to abdicate, and the crown prince Sejong became the last
ruler of the Choson dynasty. Formal hegemony was established with the 1910
Japan–Korea Treaty. (It was declared void in 1965 after Japan lost the war
because it had been accepted under threat of force and the Korean emperor had
refused to sign.)
Japanese merchants and adventurers had been moving to Korea for much
of the nineteenth century, and by 1910 there were already 170,000 Japanese liv-
ing there. Most rural Korean land was in the control of absentee landlords,
many of whom were heirs to old yangban families, while the actual tillers of the
soil cultivated under traditional custom but with no legal rights to land. So at
first the peasants celebrated when the Japanese announced a massive land
reform program. But as peasants came forward to request rights to land, they
were again asked for papers. Again they had none. By 1932, 57 percent of the
land belonged to the Japanese, and Koreans were back to farming as crop-shar-
ing tenants.
The Japanese may be credited with some institutions and infrastructure
that ultimately benefited the Korean people. They began a system of public
schools as in Japan, so that Korean children could learn about Japanese history,
become literate in Japanese language and writing, and become good citizens of
the Japanese Empire. In order to enroll, students had to abandon their Korean
surnames for Japanese surnames, and families had to submit to the household
registration system aimed at cultural assimilation of ethnic Koreans. Eighty per-