Emperor of Japan

by Donald Keene

  32. A photograph showing Itō in what looks like a naval uniform with Yi Eun in a Japanese haori and hakama is reproduced in Ei shinnō rigin den, p. 7. On the same page there is a picture of Yi Eun in the uniform of a Korean army officer but wearing a Japanese decoration.

  33. Erwin Baelz, Awakening Japan, trans. Eden Paul and Cedar Paul, p. 117.

  34. See chapter 4.

  35. For Shinto funerals, see Helen Hardacre, Shinto and the State, pp. 34, 47. She wrote, “For Shinto clergy, funerals were problematic because of the concept of death pollution, but revenues from funerals and ancestral rites were a considerable incentive to overcome such taboos” (p. 47).

  36. Meiji tennō ki, 11, pp. 803–5.

  37. Ibid., 11, p. 835.

  38. It may originally have been intended that Yi Eun remain for a relatively short period of time, but in fact he married a Japanese princess and it was not until 1963 that he returned permanently to Korea, where he died in 1970.

  Chapter 58

  1. Meiji tennō ki, 12, p. 3.

  2. Ibid., 12, p. 13. A photograph of an essay written in Japanese on November 7, 1908, by Prince Yi Eun indicates that he had made remarkable progress with the Japanese language (Ei shinnō rigin den, p. 8).

  3. Meiji tennō ki, 12, pp. 13–14.

  4. Ibid., 12, p. 57. On September 4, when Yi Eun returned to Tokyo from a visit to the Kansai region, the emperor presented him with a motion-picture machine (katsudō shashin kikai) and another set of cricket gear (p. 102). It is not known if the Korean prince ever played cricket.

  5. Meiji tennō ki, 12, p. 36.

  6. Ibid., 12, pp. 54–55.

  7. Ibid., 12, p. 121.

  8. Ibid., 12, p. 138. See also Hinonishi Sukehiro, Meiji tennō no gonichi, p. 153.

  9. Meiji tennō ki, 12, p. 149, does not state what uniform the emperor wore on this occasion. He normally wore his unique army uniform, but he was sometimes persuaded to wear a naval uniform instead. On May 15, for example, when he attended the graduation ceremonies at the naval academy, he wore a naval dress uniform (p. 229).

  10. Meiji tennō ki, 12, p. 85.

  11. Ibid., 12, p. 173.

  12. Ibid., 12, p. 189.

  13. Ibid., 12, pp. 221–22.

  14. Ibid., 12, pp. 231–33, 242.

  15. Ibid., 12, p. 255. See also Saitō Michinori, Itō Hirobumi wo utta otoko, pp. 62–63, and Kinebuchi Nobuo, Nikkan kōshō shi, p. 267.

  16. Meiji tennō ki, 12, p. 263.

  17. Ibid., 12, pp. 283–84.

  18. For excerpts from his speech, as reported in the Tōkyō Asahi shimbun on October 22, see Kinebuchi, Nikkan, p. 268.

  19. The photograph is reproduced in Saitō, Itō Hirobumi, p. 9. It shows in the foreground Russian officers chatting, some with their backs to the train, and the main body of guards some distance down the platform. The laxness of the Russian guards was mentioned by the correspondent of the New York Herald, who expressed surprise that soldiers from a country famed for its assassinations should not have been more alert (p. 10).

  20. The photograph is reproduced in Saitō, Itō Hirobumi, p. 8.

  21. An Chung-gun was not sure which of the Japanese was Itō, never having seen even Itō’s photograph. He chose as his target a man “with a yellow face and white whiskers” who seemed to lead the others (Nakano Yasuo, An Jūkon, pp. 45, 192). He fired at Itō from a distance of two and a half ken (about fifteen feet, or five meters). After killing Itō, he fired at two other Japanese, thinking that one or the other might be Itō, but his shots went astray, possibly because a Russian guard interfered with his aim (Saitō, Itō Hirobumi, p. 35).

  22. An Chung-gun fired a Browning automatic pistol that held seven shells. After firing three shots at Itō, he fired three more at two other Japanese. At his trial he was asked if he had saved the last bullet for himself, but he denied that he had any thought of suicide (Nakano, An Jūkon, pp. 45–46).

  23. Saitō, Itō Hirobumi, p. 184. Doubt has been cast on the truth of this utterance. If Itō actually said these words, he may have meant that An was a fool to think that killing him would prevent the annexation of Korea. According to another source, however, Itō’s last words were to ask who had shot him and if anyone else had been shot.

  24. Nakano, An Jūkon, p. 4. So reported by witnesses, but An stated in courtroom testimony that he had cried out not in English or Russian but in Korean, Taihan mansei (Long Live Great Han), Han being a name for Korea (Saitō, Itō Hirobumi, p. 10).

  25. Nakano, An Jūkon, p. 191; Saitō, Itō Hirobumi, p. 23. It was reported in the No-vember 3 issue of Tōkyō nichinichi shimbun that An’s overcoat and suit had been made in France (Saitō, Itō Hirobumi, p. 46). An also wore a cloth cap as part of his costume as a Japanese.

  26. Nakano, An Jūkon, p. 103. For an extended account of the An family, see Norbert Weber, Im Lande der Morgenstille, pp. 331–49.

  27. An explained in court that he had used the name “An of the Seven Moles” ever since, three years earlier, he had become a uibyong (righteous soldier) (Nakano, An Jūkon, p. 39). In ancient China, seven moles on a person’s body were interpreted as a sign of greatness, probably because they were associated with the seven stars of the Big Dipper.

  28. Saitō, Itō Hirobumi, p. 34.

  29. For more on the uibyong (righteous army), see Peter Duus, The Abacus and the Sword, pp. 117, 224–27.

  30. For a description of the fighting at this time, see Nakano, An Jūkon, pp. 108–10.

  31. Ibid., pp. 118–19; Saitō, Itō Hirobumi, p. 63. Nakano states without explanation that both An Chung-gun and his father, An Tae-hun, were baptized at this time after passing a test in the catechism (An Jūkon, p. 118), but he earlier says that Tae-hun had been baptized at some previous date and given the baptismal name of Petrus (p. 108). The name Thomas was rendered in Chinese characters that indicate the intended pronunciation was to-ma (as in French).

  32. The son died in 1916 at the age of twelve in Vladivostok, where the family had fled after the assassination (Nakano, An Jūkon, pp. 225–56; Saitō, Itō Hirobumi, p. 121).

  33. Nakano, An Jūkun, p. 39. Although Father Wilhelm’s name suggests that he was German rather than French, he may have taught French to An because French missionaries played the most important role in propagating Catholicism in Korea.

  34. Nakano, An Jūkon, p. 127.

  35. It may have been not Wilhelm but his superior, the bishop of Seoul, who annoyed An. When An presented to the bishop his plan for a university in Korea, the bishop disapproved, saying that education would be harmful to the Koreans’ faith (Nakano, An Jūkon, p. 127). An was probably disappointed when Wilhelm, whom he supposed was on his side, agreed with his superior. For another theory as to why An and Wilhelm became estranged, see pp. 144–45. An was so annoyed that he considered appealing directly to the pope. However, he was delighted when Wilhelm visited him shortly before his death. A photograph shows the two men conversing over a table (Saitō, Itō Hirobumi, p. 110).

  36. Saitō, Itō Hirobumi, p. 114. These remarks are found in An’s essay “On Peace in East Asia,” left unfinished at his death.

  37. See, for example, Saitō, Itō Hirobumi, p. 84.

  38. Saitō pointed out, however, that An must have been thinking of the emperor’s proclamation at the opening of the Sino-Japanese War (Itō Hirobumi, p. 90). The proclamation for the Russo-Japanese War was significantly different, calling for not for peace in East Asia but “peace and order,” and not the independence of Korea but its “integrity.”

  39. Saitō, Itō Hirobumi, p. 178. See also Nakano, An Jūkon, pp. 209–10. An condemned as a “crime against Heaven” the actions of Prime Minister Yi Wan-yong, who had helped Russia and fought against Japan during the Russo-Japanese War, although he added that if Yi were to raise a “righteous army” and fight against Japan, this would be in consonance with the will of Heaven; Itō’s outrageous behavior had made the difference (Nakano, An Jūkon, p. 160).

  40. An released all the prisoners un
harmed and even gave them back their rifles (Nakano, An Jūkon, p. 171).

  41. An did not explain how he had come to be a lieutenant general or if there was a general who ranked above him. Uibyong (gihei in Japanese), translated here as “righteous army” or “righteous soldiers,” has no exact equivalent in English. It means soldiers who are moved by righteous principles, as opposed to ordinary soldiers whose only thought is to obey orders.

  42. Nakano, An Jūkon, p. 14.

  43. In 1867 Itō was not of sufficiently high rank to appear before the emperor. At the time of KMmei’s death, moreover, Itō was seriously ill in Chōshū and not in Kyōto.

  44. For the fifteen charges with a brief commentary on each, see Saitō, Itō Hirobumi, pp. 172–75.

  45. Quoted in ibid., p. 46.

  46. Nakano, An Jūkon, pp. 17, 13.

  47. Saitō, Itō Hirobumi, p. 100.

  48. They gave examples of men who, because political ideals had inspired their assassinations, were given relatively light sentences. They did not mention, however, the nearest parallel: in 1907, an American named Durham W. Stevens, who had been in the employ of the Japanese in Korea, announced at a press conference given on arriving in San Francisco on his way to Washington that Itō Hirobumi had done much to benefit the Korean people. He was assassinated the next day by two angry Koreans. One of them, Chang In-hwan, served fifteen years in prison for the crime. The Japanese newspaper article reporting Stevens’s murder is in Kinebuchi, Nikkan, pp. 266–67. See also Meiji tennō ki, 12, p. 41, and Woonsung Choi, The Fall of the Hermit Kingdom, p. 78.

  49. Saitō, Itō Hirobumi, p. 103.

  50. Nakano, An Jūkun, pp. 29–30. Saitō mentions the discussion between Judge Hiraishi and Kurachi Tetsukichi of the Foreign Ministry, who had come to Port Arthur under orders from Komura (Itō Hirobumi, p. 101). Kurachi conveyed the opinion of the government that the death penalty was advisable.

  51. Saitō, Itō Hirobumi, p. 124.

  52. Katano Tsugio, Richō metsubō, p. 284.

  53. Saitō, Itō Hirobumi, pp. 31, 32.

  54. “Hyakkai tsūshin,” in Ishikawa Takuboku zenshū, 4, p. 192. A Korean scholar has suggested that Takuboku’s poem “A Spoonful of Cocoa,” usually considered to refer to the execution of Kōtoku Shūsui, might actually have expressed his feelings about An (Saitō, Itō Hirobumi, pp. 150–51). However, the tone of Takuboku’s remarks in “Hyakkai tsūshin” is one of shock, not of sympathy with the terrorist.

  Chapter 59

  1. Kinebuchi Nobuo, Nikkan kōshō shi, p. 274. See also Moriyama Shigenori, Nikkan heigō, pp. 128–29.

  2. Moriyama, Nikkan, p. 129.

  3. Yi Wan-yong had an unusually checkered career. In 1896 he was one of the leaders of the pro-Russian party that urged King Kojong to take refuge in the Russian legation. Later that year, he was elected vice president of the Independence Club, which was anti-Russian and opposed foreign intervention in Korean affairs. In 1905, as minister of education, he was the first of the five “traitors” to sign the convention providing for Japanese control of Korea’s foreign relations. In 1906, exasperated by Kojong’s refusal to cooperate more positively with the new government, he proposed to the Japanese that the emperor be deposed (Moriyama, Nikkan, p. 125). This earned Yi Wan-yong the confidence of the Japanese, and when Itō formed a new cabinet in May 1907, he chose Yi Wan-yong as prime minister.

  4. Moriyama, Nikkan, p. 130.

  5. Ibid., p. 131.

  6. Woonsang Choi, The Fall of the Hermit Kingdom, p. 70.

  7. Moriyama, Nikkan, p. 129.

  8. Kinebuchi, Nikkan, p. 274.

  9. Ibid.

  10. The karatachi (Citrus trifoliata) and the tachibana (Citrus tachibana) are similar members of the same family that also includes the tangerine. The karatachi was also known as karatachibana or simply as tachibana, evidence of how easily the two plants were confused.

  11. Quoted from the Japanese version of the text, originally printed in the Tōkyō Asahi on December 8, 1909, in Kinebuchi, Nikkan, p. 276. According to legend, the udombara blossomed only once in 3,000 years. Both the lucky stars and the phoenix were auguries of future good fortune.

  12. Peter Duus, The Abacus and the Sword, pp. 239–40.

  13. Kinebuchi, Nikkan, p. 277.

  14. For an excellent analysis of how the “common culture” and “common ancestry” of the Japanese and Koreans was discussed by Japanese at the time, see Duus, Abacus, pp. 413–23.

  15. Ibid., p. 197. His source was Ōyama Azusa, Yamagata Aritomo ikensho, p. 284. In contrast, Itō was far more optimistic about the possibility of the Koreans accepting modern civilization. He believed that the reason that the Koreans had fallen behind the Japanese was not because they were inherently indolent but because of the upper classes’ corruption and resistance to change (Duus, Abacus, p. 199).

  16. Moriyama, Nikkan, p. 178.

  17. Meiji tennō ki, 12, p. 430.

  18. Choi, Fall of the Hermit Kingdom, p. 74. Choi’s source was Fukuda TMsaku, Kankoku heigō kinen shi, p. 597.

  19. Meiji tennō ki, 12, pp. 455–56.

  20. Ibid., 12, pp. 451–52.

  21. The text is in ibid., 12, pp. 461–62; the translation, in Choi, Fall of the Hermit Kingdom, pp. 136–38. There were only five articles in the version presented to Yi Wan-yong by General Terauchi. The preamble, the first two articles (stating the willingness of the Korean emperor to cede his rights of sovereignty and the Japanese emperor’s willingness to accept the annexation of Korea), and the eighth article (the promulgation of the treaty) are missing, but the remaining articles are more or less the same.

  22. In October 1910 seventy-six Korean nobles were given Japanese titles: six marquises, three counts, twenty-two viscounts, and forty-five barons (Meiji tennō ki, 12, p. 488). In December of that year the former Korean emperor was made a general of the Japanese army. The crown prince became a first lieutenant of infantry, and his dissolute elder brother, Yi Kan, and other nobles became lieutenant generals. Probably the crown prince was the only one of these officers to take his military duties seriously. For the others, the superior treatment and attendants that went with their ranks were all that mattered (p. 535).

  23. Meiji tennō ki, 12, pp. 452–53.

  24. Ibid., 12, pp. 453–54.

  25. Katano Tsugio, Richō metsubō, p. 293.

  26. Meiji tennō ki, 12, p. 457.

  27. Ibid., 12, p. 460.

  28. Ibid., 12, pp. 464–65.

  29. When Yi Wan-yong informed Sunjong in August of Japan’s decision to annex Korea, he listened at first to Yi’s explanation without showing any reaction. He seemed incapable of judging the situation correctly, but when Yi had finished, Sunjong opened his toothless mouth and gave a look of disgust, his mute reaction (Katano, Richō metsubō, p. 289).

  30. Meiji tennō ki, 12, pp. 467–68.

  31. Ibid., 12, pp. 469–70.

  32. Kinebuchi, Nikkan, p. 289. Enma was the king of hell. “Don Saigō” was an imitation of the usage in Kagoshima, with don both a shortened form of dono and an equivalent of the Spanish don.

  33. Meiji tennō ki, 12, p. 503. Ch’angdok was the name of the palace in Seoul where the former emperor Sunjong was living.

  34. Meiji tennō ki, 12, p. 500.

  35. Katano, Richō, p. 294.

  Chapter 60

  1. The first was on evidence in classical texts of ancestor worship in Greece and Rome; the second, on a passage in the I Ching; and the third, on the kunibiki episode in the Izumo fudoki.

  2. Meiji tennō ki, 12, p. 544.

  3. Ibid., 12, pp. 545–46.

  4. Hinonishi Sukehiro, who served the emperor as a chamberlain from 1886 to 1912, stated that “seven or eight years” after 1895 “he stopped reading the newspapers altogether” (Meiji tennō no go-nichijō, p. 53).

  5. Alexander was killed on March 13, 1881; Umberto, on July 29, 1900; and Carlos, on February 1, 1908. Although the assassins in each case said they were anarchists, they were killers hired
by political enemies of the kings (Meiji tennō ki, 12, p. 15).

  6. A bomb was thrown at Alfonso XIII on the way from the church where he had just been married, on May 30, 1906. He was unhurt (Meiji tennō ki, 11, p. 565).

  There were at least seven attempts on the life of Queen Victoria. The first was on June 10, 1840, when she and her consort, Prince Albert, were out on a drive in an open carriage: “Suddenly she heard an explosion and at the same time felt Albert’s arms flung round her…. She smiled at his excitement but next moment saw ‘a little man on the footpath with his arms folded over his breast, a pistol in each hand….’ As he aimed at her and fired again she ducked” (Elizabeth Long-ford, Queen Victoria, p. 151). The would-be assassin was tried for high treason, a crime punishable by death, but he was eventually sent to an asylum. On July 27, 1850, Queen Victoria was struck violently on the head by a retired lieutenant and knocked unconscious. The assailant was sent abroad as a convict for seven years. The sixth attempt, on February 28, 1872, had the most modern overtones: the assassin intended not to kill the queen but to frighten her into signing a document ordering the release of certain political prisoners (pp. 390–91). The last attempt on the queen’s life was on March 2, 1882. The would-be assassin, who aimed a fully loaded revolver, was sent to a lunatic asylum (p. 446). The motives of all the would-be assassins were vague and confused, which was the reason that they were sent to asylums.

  7. His major translation was of La Conquēte du pain by Prince Peter Kropotkin, completed not long before he was executed. The Japanese translation was made from an English translation.

  8. Nishio Yōtarō, Kōtoku Shūsui, p. 9. Kōtoku’s original text is reproduced photographically in the front matter. If this was really his composition and calligraphy at the age of seven, he was unusually precocious. KMtoku wrote kanshi (poems in Chinese) to the end of his life. For an account in English of Kōtoku’s early life, see F. G. Notehelfer, Kōtoku Shūsui, pp. 8–20.

  9. Sakamoto Taketo, Kōtoku Shūsui, p. 78. See also Nishio, Kōtoku Shūsui, p. 8.

  10. Nishio, Kōtoku Shūsui, p. 20.