The Bolsheviks of Korea

I do love a good conspiracy theory and it seems that this week on The Gods Talks we have something along those lines on are hands. As I mentioned two posts ago I've been looking into the 1919 March 1st Movement in Korea, ever heard of it?

oh ok

Don't worry neither had I until a week ago. Basically in 1910 the Empire of Japan annexed Korea ending the 500 years of stability under Joseon Dynasty and, to put it bluntly, the new Japanese Imperial policies were not kind to the Korean people. There was a vast reeducation campaign mounted by the Japanese and there was an attempt to erase much of Korea's history (particularly the bits about them repelling the previous unsuccessful Japanese invasions). So by the time 1919 rolled around the Koreans were getting a little annoyed with the Japanese and with advent of the 14 Points at the Paris Peace Conference the Koreans began to nonviolently demand their independence from the Empire of the Rising Sun ala a mass movements.The Empire did not take this very well and there was a harsh backlash against the campaign.

While all of this was going on a Canadian Presbyterian Missionary and veterinarian named Frank Schofield started writing about the atrocities going on Korea sending his articles to the Japan Advertiser as well as Canadian newspapers. His writing helped the growing crisis in Korea gain international press as he was spreading a story which was not being published by the main stream news. Eventually the Japanese, and to a slight degree English, aggression turned towards Schofield for his words and he was recalled to Canada by the Mission office. However he continued writing when from home and eventually managed to return to Korea permanently till he died in 1970 in Seoul. He was also declared to be one of the patriots of Korea and is an important part of the honoring of the March 1st Movement to Korea to this day.

He didn't think he was gonna be a badass either

And while all of this is interesting it is isn't really the tofu (ha see what I did there) of what I want to talk about today. You see my research question for this week was investigating the British Response to Frank Schofield’s involvement in the March 1^st Movement and the protests in Korea in general. Why you ask? Well the thing is while Schofield's writing started out as being critical of the abuses being perpetuated in Korea it increasing began to focus on problemetize the system of Imperialism that in many ways had been pioneered by his own country. And there are a few who say that this critique is part of what got Schofield pulled out of Korea by the mission.

So thinking like any good historian would the first place I checked was the vaults of the London Times and, to my surprise, the first article that pops up for this period is barely 100 words long and comes with perhaps the most fantastically typical title I have ever seen:

McCarthy would be proud

That's right they used the red scare tactic. And to be honest that's really as controversial as the Times gets on this issue. There are only 4 articles from 1919 on Korea at all and all of them have to do with the Japanese opinion on what the crisis is and how it is to be solved. Including the correct view that independence would not be gained but more civilian control of Korea would be granted to the Koreans (although almost all of this was withdrawn during WWII). And Schofield ? Well he doesn't come in the Times at all actually, which really isn't that surprising to me. While I currently do not have enough evidence or research to support this I personally feel that the British felt that the best way to deal with Schofield's criticism of imperialism ruining everything was the easiest, yank him from Korea, make it impossible for him to go back, and leave him Canada where his complaints could go on mostly unheard. 

honest truth 

Which leads us into my ever present question of where do we go from here? Well to be frank more research. My understanding and knowledge of Korea and events of 1919 is very limited and it needs to be broadened still. In terms of specifics if I, or anyone else, were to fall down the rabbit hole of this project I'd say an investigation of British Imperial policy towards the other major Empires of the day would be good, as well as finding away to go further back in the Japan Times archives than 1999 or see if there could be anyway to access the vaults of the now defunct Japan Advertiser (which was coincidentally eaten the Japan Times in the 1930s) so I could access more primary documents on the crisis as well as more of  Schofield's articles.

So that's all for now, 

Till next time (when well probably talk about Daoism) 

Jacob 

References:

Bolshevism in korea. 1919. The Time, Thursday, Apr 10, 1919.

Korea's rights. 1919. The Times, Thursday, Apr 17, 1919.

Reforms for Korea. 1919. The Times, Tuesday, Apr 22, 1919.

Reforms for korea: Ultimate equality with japanese, imperial rescript. 1919. The Times, The Times Friday, Aug 22, 1919.

Legault, Barbara and John F. Prescot. “The arch agitator:” Dr. Frank W. Schofield and the Korean Independence Movement. Veterinary History.

Oh, Wei Nam. 2008. The transformation of frank schofield (1889-1970): Opening korea, a hermit nation in east asia. Social Identities 14, no. 2: 233-251.