GGHS 2019 Winter - Team 5

Treaty of Ganghwa Island and some human rights violation cases during the colonial times in Korea - focused on press reports

Team

No.	Team Topic	Teacher	Role	Name (Korean)	No. of Students
5	Human Rights and Media during the Colonial Period (일제 강점기 인권과 언론)	Evelyn RUIZ	Leader	문지○	9
			Vice-Leader	한가○
				김해○
				송세○
				이다○
				최하○
				김바○
				오지○
				이유○

1. Treaty of Ganghwa Island

1.1 Contents in The Treaty of Ganghwa Island

The treaty describes Korea as an independent state, equal in status to Japan. However, the terms of the treaty were far from equal. The Treaty granted Japanese many rights that were not granted to Korea on an equal basis. The Treaty of Ganghwa was Korea's first formal step toward opening foreign relations after centuries of a strong policy of isolation. Ultimately, it later proved to be the first step towards Korea's submission to Japanese rule some three decades later.

Commonly referred as

: Treaty of Ganghwa Island ( 강화도 조약 )
 Treaty of Mutual Defense between Korea and Japan ( 조일수호조규 )

Signature Date

27 February 1876 (the 13th year of King Gojong's reign)

Signature Place

"Gwancheong-ri, Ganghwa-gun"

Treaty provisions

Japan-Korea Treaty consists of a total of 10 articles as follow:.

Article 1 stated that Korea was a free nation, "an independent state enjoying the same sovereign rights as does Japan". The Japanese statement is in an attempt to detach Korea once and for all from its traditional tributary relationship with China. Article 2 stipulated that Japan and Korea would exchange envoys within fifteen months and permanently maintain diplomatic missions in each country. The Japanese would confer with the Ministry of Rites; the Korean envoy would be received by the Foreign Office. Under Article 3, Japan would use the Japanese and Chinese languages in diplomatic communiques, while Korea would use only Chinese. Article 4 terminated Tsushima's centuries-old role as a diplomatic intermediary by abolishing all agreements then existing between Korea and Tsushima. In addition to the open port of Pusan, Article 5 authorized the search in Kyongsang, Kyonggi, Chungcheong, Cholla, and Hamgyong provinces for two more suitable seaports for Japanese trade to be opened in October 1877. Article 6 secured aid and support for ships stranded or wrecked along the Korea or Japanese coasts. Article 7 permitted any Japanese mariner to conduct surveys and mapping operations at will in the seas off the Korean Peninsula's coastline. Article 8 permitted Japanese merchants residence, unhindered trade, and the right to lease land and buildings for those purposes in the open ports. Article 9 guaranteed the freedom to conduct business without interference from either government and to trade without restrictions or prohibitions. Article 10 granted Japan the right of extraterritoriality, the one feature of previous Western treaties that was most widely resented in Asia. It not only gave foreigners a free rein to commit crimes with relative impunity, but its inclusion implied the grantor nation's system of law was either primitive, unjust, or both.

✳️ In particular, the articles 7 and 10 violated Joseon's sovereignty.

    Article 7 is intended to invade Joseon's territory and Article 10
   is a bill that  infringes Joseon's judicial power through extraterritoriality.

1.2 A case of extraterritorial damage

1) In November 1908, a Japanese man hit a Korean named Kim Won-baek with a stone and put him in an emergency situation. The police made Kim Won-baek receive treatment for seven days and made the criminal pay for the treatment charge.

         -  A magazine report dated November 20, 1908. 「日打衛표」.

2) The Japanese set up an illegal circus on the street and stole the money of a foolish Korean. This should be banned by the law enforcement authorities. Despite that, the Japanese police often overlooked these cases.

 - A magazine report dated Nov. 14, 1906, 「日技不禁」

3) Japanese citizens Yang Sang-Taero(陽上太郞) and Masuichi Kimura (木村政一) went to the province to collect gamble debt money and got drunk at Kang Myong-son’s home, behaving rudely and causing troubles. When Jiang Yun, who lived next door, could not control his anger and tried to restrain them, the Japanese beat him with a stake. Then his younger brothers Kang Yun-chil and Kang Geum-Seon tied Yang Sang-Taero up in anger and beat him, breaking his teeth. Kang Yun-chil and Kang Geum-seon were sentenced to five and four months in prison respectively by the local Korean court. On the other hand, the Japanese were not punished. Japanese who started this first, and only Koreans who tried to stop them were punished.The reporter at the time lamented, ' Where is the law of disrespect in the family. The resentment of both parties reached its highest point.' a magazine report dated August 30, 1906, 「飄 可 宪」 .

2. 일제강점기의 인권유린과 언론

2.1 인권유린사례

1) The military police system

-An immediate penalty and Joseon flogging command

The military police system: During the period of rule without permission, Japan imposed coercive rule based on the military police system. The military police system was the security system that Japan enforced in Joseon in the 1910s and was at the core of the rule of law. Military police and police offices across the country were set up to monitor the daily lives of Koreans and violate the basic human principles of freedom and social rights. In other words, the military police had to do with politics, economy, school, sanitation, and even intervened in the planning and deliberation of administrative operations and administrative affairs.

-Joseon flogging command The Japanese government enacted a law that allowed Joseon people to be arrested arbitrarily without physical certificates or an official trial to be sentenced to death under the pretext of maintaining public peace, and is It was applied differently only to Koreans. Based on this, the Japanese government used it as a means to attract and torture independence activists and anti-Japanese historians.

-a few provision One. “Lay the prisoner down on the template, tie his arms and legs on the template, take off his pants, and strike his thighs with a rod..” Two. “A beverage can be prepared and given to the prisoner from sometime (meaning pouring if someone faint)”. twelve. “If there is the prisoner crying during execution, cover his mouth with a wet towel.”

Oh Myung Chun (an anti-Japanese activist)’s testimony

‘When a person lie flat on the template, he drilled a hole in the direction of the genitals, opened his arms and tied his legs and waist. When put lead on the end of the ukyeonga (hawk made of cow's penis) and hit your thigh, the lead penetrates into the flesh, and blood flows. The hawk is in its first 80s, and if it fainted midway, it will save it and hit it again three days later.”

-An immediate penalty The immediate penalty is to give the right of summary judgment to exercise the suppression of fines, malpractices and detention on Koreans to a police chief or a military police captain. The content was that the chief of police or the head of the military police force in each province would be sentenced to three months in prison and a fine of 100 million won or less without trial by the court.

References

• In Korean
  • Korean Cultural Journalism : Its Formation and Transformation from 1960s to 2010s
  • A Critical Discourse Analysis on the NewspaperTexts during the Japanese Occupation - Focused on the Four Patriotic Events Reports
  • A study of serial novel on newspaper in Korean patriotic enlightenment period
  • Changes in front page characteristics of Korean newspaper : A study of the Chosun Ilbo and the Dong-A Ilbo, 1921- 2001
  • (The) study on sodial education for women in Korea : concentrated on social education, through the press
  • Photographic representation of the working class in Dong-A Ilbo and Chosun Ilbo: 1920-1940
  • (A) Study of the Five Major Daily Newspapers Published in Korea at the end of 19th century and the beginning of 20th century

Map(s)