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The Japanese Protestants in Korea, Part Two
The 1st March Movement and the Japanese Protestants
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 November 2008
Extract
This essay is the sequal to ‘The Missionary Activity of the Japan Congregational Church in Korea’. In the first part, I showed that the Congregational Church's missionary activity which started in 1911 was actually supported by the Government-General of Korea, and also mentioned a number of conscientious Christians such as Uchimura Kanzō and Kashiwagi Gien who not only opposed the Church's missionary activity in Korea but even went so far as to criticize the Japanese imperialist rule of Korea itself.
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References
1 See Kentarō, Yamabe, ‘San'ichi Undō to Sono Gendai-Teki Igi’, Shisō, Vols 372 and 373, 1955;Google ScholarKentarō, Yamabe, ‘San'ichi Undō Ni Tsuite’, Rekishigaku Kenkyū, Vol. 184, 185, (1955);Google ScholarSetsuko's, Miyata, ‘San'ichi Undō no Jittai to Sono Gendai-Teki Igi’, Rekishi Hyōron, Vol. 157, 1963;Google ScholarManabu, Watanabe (ed.), Chōsen Kindaishi, 1968;Google ScholarRi-ra-yong, , Chōsen Minzoku Kaihō Tōsōshi, 1958; Chōsen Kindai Kakumei Undō Shi, ed. Centre for Research into History of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea. Of these, Mr Ri-ra-yong avoided mentioning Christianity completely.Google Scholar
2 See Kim-joung-myeun, (ed.), Chōsen Dokuritsu Undō, Vol. I;Google ScholarKenichi, Kondō, Banzai Sōjō Jiken, Vols. I, 2, 3.Google Scholar But that part of these two sources which deals with Christians and the 1st March Movement gives more or less the same information as ‘Chōsen, ’, Vols. 1 and 2, ed. Kan-dok-sang, , Gendai Shi Shiryō, Vols 25–26.Google Scholar
3 See his letter to the new Governor-General, Saitō Makoto at the time of his handing over the office of Shinsōtoku (New Governor-General), ‘Saitō Makoto e no Jimu-hikitsugi-sho’ in Kan-dok-sang, (ed.), ‘Choōsen’, Vol.1, p. 499.Google Scholar
4 For the text of the court proceedings see ‘Chōsen, ’, Vol. 2.Google Scholar
5 Ibid., Vol. 1.
6 Ibid., Vol. 2, p. 21.
7 Ibid., Vol. 2, p. 48.
8 Ibid., p. 482.
9 Ibid., p. 336.
10 Ibid., p. 408.
11 Mr Yamabe Kentarō argues that ‘It is an unfounded popular theory to say that clergymen and influential persons in the Churches led the 1st March Movement, since the number of clergyment arrested was only 242 compared with the total of 19,529’. (Rekishigaku Kenkyō, Vol. 184).Google Scholar But it seems to be an undeniable fact that Christians played some part in the movement. It seems to me to be meaningless simply to compare the number of clergymen, who occupy a special social status, with the grand total of people arrested. Further, it should not be overlooked that among the teachers and students arrested (2,355 in total) there were many Christians.
12 Kan-dok-sang, (ed.), ‘Chōsen’, Vol. 2, pp. 373 and 496.Google Scholar
13 Ibid., p. 409.
14 Ibid., p. 358.
15 Ibid., Vol. 1, p. 578.
16 From the same clergyman's letter as above (ibid., Vol. 2, p. 408).
17 Ibid., Vol. 1, p. 537.
18 Ibid., Vol. 2, p. 538.
19 Ibid., Vol. 1, p. 583.
20 Ibid., p. 592.
21 Ibid., pp. 610ff.
22 Ibid., Vol. 2, p. 634.
23 Ibid., p. 358.
24 Ibid., pp. 342ff; pp. 443ff.
25 Ibid., Vol. 1, p. 578.
26 Ibid., Vol. 2, p. 647.
27 Ibid., p. 448.
28 Ibid., p. 452.
29 Ibid., p. 356.
30 Ibid., p. 338.
31 See my ‘Yoshino Sakuzō to Chōsen’ in Jinbun Gakuhō, Vol. 25 (01 1968).Google Scholar
32 Sekai, 12 June 1919.Google Scholar
33 This is a federation of all Protestant sects in Japan, founded in 1911 and the then Chairman was Ozaki Hiromichi (from the Congregational Church), with Hiraiwa Senpo of the Methodist Church and Hoshino Kōta of Nihon Kirisuto Kyōkai as Sub-Chairmen.
34 Sekai, 10 July 1919.Google Scholar
35 See Kenichi, Kondō (ed.), Banzai Sōjō Jiken (San-ichi Undō), Vol. 1, and Kang-dok-sang, (ed.), ‘Chōsen’, Vol. 2.Google Scholar
36 See ‘Jijitsu to Kansatsu’, Bunmei Hyōron, August 1919.Google Scholar
37 See Kyū Takushoku Bunsho, ‘Nihon Kumiai Kyōkai no Tai Jikyoku Undō’ in Kang-dok-sang, (ed.), ‘Chōsen’, Vol. 2, p. 474.Google Scholar
38 See the Manual for 1920.Google Scholar
39 See Sekai, 9 June 1919.Google Scholar
40 Ibid.
41 See Kan-dok-sang, (ed.), ‘Chōsen’, Vol. 2, pp. 463, 465 and 468.Google Scholar
42 See the Manual for 1920.Google Scholar
43 ‘“Chōjin Dendō no Kiki” Yomu’, in Sekai, 31 July.Google Scholar
44 Yoshino's letter to Kashiwagi, see Geppō, 5 November 1919.Google Scholar
45 Founded in 1918 by Fukuda Tokuzō and Yoshino Sakuzō and others, this group held monthly lecture meetings. It worked for the development and spread of democracy and also concerned itself with the Korean problem.
46 See my ‘Yoshino Sakuzō to Chōsen’.
47 As to the general political views of these ‘new’ people of the Shinjin, see Akio's, Doi ‘Taishō Demokurashii Ki ni Okeru Kirisutosha no Seiji Ron’, (Biblical Ideas of Christians during the period of Taishō Democracy) in Kirisuto Kyō Shakai Mondai Kenkyō, Vol. 13.Google Scholar
48 Saitō points out first that the Sun-oun Incident occurred just when a peace conference was being held at Versailles and in particular that Japan had put before the Conference a motion against racial discrimination; he then goes on to depict the Sun-oun Incident.
The site of the Incident is an isolated little village far, far from the capital,
Where a shabby, wooden church stands.
Locals in white garments,
Some have left a sick old father behind,
Others have left a wife in childbed behind,
Still others have left the job which brings in just about enough to support them for another day.
Today is not Sunday,
So why do these people gather?
It is because of the order, because of the forbidding military police,
The gathering crowd of about twenty or thirty people.
There are even those who are not Christians.
The authorities interrogated them: Why did they take part in the riot?
How could a man not have a complaint when his own country is taken away?
Especially if the conqueror does not govern well, how could a man gladly endure the humiliation and insult put upon him?
And if the government tried to make people obey by using military rule and violence…
Christians may have demanded religious freedom from the authorities,
Even if Christians raised their voice, how could one say to them (who are forced into idol-worship) that they are in the wrong, and that they are disobedient?
Suddenly the roar of guns… one after another.
The church fills rapidly with corpses,
Someone even sets fire to the Church.
The red tongue of fire licks the wall, but it does not destroy the bodies of those ruined people deprived of nationhood who were murdered by the poisonous authorities; nor does it burn to ashes those who believed in Western heretical religion, as if it is afraid, reluctant or even protective of them.
Watching all this, others set fire to houses to the windward,
They burn, burn, burn…
All the forty houses of the village reduced to ashes.
Have you not smelt yet the smouldering smell, standing on the fire-ravaged site?
Can you not see charred bodies of young mothers still holding their babies; charred bodies of old people who fell running away helter-skelter?
What? Are you saying that it's not so bad as Herod's Massacre of the Innocents?
Are you suggesting that the number of the dead is smaller than that of Piedmont or Armenia?
Are you asserting that there used to be more cruel incidents in history, like Nagasaki and Shimabara incidents?
Are you implying that this sort of thing is not rare in a Kunshi Koku [a land of gentlemen]?
If nobody feels ashamed of all this, then cursed is our Tōkai Kunshi No Kuni [nation of gentlemen in the Orient—namely, Japan]!
This long poem of Saitō ends by condemning all the newspapers for their incorrect reports and silence about the Incident.
49 See the Manual for 1910.Google Scholar
50 Jō Kyōkai Geppō, 11 November 1919.Google Scholar
51 Ibid.
52 ‘Chōsen Seinen Kai Mondai’, in Shinjin, January–February 1920.Google Scholar
53 ‘Reply to Mr Maruyama in Respect of the Policy for the Government of Korea’ (Chōsen Tōchi Saku Ni Kanshi Maruyama Kun ni Kotau), ibid., April issue.
54 See ‘Jiron’ in Chūō Kōron, October 1910.Google Scholar
55 See the Manual for 1921.Google Scholar
56 Sekai, 25 November 1920.Google Scholar
57 Sekai, 10 and 17 June 1920.Google Scholar
58 Sekai, 30th September, 14th October.Google Scholar
59 See my Taishō Demokurashii no Kenkyū, p. 300.Google Scholar
60 ‘Chōsen Mizaru no Ki’ in Jōmō Kyōkai Geppō, 25 May 1925.Google Scholar
61 ‘Kumiai Kyōkai Jihei Ron’, ibid., 20 May 1931.
62 See the Manual for 1922.Google Scholar
63 Kang-dok-sang, (ed.), ‘Chōsen’, Vol. 2, p. 470.Google Scholar
64 Nakatsuka Akira's ‘Nihon Teikoku Shugi to Chōsen’ (Japanese Imperialism and Korea) in ‘Nihonshi Kenkyū’, Vol. 83.Google Scholar
65 Hajime's, Hosoi ‘Sen Man no Keiei’ (The Administration of Korea and Manchuria), p. 65.Google Scholar
66 The War Ministry document ‘Sōjō no Gen’ in Oyobi Chōsen Tōchi ni Chōi subeki Ken Narabi Gunbi ni Tsuite’ (On the cause of the Riots and points to note on the administration of Korea and on military preparations), Kang-dok-sang, (ed.), ‘Chōsen’, Vol. 2, p. 651.Google Scholar
67 See successive issues of Chōsen Sōtokufu Tokei Nenkan (Statistical Annual of the Government-General of Korea). Of the Korean members who belonged to the Department of Missionary Activity in Korea of the Congregational Church, there must have been those who were not necessarily satisfied with the Church's policy but who joined the Church temporarily in the hope of making it the first step towards establishing a truly Korean Church run by Koreans. For instance, Kim-jong-sik (who had been a government official and had a record of three years' imprisonment) chose to become a Protestant minister, instead of taking the gubernatorial post which he was offered. (See ‘Yo no Saishono Seisho’ (My first Bible) in Yanaihara Tadao Zenshū, Vol. 27, p. 582.)Google Scholar Kim-jong-sik was very close to Uchimura Kanzō and in 1916, when he was a leader of the Korean YMCA, he had a chance at a meeting sponsored by Uchimura to speak of his past, a speech which much moved Yanaihara. Kim came to Japan during the 1st March Movement and met Uchimura who wrote in his dairy of 29 May 1919: ‘I was very glad because he was not defiled with the religion of the Congregational Church even though he works for it. He was talking about the plight of his homeland with tears in his eyes. I could not help crying with him…’ (Zenshū, Uchimura Kanzō Vol. 17, p. 130).Google Scholar There is no way of knowing what these two talked about, but Uchimura must have understood Kim's special position. The reactions of Koreans to the Congregational Church's missionary activity seem to be a very important point of study.
68 See my ‘Yoshino Sakuzō’, in The Developing Economies, Vol. 2 (1967), and Itani Ryūichi's ‘Hisen no Ronri—Kashiwagi Gien’.Google Scholar
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