 The National Broadcasting Company and its affiliated stations present the Pacific story. In the midst of the fury of world conflict, events in the Pacific are taking on ever greater importance. Here is the story of the Pacific and its peoples, whose destiny is at stake in the Pacific War. Here is the tale of the war in the Pacific and its meaning to us and to the generations to come. Pacific story presented by the National Broadcasting Company and dedicated to a fuller understanding of the vast Pacific basin. This broadcast series comes to you as another public service, the drama of the past and present of the millions of peoples who live around the world's greatest sea where the east at last meets the west. Korea, Japan's oldest anime. For the Japanese world, for nearly 40 years, they have occupied our country. They have imprisoned and tortured and killed our people. Our soil is soaked with blood. We hate the Japanese as no people on earth hates another people. A million of us live in Japan. I live in Japan. I am Korean. Though I have a Japanese name, we know every Japanese city, every street, every building. We shall be ready to act when the signal comes. Hideyoshi, the Japanese general, had 300,000 Japanese troops invaded Korea in 1592. We fought and at last turned them back. After this, nearly 300 years passed before the Japanese came back to Korea again. Then a Japanese war vessel sailed into our waters. We fired on it from our shore batteries. There was great excitement in Japan. The Japanese samurai cried for war. This time we must go into Korea. Or it must be remembered, General, that Korea pays tribute to the Chinese emperor at a pecking. Yes, and that the emperor of Korea received his investiture from the emperor of China. We have requested assurances from China that you will stand aside and format us to redress our grievances with Korea. The Manchu government may refuse to stand aside. The Manchu government has long paid little attention to the affairs of Korea. The message we've been waiting for, General, has come from the Chinese government. From pecking? Yes, General. The Manchu's are wise. China will stand aside. China will not intervene. The Manchu's have their hands full in China. We will fit out an exposition and go to Korea at once. This time, there will be no question... The Japanese came. General Kurota and Mr. Inouyi came with two gunboats and three transports filled with Japanese soldiers. They slipped into the harbor of Seoul, our capital, in the night. The next morning, Mr. Inouyi came ashore and made demands upon us. We have come here to Korea in the spirit of friendship to make a treaty. Friendship? Yes, friendship. Then why, Mr. Inouyi, have you come with a fleet of war? We have brought our gunboats and soldiers with the hope that it will not be necessary to a fight. We are here to make a treaty or make a war. What manner of treaty do you propose? We propose that Korea sever relations with China. These relations are detrimental... The treaty was concluded. We did not know then nor did China how important this treaty was to be. China learned too late it was a mistake to permit Japan to redress her own grievances against Korea and to establish Korea as an independent state. From this time on, China's whole policy was to correct this mistake. China interfered in Korean affairs and this brought her into direct conflict with Japan. In 1894, China and Japan were at war. China was defeated and in 1895, the Japanese general Viscount Miura came to Korea. What I have seen Japanese influence is very powerful here in Korea than I had expected. That is right, General Miura. Why? I do not know. We are friends of the Koreans. Is there opposition to us in high places here, Captain Tuchida? More than nominal opposition. What about the Queen? Myeong-Sung is a woman of masterful character. What is her attitude to Japan? She is a staunch Korean. Why have you permitted the Queen to stand in our way, Captain Tuchida? If the general considers the Queen in our way, I stand ready to carry out any orders. Get rid of the Queen. Yes, sir. Our Queen, Myeong-Sung and her ladies in attendance were in the palace in Seoul. Outside her quarters were her guards. Yes? Queen Myeong-Sung, the guy is coming. What is that disturbance? Ruffians, they are forcing their way into the palace. Who are they? What do they wish? I do not know your highness. Order the guards to hold them. There are too many of them and... Yes? There are Japanese among them. Japanese? Yes, army officers. Who are the Korean Queen, Myeong-Sung? Who are you? I am Captain Tuchida. I am here under the orders of General Miura. Guard, order them to leave at once. By the order of the Queen, you are to leave the palace at once. Then you are the Queen. This is the Queen, men. Carry out your orders. Put down the knife! Put down the knife! They are at your full! The Queen. Open the door to the balcony. Yes, sir. The body is down into the courtyard. Both the Queen and that full guard. Yes, sir. Seen on them. The Japanese. And we never forgot. Kim Koo trailed the murderer of the Queen for four years. He stalked Captain Tuchida like an animal. And at last he cornered him alone. You wish something of me? You are Captain Tuchida? I am Captain Tuchida, yes. I am Kim Koo. How did you get in here? We are alone. What do you wish? I have something to show you. Yes? Or a picture of Queen Myung-Sung. You remember our Queen? Let go of my throat. Let go of my... No, no. You were not a scapegoat, Captain Tuchida. No, I will thank you with my own hands. My own hands. Four years I have waited for this. I will strangle the life out of you as you merged our Queen. Now, so you Japanese will know that it was Kim Koo who avenged our Queen. I will write my name and address on the wall. Let this be remembered by all you Japanese. The Japanese Mikado said, the independence of Korea is our empire's real and unfaltering aim. So when Japan went to war with Russia, we Koreans opened our country to the Japanese soldiers and helped them in every way. But when the Russo-Japanese war was over, we began to see that Japan had other ends in view. The peace conference between Russia and Japan was held in the United States at Portsmouth, New Hampshire. Gentlemen, Korea needs help. It is the wish of Japan to extend the hand of brotherhood to the Koreans. Japanese delegates seem more interested in Korea than in Russia. Yeah, that business about Korea not being able to handle our own affairs. Japan's wish is to help Koreans straighten out their internal affairs so that one day they may walk around. If this conference goes for that, they're crazy. The purpose of Japan is peace in the Far East. The best way this can be achieved is through an understanding between the United States and Great Britain and Japan. It is for this purpose that Japan wishes to help Korea. Back to Korea again. Mr. Minister, to what extent does Japan wish to help Korea? Japan wishes to establish a protectorate over Korea for the time being. What did I tell you? I wonder what Teddy Roosevelt over there thinks of that. The President's pretty much sold on the Japanese military power and efficiency. Hey, did you see the confidential wire that just came in from our office in Tokyo? No, what does it say? Wickel, he's got it. It says that Teddy Roosevelt sent Taft to Tokyo on that trip last month and ordered him to suggest that Japan take over Korea. Take over Korea? Yeah, send in troops and run Korea's foreign affairs. Did Taft do it? He sure did. And he wired back to the President telling him what he'd done and Teddy cabled him, confirming every word he'd said. That means Korea's going under. Korea was never asked about this. We were never even given a chance to offer arguments against it. And at this time, Korea was in full treaty relations with the United States. Soon the Japanese came. I remember when Marquis Ito and General Hasegawa arrived in Seoul. It was in November 1905. Marquis Ito was received by our Emperor. Homo is from the Mercado, the Emperor of Japan. Yes. It is my hope that you, as Emperor of Korea, will follow the directions of Marquis Ito and come to an agreement with him. It is essential to peace in the Far East. What directions do you have, Marquis Ito? Well, it is the direction of the Mercado that the foreign relations of Korea be placed entirely in the hands over Japan. Go on. The Japanese Minister to Korea is to become Supreme Administrator to Korea under Your Highness, of course. Yes, of course. Are the Japanese consuls in the various parts of Korea or to have the power of Supreme Roku Governor? This means then that Korea is to surrender her independence and to turn over the administration of her internal affairs to Japan. It is the wish of the Mercado. We shall not do it. Marquis Ito, this audience is ended. Then the Japanese soldiers came. For days they paraded through the streets. They maneuvered around the palace fully armed with their field guns. They made sham attacks. They stormed the gates. On the night of November 17, 1905, they entered the courtyard with fixed bayonets. And Marquis Ito and General Hezegawa entered the palace and demanded another audience with Emperor of Korea. The Emperor regrets that he is unable to see you, Marquis Ito. He must see us. No, he has a bad throat and he is in great pain. I demand that we see Emperor at once. Step aside. No, no, the Emperor will not see you. You stay out of here while I see Emperor myself. Ito. Ito, I cannot see you now. I demand an audience with your Highness at once. No. Go away and discuss the matter with the cabinet ministers. With your cabinet ministers. Very well, your Highness. Marquis Ito called together the cabinet ministers of Korea. Beside him, when he had them together, was General Hezegawa. Outside the palace and in the courtyard, the Japanese soldiers were maneuvering and branching their gleaming bayonets. Your Emperor has commanded you to confer with me on the set of this matter. The ministers resisted. They knew that to yield was to be lost. Yet they knew that to resist meant destruction. What is the use of our resistance? That is traitorous talk, Iwanyang. We must not yield. The Japanese have always got their way in the end. No, I will go to the Emperor and tell him of this traitorous talk. We must never yield. When Han Kusul got out into the corridor, he was seized by the Japanese and thrown into a side room. Marquis Ito went in to talk with him. You are not being accessible, Han Kusul. The Emperor will never yield. Would you not yield if your Emperor commanded you? No, not even then. Very well. This is enough. Marquis Ito went directly to the Emperor's quarters, forced his way in and said... Emperor Kongmu, your Prime Minister Han Kusul... is a traitor? No. Han Kusul is not a traitor, Marquis Ito. He defies you? Not Han Kusul. Who, yes. He declares that he will not obey your commands. Han Kusul will not obey my commands. He is one of my most loyal... The cabinet ministers waited for Han Kusul to come back, but he did not come back. General Hasegawa exerted the greatest pressure on the ministers while his troops continued to maneuver with fixed bayonets outside the window. Yi Wan-yong was the first to yield, and Pak Chi-sun, our Foreign Minister, was the last. General Hasegawa kept the ministers there until the early morning until the treaty was signed. Do not sign anything. Do not sign anything. Han Kusul, where have you been? I escaped from them. Do not sign anything. What? We have just signed the treaty, Han Kusul. Sign? How could you? Why have you broken your promise? Why have you broken your promise? Emperor Kuang Mu was forced to abdicate. His son, who was congenitally unable to perform the duties of the emperor, was set up in his place. Then Marquis Ito took over completely. He took the gold mines, copper mines, silver mines and the coal mines. He took control of all communications. He was the head of the police. He was the director of finance and the chief of the Japanese military administration. The Korean army was disbanded. We Koreans were crushed. All 23 million of us. But under the surface of fire smoldered, it burst into flame in 1909. It's a harbin by a Korean patriot, Jong-kyun Ahn. General Tarachi has come to be governor-general. It is as if a chill has fallen over the city. What will he do now? He will have no mercy on us Koreans. The gendams are being brought back in full force. They're everywhere. Where are our Korean ministers of state? No one has seen them for days. Nobody knows. Something is going to happen. More and more troops are coming into the city. And spies, they seem to catch every thought. Shh, be quiet. If you would live, keep your thoughts to yourself. Everyone was tense and quiet. This went on and on. Those who saw General Tarachi found him stern and cold. He has other things to think about than pleasant words, they said. And then the Japanese issued a proclamation. The Emperor of Korea has abandoned his throne. Korea, as a nation, has ceased to exist. Henceforth, it is to be known as Cho-sen, land of the morning calm. And it is to be a province of Japan. Resident General Tarachi from this date, August 29, 1910, is to be Governor General of Cho-sen. This treaty has been signed by the Emperor of Japan. Yes. General Tarachi indeed had come and he wrote his name in blood on Korea. The whole world came to know about the conspiracy case. Koreans were rounded up wholesale and thrown into jails. None of them knew why. Some were tortured to death. Some were exiled without trial. And 123 were brought into court in second. You are charged with conspiracy to assassinate Count Tarachi, Governor General of Cho-sen. Through your own confessions, you plotted to murder Governor General of Tarachi. You plotted together at various railway stations with pistols and short swords and daggers. To kill the Governor General when his train came through. I was present at that trial. Word of it spread throughout the world. America we learned was shocked. One by one, the Koreans took the stand. Your name? My name is Chi Sang-chul. What is your religion? I am a Presbyterian. Your business? I am a clerk. You have confessed your guilt? I am not guilty. I confessed under torture. They stripped me naked. And then a policeman covered my mouth with my hand and poured water into my nose. Then they tied my thumbs behind my back again with one arm over and one under and hung me up by the core that tied them. They burned me with a lighted cigarette. They tortured me this way for days. I do not know how many. They told me they would let me go if I confessed. But that they would torture me until I died if I did not. I fainted from the torture of hanging there. And when I came to, I was on the floor and the police were giving me water. They kept this torture up for nearly three months. I couldn't stand it anymore. And I confessed all that they asked. But I am not guilty. I am not guilty. The plot against General Torachi was at last proved a fraud. The poor Koreans who lived through the torture were exonerated. But they fanned the flame of hatred against Japan. And at last in 1919 their cause seemed to be ripening. Our old emperor lies dead. This is a propitious time for us. Yes. 100,000 people have come here to see you or to see the funeral ceremonies. Japanese must know that something is about to happen. Quite possibly. But stop us. The funeral of the emperor is to take place Tuesday, March 4th. By that time the Japanese Jundans will have all of Seoul in its grip. We will not wait for March 4th. We will act three days early on Saturday, March 1st. Good. Let us demonstrate that we are willing to die for our country. But that we do not wish to kill. Yes. All 33 of us who have signed the Declaration of Independence will meet at the Pagoda restaurant. We will invite the Japanese officials and at the proper time will represent the Declaration. 33 Koreans chose to be martyrs to sign the Declaration of Independence and to be present with the Japanese officials when it was read. Among them was Pastor Kil, one of the oldest and most loved Christians of Korea. And at the appointed time on March 1st, 1919 the signers of the Declaration gathered in the Pagoda restaurant in Seoul. We are honored that you could be with us this morning, Mr. Haydaco. It is our honor, Song Pyo-hee. This day will be a day which we hope will long be remembered. The sympathy of Japan is with you and the great loss of your emperor, Pastor Kil, has not yet arrived. He has been delayed. How many of us are there here? 32. All but Pastor Kil. We will go ahead. Mr. Ikki Haydaco and gentlemen, I have the honor to present for the first time to the world the Declaration of Independence for Korea. What is this? To the Governor General of Korea. We herewith proclaim the independence of Korea and the liberty of the Korean people. We make this proclamation having back of us 5,000 years of history and more than 20 million united loyal people. We take this step to ensure to our children of all time to come, personal liberty in accord with awakening consciousness of this new era. I demand to know, what is this proclamation? Sit down, Mr. Haydaco. May all the ancestors to the thousands and ten thousand generations aid us from within and all the force of the world aid us from without. In this hope we go forward this 400, 250 second year of the Kingdom of Korea third month as representatives of the... May Korea live ten thousand years! Long live Korea! Independent Korea! When the reading was done, the signers telephoned the central police station and told them what they had done. They waited at the Pagoda restaurant until the police van came to arrest them. Pastor Kil came to the restaurant late but he went to the police station to take his place with the others. The streets were strong with hundreds of thousands of people who had come to Seul to pay their last respects to the old emperor. The chairs rang to heaven. All Korea went wild with joy. And then the Japanese started the reprisals. The 33 signers of the Declaration of Independence were tortured and killed. Then the Japanese turned on the people. The world has never seen such tortures as in those terrible days of March 1919. Why have the Japanese called us all to church? I don't know. They have called all Koreans in Suwon to church. But the Japanese do not believe in our Christian churches. They are going to do something. Here comes the Japanese soldier. Hurry, hurry. Get into the tent. Quick you. Why have you called all of us to our churches? Yes, all the churches in Suwon are filled with Koreans. Get in there. Get in there. Why have you called all of us? Get in there. You got them, Aryan. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Yes, sir. And lock it. You stay here at this door. See that no one gets out. I have my DNA ready. All right, over there. Start the fire. Start the fire. Now we shall see. 300,000 Koreans were arrested and tortured. 7,000 were brutally killed. But we had declared our independence, and we would not give up. We formed a provisional government to carry on our fight. Today, Koreans everywhere in the Far East, 25 million of us are waiting to strike at the Japanese. I am a member of the powerful secret movement in Korea. We have fired and blown up underground hangars, fuel tanks, and war planes. We know all of Japan's strategic war industries in Korea. We are ready to act against them when the United Nations' armies come to our country. We Koreans in Japan are also watching and listening. We look like Japanese. We speak Japanese. We have Japanese names, and we know the Japanese. 100,000 of us work in Japanese strategic war industries, and we are waiting. I have been listening to the Pacific story presented by the national broadcasting company and its affiliated independent stations as a public service to clarify events in the Pacific and to make understandable the cross-currents of life in the Pacific Basin. A reprint of this Pacific story program was available at the cost of 10 cents. Send 10 cents and stamps or coin to University of California Press, Berkeley, California. He is written and directed by Arnold Marquis. The original musical score was composed and conducted by Thomas Palusso. This program came to you from Hollywood. This is the National Broadcasting Company.