Los Angeles herald., 1909-09-23
THE FATE OF KOREA
VAN Oriental Tnsurrection
BY Frederic j. HaSkin

| Seoul and less Is heard bv the outside
world. The policy of the Japanese has
n peen 20 uIscourage, and if possible pre-
Nehl' the dissemination of news of the
encounters between troops and insur-
rectos, and of the methods employed to
stamp out the rebellion But one who
| penetrates the scenes of military oper-
ations finds wide areas of burned VIII
| lagos which mark the efforts of the
| Japanese to quell the disturbance by
destroylng whole towns as a warning
| to non-combatants not to harbor in
surgents, and the imitation of that
policy by insurgents where the Jap
| anese troops have been allowed to
quarter upon the non-combatants.
Grisly stories Of atrocities committed
| by the troops as warnings come in
| from many quarters. A reputable for
| eigner states that five men who were
found in possession of guns were
charged with insurrection. They de-
MED the charge and pleaded in ex-
| PLANTATION the fact that they were hunt
ers as their fathers had been before
them. They were nevertheless shot.
| Their wives were hung up by the
| thumbs over a fire to secure confess
sions after the verdict as to the guilt
Of their husbands had been found and
| enforced informally. The five women
died in torture. When a number of
Koreans were seized in Christian
churches, marched outside and shot
as insurgents, the question of whether
they were actually guilty or whether
they were shot as a warning was,
naturally, hotly mooted among for
eigners. Koreans, of course, declared
such executions mere murder. Books
might be filled with the details of small
skirmishes between the insurgents and
troops which may be picked up here
and there in Korea. Generally speak
inc the 1ffaG q hna
the insurgent side. Recently they
have adopted the policy of splitting
their forces into small bodies and oper-
ating in guerilla style in the mountains
of the interior and the islands along
the coasts.
An incident which occurred recently
at Wiju, when the emperor of Korea
was making a trip through Korea,
shows the feeling of the people of this
country who are not actively in re-
bellion. The Japanese government has
planned several tours for the emperor
in the convoy of Japanese officials in
the hope of improving relations be-
tween the two nations, When the
emperor, accompanied by the resident
| general, arrives in a city, the school
| children are instructed to receive the
| imperial party carrying the flags of
both Japan and Korea. This regula-
tion has caused no little i'll feeling and
resultant discourtesy to the Japanese
officials. At Wiju where body of
school children had received the usual
order to wave the two flags they
dramatically tore up the sun flag in re-
sponse to the signal. When the i'm
perial party was leaving Seoul upon
personally conducted tour" during
the last months of Prince Ito's serv-
Ice as resident general, his highness
/ H. 1t. !. IL 10 he
school children tore up the Japanese
flag. 1t developed that when the vice
minister of education-a Japanese-is-
sued an order that both flags be car
ried, the minister OF education-a Kor-
ean-struck out mention of the sun
flag in redrafting the order. The Jap
anese director of police discovered this
and communicated with the home min
lister, who ordered Japanese flags to be
made But the Korean teachers or
| dered the children to destroy them.
Much pother was made, the Japanese
pointing out that when Mr.. Taft Wis
! tied Japan the Stars and Stripes were
carried with the sun flag and that this
was ordinary courtesy between ma
tions on an equal footing" But when
the imperial party returned to Seoul
they were greeted largely with Korean
| flags.
| The schoolboys Of Korea look Tor
ward to fighting Japan. A squad Of
| soldiers marching by a school owned
by Koreans but conducted by mission
airy teachers, let a party of boys drill
! ing in soldier fashion. The real SOL
| diers demanded the lads to clear the
way. A refusal was the response, ana
fight with fists ended in victory
for the Japanese arms. The school de-
clining to apologize, the soldiers
wrecked the building. and threw the
enrinrnent into the yard. Prince Ito,
| enraged the military by compelling the
regiment whose men had perpetrated
the outrage to rebuild the school and
pro rata the expense between them.
The fighting force of insurgents is
small but public sentiment keeps the
movement alive. Every insurrecto
killed in battle or executed is martyr.
short time ago seventeen insur-
gents were discovered in a boat near
Woo Su Yung. The soldiers com
manded them to surrender. They de-
clined, and all of them were killed.
only eight firearms were found among
the dead bodies. Nine men preferred
death unarmed to surrender. An in
surgent leader, Ii Yin San. was con-
demned to death at Seoul last June.
He faced his death with cool indif-
ference. The feud Of the tiger hunters
of the Korean hills with the "barbar-
ians" from Japan is as bitter as 1t IS
old. Time and bloodshed will be re-
ouired to utterly crush the insurrec-
tion, although 1t is by no means
revolution.
Tomorrow-The Fate of Korea'-V1; A
covarnment Press Agency.