Korean independence outbreak beginning March 1st 1919

([S.l. :  s.n.,  1920?])

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81
"Cruelty", ititt Granted the "Koreans are groat liars"("All men are liars" It
has been said) the missionaries, "I am sorry to say, have seen things with
their own eyes. Unarmed Koreans have been shot, many of them in the back;
oldnKMsen have bean beaten without mercy, girls have been tied by their hair
and beaten; men have been beaten on the baok of the head uatill for days sc
and weeks they have little sense left. On the 3rd of March ay wife was go¬
ing to the Woman's Hospital In.......She passed several soldiers ant they

said nothing. Then she o^ae to one by himself. Re ordered her to go back.
In obedience to him she turned about, and thon he struck her two sharp
blows In the baok with the butt end of his gun. This Is the work of the
Hun aad of the Japanese as we ouppoe^d they are. My fear is that some of
the stories I cannot tell here, that unsophisticated countrymen and especi¬
ally women have told right out *ithout being asked, have more truth In them
than some of us wish. It will be tt the good of the fair name of Japan not
to attempt to cover up any of these things. The crowds were absolutely
unarmed and for the most part did not attempt to use force. The use of
force came only after the soldiers, and oven worse than soldiers, the fire¬
men with long clubs with tho sharp iron books on the end, had begun to deal
v/ith crowds with uncalled-for cruelty. It almost seemed that the Japanese
were scared almost to death themselves by the crowd of people by the
crowd of the people who were not even trying to use force and had absolute¬
ly nothing to fight with. I am speaking of what I eaw In —«diore It seems
to oe there was no call for the fierce methods that were used on the
crowds even here In the city. And the things done here are aot to be com¬
pared with the things done In the country sections. If the plan was to
scare and cow the people they havt succeeded. Bat that success is fail¬
ure. The Japanece will nsver win the people, will never the task they are
here for in that way. The officials surely know the day and age in which

we are living..........

"How the time for action has come for Japanese In Korea. Whatever
may have been tho dreams for conquest and of assimilation and absorption,
now the strong must help the weak; those who have for those who liave not,
a plan of absolutely unselfish action towards the Koreans must be really'
put Into operation, Vife read that General Pershing once risked his own
life la an effort to unarm a misguided Philiphine Islander, instead
of shooting him down. This Is the stuff which m^es a man In these
days. The strong to use their strength to save and guide the weak
amd Ignorant, not to do the easy thing of shooting them down, Sose of ue
have thought that Japan was of this kind. These recent events have
saken our faith. We might ss well bo frank about the matter. Now we are
wondering If Japan will go to liurope to see the Hun and Belgium, and
then take a look at some of the staining fdio have used their strength not
as masters but as servants. She stands "at the cross-roads" and those
of us who are giving our lives that this garden spot of the world may
be a fit place for men and women to live In, a fit places for little
children to grow up In, CEua not help but think of the Immortal words of
Lowell.

•Once to every man and nation comes the moment to decide.
In the strife of truth with Falsehood, for the good or evil aide.'
On that decision depends not only the fate of tho lioreans but
of Japan herself. A good friend of mine said that the Koreans will
either be assimilated or be made serfs. Ttoat the Koreans become, the Jap-r

ese will be .......Will the Japanese and Koreans, whom God has seen

fit to set side by side, be men, true men together? The answer to this
depends largely upon Japan's declson at this momentous hour. May she
beHsae enough, and brave enough and self-sacrificing enough, to make
the right decision."
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