Assassination of Empress Myeongseong
Around 6 a.m. on 8 October 1895, Queen Min, the consort of the Korean monarch Gojong, was assassinated by a group of Japanese agents under Miura Gorō. After her death, she was posthumously given the title of "Empress Myeongseong". The attack happened at the royal palace Gyeongbokgung in Seoul, Joseon. This incident is known in Korea as the Eulmi Incident.[a]
By the time of her death, the queen had acquired arguably more political power than even her husband.[2] Through this process, she made many enemies and escaped a number of assassination attempts. Among her opponents were the king's father the Heungseon Daewongun, the pro-Japanese ministers of the court, and the Korean army regiment that had been trained by Japan: the Hullyeondae. Weeks before her death, Japan replaced their emissary to Korea with a new one: Miura Gorō. Miura was a former military man who professed to being inexperienced in diplomacy, and reportedly found dealing with the powerful queen frustrating.[3] After the queen began to align Korea with the Russian Empire to offset Japanese influence, Miura struck a deal with Adachi Kenzō of the newspaper Kanjō Shinpō and the Daewongun to carry out her killing.[4][5]
The agents were let into the palace by pro-Japanese Korean guards. Once inside, they beat and threatened the royal family and the occupants of the palace during their search for the queen. Women were dragged by the hair and thrown down stairs, off verands, and out of windows. Two women suspected of being the queen were killed. When the queen was eventually located, her killer jumped on her chest three times, then cleaved her head with a sword.[6][7] Some assassins looted the palace, while others covered her corpse in oil and burned it.[6]
The Japanese government arrested the assassins on charges of murder and conspiracy to commit murder. Non-Japanese witnesses were not called,[8] and the court disregarded evidence from Japanese investigators, who had recommended that the assassins be found guilty.[9] The defendants were acquitted of all charges, despite the court acknowledging that the defendants had conspired to commit murder.[10] Miura went on to have a career in the Japanese government, where he eventually became Minister of Communications.
The killing and trial sparked domestic and international shock and outrage.[8][11][12] Sentiment shifted against Japan in Korea; Gojong fled for protection in the Russian legation and anti-Japanese militias rose throughout the peninsula. While the attack harmed Japan's position in Korea in the short run, it did not prevent Korea's eventual colonization in 1910.
Historiography[edit]
The assassination is highly contentious in Korea, where it is remembered as a symbol of Japan's historical atrocities on the peninsula.[13] Information about the assassination comes from a variety of sources, including the memoirs of some of the assassins,[3] the testimonies of foreigners who witnessed varying parts of the attack,[13][14] the testimonies of Korean eyewitnesses,[15] investigations conducted by Japanese emissaries Uchida Sadatsuchi and Komura Jūtarō,[16] and the verdicts of the trials of the assassins in Hiroshima.[10] Evidence for the assassination is written in at least four languages: English, Korean, Japanese, and Russian.[13][14]
For over a century now, scholars from various countries have analyzed varying portions of the body of evidence, and have reached differing conclusions on significant issues.[13] Evidence has continued to emerge even into the 21st century, which contributes to ongoing debate.[14][17]
Assassination[edit]
Convincing the Daewongun[edit]
According to Orbach and Keene, in the early hours of 8 October, Okamoto, Deputy Consul Horiguchi Kumaichi, Police Inspector Ogiwara Hidejiro (荻原秀次郎), and an armed group of men in civilian clothing went to the Daewongun's residence at Gongdeok-ri.[43][b] They arrived around 2 am,[43] and the leaders went inside to speak with the Daewongun.[43][4] The negotiations took several hours, and the Japanese negotiators grew impatient. They potentially employed force in getting the Daewongun to agree or move quicker.[4][43] They boarded him onto a litter, and began carrying him to the palace. On the way, the Daewongun stopped the men and asked to receive their word that the king and crown prince would not be harmed.[4] They were joined by around sixty men on the way.[4] Among those men were around thirty sōshi, Korean civilians, Hullyeondae, Japanese army officers, and consular policemen.[43][c]
The Encyclopedia of Korean Culture writes that the Daewongun and his son were kidnapped (납치) at this meeting and taken to the palace.[13]
Securing the palace[edit]
According to Orbach, Korean collaborators neutralized the palace guards (siwidae).[43] Soldiers were quietly reassigned from their posts or convinced to allow the plot. No guards were stationed on the path to the queen.[43]
Around 5 am,[13] as the sun was beginning to break,[4] some of the Japanese policemen climbed the walls of the palace using folding ladders and opened the gates from the inside.[45][4] The northwest gate (추성문; Ch'usŏngmun) and northeast gate (춘생문; Ch'unsaengmun) were opened first, then the main south Gwanghwamun and north (신무문; Shinmumun) gates followed.[13]
According to the Encyclopedia of Korean Culture, around 300 to 400 guards were stationed at the palace.[13] Limited gun fights occurred, and the palace guard abandoned their posts for their own safety.[45][4] A Korean Hullyeondae commander loyal to the queen, Hong Gye-hun, confronted the attackers. He was shot to death by a Japanese officer.[45] According to sōshi Kobayakawa, the road became littered with abandoned caps, weapons, and uniforms.[45] The American military advisor to Korea William McDye attempted to rally several dozen troops to fight, but they disobeyed.[45]
Around 5 am, the collaborating Korean Vice Minister of Agriculture advised the queen to stay put for her own safety, and that the Japanese would not harm her.[45][46] Gojong awoke and became alarmed by the noise outside. He dispatched a confidant to alert the American and Russian envoys.[45] The assassins surrounded the inner chamber of the palace and blocked all exits.[45][13]
Searching for the queen[edit]
According to historian of Korea Sheila Miyoshi Jager, Miura nor any of the agents knew what the queen looked like, as they had never seen her before.[47] Jager wrote that Miura testified that a screen had always been erected between the queen and outside visitors.[47] They had heard the queen had a bald spot above her temple.[7] However, British diplomat Walter Hillier reportedly testified that the assassins had a photo of the queen.[13]
The assassins needed to search for and deduce who the queen was.[47] According to sōshi Takahashi Genji, the two main sōshi factions there, the Freedom Party and Kumamoto Party, had a bet running on who could find the queen first.[45] Orbach reasoned that this probably contributed to the eventual brutality of her killing.[45]
The assassins began frantically searching for the queen, beating the people in the palace for information, and dragging everyone outside of the inner hall.[45] Women were beaten and dragged by the hair[47][45][46] and thrown out of windows and off verandas, with some falling around two meters (around 7 feet) onto the ground.[48] Russian advisor Afanasy Seredin-Sabatin feared for his life, and asked to be spared by the Japanese. He witnessed Korean women being dragged by the hair and into the mud.[45] According to the official Korean investigation report:
Impact[edit]
Increased Russian influence in Korea[edit]
On 11 February 1896, Gojong and the crown prince fled to the Russian legation for safety. Gojong ordered the executions of four of his pro-Japanese cabinet, whom he dubbed the Four Eulmi Traitors. This ended the Gabo Reform.[70][71][72] Gojong disbanded the Hullyeondae for participating in the assassination and Capital Guards for failing to stop the Japanese.[73] Until Japan's victory in the Russo-Japanese War, Japan's position in Korea was significantly weakened by the assassination.[6]
International response[edit]
Japan initially received some international backlash for the murder.[13][74] However, the backlash was shortlived, with foreign governments determining that forwarding their foreign policy interests in Asia was more important than escalating the issue with the Japanese.[13]
Analysis[edit]
Historian of Japan Peter Duus has called this assassination a "hideous event, crudely conceived and brutally executed".[77]
Advisor to Gojong Homer B. Hulbert wrote of the assassination in 1905. He believed that the mainstream Japanese government was not involved in plotting the assassination. He theorised that the government of Japan were possibly only to blame for having appointed a man of Count Miura's temperament as their representative in Joseon. The arrest of Miura and his Japanese conspirators was sufficient in itself to destabilise their Korean followers' positions.[78]
Apology[edit]
In May 2005, 84-year-old Tatsumi Kawano (川野 龍巳), the grandson of Kunitomo Shigeaki, paid his respects to Empress Myeongseong at her tomb in Namyangju, Gyeonggi, South Korea.[80][81] He apologized to Empress Myeongseong's tomb on behalf of his grandfather, however, the apology was not well received as the descendants of Empress Myeongseong pointed out that the apology had to be made on a governmental level.[80]
Since 2009, several South Korean non-governmental organizations have been trying to sue the Japanese government for their documented complicity in the murder of Queen Min. "Japan has not made an official apology or repentance 100 years after it obliterated the Korean people for 35 years through the 1910 Korea-Japan Annexation Treaty," the statement said. The lawsuit was to be filed if the Japanese government did not accept their demand to issue a special statement on 15 August offering the emperor's apology and mentioning whether it would release related documents on the murder case.[82]