We have therefore come to the Russian Legation.
“Soldiers! Come and protect Us! You are Our children. . . . When you meet the chief traitors . . . cut off their heads at once, and bring them here.”5
To Syngman Rhee, the tug-of-war between the Japanese and the Russians over Korea was less important than the mounting evidence of Korea’s inability to defend its own sovereignty. At the Paichai School, Rhee began writing editorials which castigated the government for its failure to implement court reforms and provide for national defense. Then, with a number of fellow students, Rhee bought a printing press and began his own newspaper, the Maiyil Sinmun.
At Paichai, therefore, Rhee was doing more than learning of the West. At a time when his education had scarcely begun, he was plunged into the unequal struggle to maintain Korean independence.
2 : The Twilight
BY THE mid-1890’s, Korea’s chances of maintaining her independence were precarious. She turned from one of her neighbors to another, but each provided protection only in exchange for sovereignty-eroding concessions. It was now Russia’s turn to surround the king with its own advisors, and to obtain from the court long-term leases on railroads and mines. The king turned again to the American minister for support, but U.S. interest in Korean independence would be fifty years in coming.
The murder of the queen had heightened the king’s fears for his personal safety, and turned him into a virtual recluse. Into the void created by the absence of royal leadership, however, stepped a representative of Korea’s increasingly nationalistic middle class.
So Jae-pil, known by his anglicized name Philip Jaisohn, had made common cause during the early 1880’s with the Japan-oriented Korean “progressives” who, led by Kim Ok-kun, attempted to induce the Korean court to follow Japan’s example in Westernization. In 1884, however, an unsuccessful coup discredited both theJapanese and the Korean progressives and forced Jaisohn to flee to the United States.
In America, Jaisohn earned his M.D. from Johns Hopkins University, the first Korean to do so. He returned to Korea in 1895, however, hoping that the king’s escape from the Japanese would provide an opportunity for the reform and strengthening of the monarchy. He joined the staff at Paichai School, which soon became a focal point of Korean nationalism. In 1896 he formed the Independence Club, with Syngman Rhee as one of his lieutenants.
The alleged purpose of the club was “to discuss matters concerning official improvements, customs, laws, religion, and various pertinent affairs in modern lands.”1 In practice, Jaisohn sought to Americanize the Korean government by making it responsive to public opinion. But before tackling the task of creating public opinion, the Independence Club sought to bolster the independence of the feeble monarchy. To the king they petitioned:
“We, Your Majesty’s humble servants, desire to state that two important factors constitute an independent and sovereign state, namely: first, it must not lean upon another nation nor tolerate foreign intervention in the national administration; secondly, it must help itself by adopting a wise policy and enforcing justice throughout the realm. The power of establishing these two great principles has been invested to Your Gracious Majesty by Heaven above. Whenever this power is destroyed there is no sovereignty. . . .
“Recently we, your humble servants, have observed that the condition of the nation is on the verge of destruction; great disappointment and constant discontent prevail in the heart of every citizen. The reason for this state of affairs is the giving away of the authority of administering the national finance . . . [and] the military departments. . . . Even the power of appointing and dismissing government officials has been taken from our own authorities.
“The only way to maintain order and achieve improvement in national life is to enforce just laws and apply proper rules and regulations to all institutions of the government. But of late the authorities disregard both the old and the new laws and the rules and regulations have become worthless dead letters. Under such circumstances how can we expect other nations to consider us capable of self government? . . .
“Alas! . . . The consequence is that the most powerful neighbors have been treating us as if we are nobody, and even Your Majesty’s position has become perilous.”2
3. Syngman Rhee (left rear) with a group of classmates and professors at Harvard University in 1908. This was the year in which Rhee was granted a master’s degree for his studies in international relations and in which conditions in Korea influenced him to the decision to continue his education abroad. (Pacific Stars and Stripes Photo)
Although the king regarded it with distrust, the Independence Club increased in influence. When, in March 1898, the czar demanded virtual control of the government on penalty of withdrawing his advisors, the club was among the first to urge the king to call Russia’s bluff. When the timid king complied, and the Russians indeed withdrew, Korea seemed ready for reforms which Jaisohn hoped would strengthen its prestige abroad. The king hired Jaisohn as a special advisor and appointed a forward-looking new cabinet which included considerable representation from the Independence Club. But the reformists’ ascendancy was short-lived. The king’s reactionary advisors fed him tales of plots against the monarchy, and in May the king paid Jaisohn for the balance of his contract and dismissed him. On November 5 the king ordered the Independence Club disbanded and its members arrested.
The members of the club scattered, many seeking sanctuary in foreign compounds. Syngman Rhee found refuge in the American Methodist Hospital near South Gate, and remained there even after the king had promised American Minister Horace Allen that no harm would come to the independence leaders. As one of the Independence Club’s leading agitators, Rhee had little confidence in the king’s word.
One day, however, restless in his confinement, Rhee asked a member of the hospital staff, Dr. Harry C. Sherman, if he might accompany him on his rounds. The doctor assented, but scarcely had the two left the compound when Rhee was spotted, seized by court detectives, and thrown into jail.
In a country where torture has long been an accepted means of police interrogation, Rhee was fortunate in having missionary protectors. His American friends made regular visits to his prison to be sure that he was not being tortured. Minister Allen, a onetime missionary himself, protested the persecution of the Independence Club as being in violation of the king’s word.
With such outside aid Rhee’s release might well have been secured through pressure on the court. In the course of a visit, however, one of Rhee’s colleagues rashly passed him a pistol. An escape plan was arranged whereby Rhee and two others would force their way out of prison and then seek the protection of a pro-independence crowd outside the prison. Brandishing the pistol, the three made good their escape, but because of confusion in the timing no crowd was in the square, and only one of the three was able to make his way to a foreign compound and avoid recapture.3
When Rhee was returned to prison, it was the beginning of seven years’ incarceration—years which would see the death of the Independence Club, the further deterioration of the monarchy, and a supplanting of Russian influence in Korea by the ubiquitous Japanese. To Rhee personally, his prison years would mean an end to his early marriage, which had been arranged by his parents and consummated in 1896.* But his term in prison would also go far in hardening his resolve to continue to work for Korean independence.
For the first seven months of his prison term Rhee received standard Korean treatment at the hands of his jailors. Hours of physical torture alternated with periods of dampness and filth in prison isolation. According to his biographer, two sticks would be placed between Rhee’s legs; his legs were then bound tightly together and the sticks twisted. Sharp pieces of bamboo were tied between his fingers and his hand tightened until flesh sheared from the bone. For hours at a time he was clamped