Ch 29 - Twilight of the Yi Dynasty

Queen Dead and King Safe

Frustrated by Russian influence in Korea and Queen Min's continued obstruction of Japanese plans, Foreign Minister Miura Goro plans and executes Operation Fox Hunt, designed to assassinate the queen and eliminate pro-Russian elements in Seoul.

The Japanese had no illusions about the real motivation behind the Russian government's apparent sympathy for China. They knew well enough the ambitious Russian Tsar and his advisers aimed at nothing less than achieving a dominant position along the northwestern Pacific, a position that would eventually become a matter of vital interest to Japan. The Japanese also knew that French participation in the treaty interference hinged on the fact that France could only obtain Russian support in Europe by endorsing Russian policy everywhere else. To find Germany a party to the conspiracy was another matter. Japan believed that Germany and Russia stood on opposite sides of the political fence, separated by a deep-rooted racial antipathy and a bitter and long lasting resentment at such treatment from Berlin. For the time being however, the Japanese felt compelled to yield to the forces arrayed against them.

The Liaodong Peninsula was a major prize in Japan's war with China and its loss came as a shocking blow to the Japanese people, who bitterly resented Russia, France and Germany equally for their intervention and swore revenge. Japan's public opinion-makers exhorted the people not to forget so galling an experience. Japan resolved to bide its time, knowing the opportunity for retaliation would come in due course.

One of the more unforeseen outcomes of the Triple Intervention was a marked change in Japanese attitudes. Far from being discouraged by events, the Japanese government used the indemnity for the Liaodong Peninsula to launch a massive program of military expansion, beginning with a thorough upgrade and modernization of its army and navy, making major improvements in organization, weapons, training, and marksmanship. In the seven year period between 1890 and 1897, Japanese appropriations for defense spending climbed from 29.5% to 55.6% of Japan's total budget. New heavy warships were ordered, mainly from British shipbuilders, and their crews were trained to a high skill level. Naval tonnage rose from 63,100 tons at the start of the Sino-Japanese War to 153,000 tons by 1902. Japan's seven army divisions at the beginning of the Sino-Japanese War grew to thirteen by 1903.

Capitulation to the Triple Intervention exposed Japan's weakness and led to dramatic changes in the situation in Seoul. A consensus quickly arose in the Yi government that it was time to free the country from Japanese domination. The Chongdong Club in Seoul's Western community, a social organization composed of men active in the nation's diplomatic affairs, became an unofficial meeting place for many Korean officials and Western diplomats, especially the Russians. With China out of the picture and the Japanese in disfavor, many government officials eagerly turned to Russia for assistance. Russia's Foreign Minister Karl Waeber, who kept in frequent contact with the Yi government, warmly welcomed the attention.

The Japanese took a dim view of these developments. Once they became aware of the pro-Russian leanings of the royal court, they belatedly tried to recoup their position by placing the Royal Palace Guards and the Training Unit under the command of Japanese officers. Japan backed down however, after the foreign ministers of the United States and Russia lodged immediate protests.

Queen Min spotted an opportunity not only to counteract Japanese domination, but to regain her old position of power. Because the power of Queen Min and her clan had grown progressively weaker as Japanese power increased, she and her relatives began to support a new policy of reliance on Russia to provide a counter force to Japan. Queen Min appointed two members of the pro-Russian faction to the cabinet, Yi Pom jin and Yi Wanyong, a move that gave Kim Hong-jip's puppet cabinet a decidedly pro-Russian orientation. When reports reached Queen Min that Pak Yong-hyo was behind a plot to force her to abdicate, she moved quickly to drive Pak and his pro-Japanese cohorts from the government cabinet. Pak again fled to Japan and exile just after ambassador Inoue returned to Seoul from leave in July 1895.

Japan was loath to see the appearance of Russian influence in Korea and it added to the growing tension between Japan and Russia. The Korea government became bolder with Russian support. Many pro-Japanese officials were dismissed and a royal decree was issued that again permitted the old style of court dress to be worn. The underlying implication of this and other decrees was that the Japanese reform program would soon be repealed. Miffed by Queen Min's anti-Japanese stance, Inoue Kaoru refused to pay the three million won Japan owed to Korea, an action that drove Korean-Japanese relations to the breaking point.

The first hard evidence that revealed Japanese intentions came in August 1895, when Viscount Miura Goro arrived in Seoul to replace the elder statesman Inoue Kaoru. Minister Miura initially presented a conciliatory front to the Yi government during all its factional maneuvering, but he soon began to treat "independent" Korea as a conquered land. Queen Min deeply resented the growing power of the Japanese and Minister Miura's behavior aroused energetic opposition from the strong-willed woman. Queen Min worked quietly and privately to protect Korea's independence through both the pro-Russian and pro-Chinese factions under her direction.

Japanese policy under Minister Miura soon took a much harder line. It turned toward the elimination of the pro-Russian faction and the termination of Queen Min's influence in the royal court. Japan was prepared to resort to any means in its desperate bid to restore pro-Japanese forces to power. Privately, Miura busily prepared to oust the pro-Russian group by violence, setting the stage for one of modern history's most despicable plots.

Foreign Minister Miura Goro's plan was essentially a replay of the activities that overthrew Queen Min's faction just before the Sino-Japanese War;  occupy Kyongbok Palace, seize the King, then place Japanese pawns in the Korean government. This time however, the Queen and her followers were to be "terminated with extreme prejudice." Minister Miura's plan, code-named, "Operation Fox Hunt," was to assassinate Queen Min and eliminate pro-Russian elements in Seoul. Miura enlisted the aid of the Taewongun, pro-Japanese Korean officers, a squad of Toyama Mitsuru's Genyosha agents, and Japanese troops and diplomats.

Queen Min was the classic pawn. From the very start the young queen had gathered the full force of her faction and to become the most remorseless and aggressive of the Taewongun's legion of enemies. Capitalizing on this enmity, Miura resorted to using the Taewongun's hatred of the Queen to secure his cooperation. The elder Korean Regent would again head a government under Japanese auspices. To divert attention from the Japanese, the plot was disguised as an uprising between discontented soldiers of the Training Unit who were threatened with disbandment and the Royal Palace Guards.

Foreign Minister Miura's patience with this stubborn, aggressive woman finally reached an end in the fall of 1895 when he gave the order to eliminate her and her anti-Japanese faction. Throughout the evening of October 7 the conspirators quietly gathered their forces in Seoul. At three o'clock on the morning of October 8, a group of Japanese went to the village of Kongdong-ni, just outside the Great West Gate of Seoul near the river. There they met the Taewongun at his residence and escorted him to the palace. Soldiers of the Training Unit and a number of Japanese Legation Guards joined the group enroute along with a number of Japanese civilians and Genyosha members who joined the small expedition.

Operation Fox Hunt began just before dawn on the morning of October 8, as this grotesque and motley collection of Japanese troops and civilian hoodlums reached the outer perimeter of Kyongbok Palace. The royal residence was located near the rear of the palace, almost half a mile from the front gate, and the assault force had to walk through a long succession of passageways through a great mass of buildings before reaching the object of their search. The Taewongun led the procession with the Japanese behaving as if they were escorting the King's father to an audience with the Korean monarch.

When the outnumbered Royal Palace Guards blocked the entourage, Miura commanded his men to open fire on the guards, who were no match for the Japanese. Awakened by gunfire and the noise of the assault, palace residents tried unsuccessfully to defend the royal family. Colonel Hong Kye-hun, commander of the Training Unit was killed in the vicious fighting that followed. While Japanese troops surrounded the royal apartments, a large number of heavily-armed Korean men rushed in and "secured the possession of the King's person." When King Kojong bitterly protested the intrusion, Japanese soldiers pushed him to the ground. When the young Prince arrived to attempt a rescue, he was jerked to the ground by his hair and beaten with a sword.

Armed with swords, lances and firearms, the attackers ransacked the palace grounds, slashing and shooting their way toward Queen Min's quarters. Yi Kong-sik, Minister of the Royal Household and the Queen's bodyguard, was cornered by a group of thugs and beaten to death. Unlike previous attempts on Queen Min's life, this time there was no escape.

Japanese troops aggressively searched the palace grounds for the queen. When they finally found her hiding in nearby bushes, they immediately and ruthlessly stabbed her in the back several times, stripped her naked and abused her. They bundled her into a blanket and dragged her body into the courtyard behind the palace building where she was placed on the ground at the edge of a pine grove just east of the Puyongjong, a beautiful twenty-sided pavilion overlooking a Chinese lotus pond. Mortally wounded, but still alive and moaning, the queen's blanketed body was soaked with kerosene and set aflame to hide the evidence of her murder. Her charred body was quickly buried in the woodland. It is said that a single finger bone found among the ashes was later buried with great ceremony in a tomb named Hong-nung located in Chongnyang-ni.

At 9:30 a.m., Minister Miura Goro sent a secret cable to the Japanese Army Chief of Staff that signaled the successful completion of Operation Fox Hunt. The cable read simply, "Queen dead and King safe." The assassination of Queen Min was the most barbarous murder of any sovereign in modern times. Although the crime was committed in cooperation Korean citizens, the guilt was clearly Japan's and the despicable nature of the act deepened Korea's hatred of the Japanese.

Unknown to the attackers at the time, at least two witnesses saw the terrifying events of that morning. An American military advisor by the name of General Dye, the Training instructor, and a Russian technician named Sabatine were both in residence at Kyongbok Palace at the time of the attack;  both men saw what happened. The two men quickly informed the diplomatic corps in Seoul, which shortly issued a joint protest directly to Foreign Minister Miura Goro. In his response, Minister Miura stuck to his original plan and tried to pretend the whole episode at Kyongbok Palace had been simply a clash between the Training Unit and the Royal Palace Guards. None of those who witnessed the horror of October 8 doubted for a single moment that the murder of Queen Min had been carried out with official high-level Japanese sanction and participation.

The cruelty of the murder provoked worldwide indignation. The Japanese government feigned ignorance of the affair, but fearing an outcry of condemnation from abroad, it sent a special envoy to Seoul to inquire into the facts. Foreign Minister Miura and some forty-eight others were placed under arrest and taken to Hiroshima and imprisoned.

The investigation into the Queen Min affair by the Japanese Court of Preliminary Inquiries clearly showed the guilt of Miura and others. Nevertheless, it reached the astonishing conclusion that, "...there is not sufficient evidence to prove that any of the accused committed the crime originally meditated by them." Despite the efforts of Clarence Ridgeby Greathouse, the American legal advisor to King Kojong, all of the men were acquitted on the grounds of insufficient evidence. Their trial, to borrow the words of Japanese historian Yamabe Kentaro, was "a deliberate miscarriage of justice, designed to protect the culprits." That Miura lied about the episode the whole time has been proven by the discovery of contemporary Japanese documents that describe the plot in minute detail, including the names of the two Japanese who actually did the killing. These documents even note how afterward, the Japanese tried to cover their tracks by spreading a rumor that the Queen had really escaped and was in hiding.

The butchering of Queen Min not only effectively ended the last great royal faction in Korean history, it virtually sealed the end of the Yi dynasty itself. Her death marked the climax of the terrible factionalism that was rampant in the Yi government's ruling class. It became the main pivot point around which Japanese, Chinese, Russian, and Western colonial interests maneuvered in Korea during the late nineteenth century. The Japanese even forced King Kojong to posthumously reduce Queen Min's social rank to that of a common servant.

With the formidable Korean queen out of the way, the Japanese were ready to proceed with the restoration of a pro-Japanese government in Seoul. A new cabinet was formed under Kim Hong-jip and the new government soon pushed ahead with even more radical reforms. Many of the changes continued and expanded Japanese reform measures already enacted. The new measures included the adoption of the Western style calendar, smallpox vaccinations for children and the establishment of elementary schools in Seoul. A postal service was inaugurated in Chungju, Andong, Taegu, and Tongnae. The military was also reorganized to provide for a capital guards unit in Seoul and defense garrisons in the provinces.

One particularly onerous reform measure that was issued and enforced was an order to cut the Korea male's traditional topknot. Resistance to this decree was widespread and even took the form of cries to "Cut off my head, by my hair - never!" Despite the protests, citizens wearing topknots were arrested on the streets or at their homes and forced to cut them off. These reforms aroused intense popular opposition in a nation still in a state of shock over the queen's assassination and outraged by continued Japanese aggression.

The assassination of Queen Min gripped Korea with indignation. Confucian scholars mobilized volunteers to fight the Japanese, but with little effect. The atmosphere of hostility toward Japan permeated the country to such a degree that guerilla bands, so-called "righteous armies," arose throughout the peninsula to fight against Japanese troops still camped on Korean soil. To suppress the guerillas, the government made the painful decision to dispatch most of its newly formed Capital Guards Unit to fight against their own countrymen in rural Korea.

The small group of yangban that comprised Korea's ruling class had learned nothing from their recent experience. They still wore blinders about the world at large and remained reluctant to see any change that would deprive them of the perquisites of a corrupt government. The many feuds around the court continued undiminished as the Russians intrigued against the reform party and incited reactionaries in the Korean court. The whole country was in a ferment and the Korean people, almost to a man, were angry with Kim Hong-jip's reform cabinet. It was hard to miss the fact that the Japanese, who had ruled Korea only four months, were tightening their grip on the king.