ABSTRACT
THE year following the armistice was one of intense restlessness all over the world. There was a belief that, even if the war had not brought in a new heaven and a new earth, at least the former things had passed away, and this feeling spread even to that social and political backwater, the “hermit kingdom” of Korea. General Hasegawa was now ruling in the peninsula, and, like most military martinets who find themselves in high administrative office, his mind could not soar above the barrackroom idea that inflexible discipline is all that is needed in the government of a people. The Koreans, however, were acquiring a more varied outlook. Many Korean students had come to Tokyo to seek their education, and there acquired many ideas besides those imparted in the Imperial University. At a meeting which they held on January 7, 1919, at the Young Men’s Christian Association, they discussed the new principle of selfdetermination which President Wilson had been recommending for the European peoples and acclaimed it as eminently suitable for Korea. On the 21st of the same month the former Emperor of Korea died. As a sort of State prisoner he had survived for over twenty years the murder of the Queen-that night of horror when, held back by the points of the swords of Japanese bravoes, he had heard the murderers at their work in an adjoining room. Thenceforward, whether exhibiting to the world an imperial independence or living on a State pension, he had known no personal liberty, but two days after his death eulogies from the
Government and the Opposition were pronounced upon him. His friendship for Japan was extolled, and the political wisdom inspiring him to conclude with Japan treaties which had assured peace and tranquillity to his people.
