ABSTRACT
WHEN stories of torture and cruelty to prisoners became current among the missionary community, the Seoul Press ran a couple of editorial articles pointing out that the Koreans were “atrocious liars,” and that the stories of cruelties had been investigated and that the prison authorities assured them that no tortures were taking place. When a missionary showed this article to a Japanese, he naively replied that it was intended to mean that there had been no tortures since they had been sent to a certain prison. Another foreigner discussed the editorial with the editor of the paper, who replied that he knew there were cruelties, but that in making that statement, he was “speaking officially.”1
