The Righteous Armies Wars were a series of Korean nationalist rebellions which occurred in Japanese-occupied Korea from 1894 to 1910. The "Righteous Armies" were formed to resist the oppressive policies of the Japanese "protectors" of Korea, who had occupied the country after helping the government suppress the Donghak Peasant Revolution. Ultimately, the Japanese would brutally crush the Korean uprisings and formally annex Korea in 1910.
Background[]
Ganghwa Island Incident, 1875[]
Following the Meiji Restoration in Japan, a modernizing Japan sought to attain the same regional power as the Western imperial powers. Japan's first target was the "hermit kingdom" of Korea, which had remained isolated under the protection of Qing China for centuries. Tensions between Korea and Japan intensified after a diplomatic incident in 1868 in which the Japanese, seeking recognition of the new imperial regime by Korea, sent the Korean court a letter informing them of the change in government from the Tokugawa Shogunate to the Meiji government. The Koreans were incensed that the letter used Chinese characters which suggested that Japan's Emperor, Emperor Meiji, was the equal of the Emperor of Qing China, and Korea refused to recognize the new Japanese government. In 1875, diplomatic talks between Korea and Japan at Pusan came to nothing. On 20 September 1875, the situation took a turn for the worse when an Imperial Japanese Navy gunboat sent to survey Korean coastal waters was fired upon from Ganghwa Island, leading to the Japanese attacking the island. The better-equipped Japanese marines killed 35 Koreans, wounded 16, and destroyed their fort, while they lost just one man dead and one wounded. The Japanese government declined to retaliate in force (as Saigo Takamori suggested, hoping to put unemployed samurai to work as warriors once again), instead pressuring the Koreans to sign the "Japan-Korea Treaty of Amity" on 26 February 1876, ending Korea's status as a protectorate of China, forcing the Koreans to open their ports to the Japanese, and granting extraterritorial rights to Japanese citizens.
Imo Incident, 1882[]
The southern Korean port of Busan soon became a hub of commerce with Japan, and the two countries' economies became closely interconnected. However, the regent of Korea, Yi Ha-ung, was determined to purge Korea of any foreign influences. He was incensed when his son King Gojong and Empress Myeongseong invited the Imperial Japanese Army to train an elite unit of the Korean military, and his resentment was shared by many army regulars, who were jealous of the elite guard's preferential treatment. Encouraged by Yi, the disgruntled soldiers mutinied in Seoul on 23 July 1882, and they were joined by Korean civilians who opposed King Gojong's reform and modernization. The rioters killed many government officials, destroyed homes of several ministers, occupied the Changdeok Palace, killed several Japanese, and burned the Japanese legation. Ultimately, Chinese troops were dispatched to suppress the rioting and prevent further disorder, and, in August 1882, Japan and Korea signed the Treaty of Chemulpo to indemnify the families of the Japanese victims and allow a company of Japanese guards to be stationed at the legation in Seoul.
Gapsin Coup, 1884[]
The political turmoil in Korea continued due to the rivalry between the regent Yi Ha-ung and Empress Myeongseong, and a rivalry developed between the pro-Japanese Progressive Party and the pro-China conservative faction. On 4 December 1884, the Japanese-backed progressives launched a coup which established a pro-Japanese government under King Gojong, but conservative Korean officials requested the help of Chinese forces stationed in Korea. Chinese troops put down the coup, and a Korean mob retaliated by killing several Japanese officers and residents in Seoul. Progressive Party leader Kim Ok-gyun fled to Japan, while several of his colleagues were executed. Japan and China calmed the tensions between them with the 18 April 1885 Convention of Tientsin, and both nations agreed to withdraw their expeditionary forces from Korea within four months and not return without first notifying the other nation.
Donghak Peasant Revolution, 1894-1895[]
In April 1894, however, a Korean peasant rebellion broke out in the southwestern county of Gobu, and it soon evolved into a nationwide uprising known as the "Donghak Peasant Revolution". China dispatched 2,700 soldiers to assist the government, breaching the Convention of Tientsin and giving the Japanese government the long-awaited casus belli to initiate the First Sino-Japanese War. The Japanese armies defeated the Chinese in Korea and pushed them into Manchuria before peace was concluded on 17 April 1895, a month after the Donghak uprising had been suppressed. The two nations signed the Treaty of Shimonoseki, which ended Korea's status as a Chinese tributary state and guaranteed Korea's full independence.
History[]
Assassination of Empress Myeongseong[]
Empress Myeongseong then turned on the Japanese, fearful that Korea had fallen into their sphere of influence, and attempted to ally with the Russian Empire against the Japanese. The Japanese responded by sending members of the ultranationalist Genyosha secret society to assassinate Myeongseong at the Gyeongbok Palace on 8 October 1895. King Gojong was forced to flee to the Russian legation in Seoul for protection, remaining there for one year.
Righteous Army of Eulmi, 1895[]
Myeongseong's assassination outraged Korean nationalists, who established the Independence Club to negotiate with Western powers (particularly Russia) to counterbalance the growing influence of Japan. At the same time, Yu In-seok and other Confucian scholars founded the "Righteous Armies" from the former Donghak peasant rebels and aimed to drive the Japanese occupiers out of Korea. Its ranks swelled following Myeongseong's death, and the "Righteous Army of Eulmi" attacked the Imperial Japanese Army, Japanese merchants, and pro-Japanese bureaucrats in Gangwon, Chungcheong, Jeolla, and Gyeongsang. In 1897, Gojong defiantly returned to the royal palace at Deoksu and proclaimed the founding of the Korean Empire, formally ending Korea's tributary status to any country. However, he banned the Independence Club and all other unofficial congresses in 1898, and he pursued a program of Westernization.
Righteous Army of Eulmi, 1905[]
Meanwhile, Japan crushed the first righteous army, and, in 1904, launched a surprise attack on the Imperial Russian Navy at Port Arthur in China, starting the Russo-Japanese War. This war, much like the First Sino-Japanese War, was fought in Korea and Manchuria, although Russia, unlike China, was a modern power which inflicted heavy losses on the Japanese before the war ended in a Japanese victory in 1905. The 5 September 1905 Treaty of Portsmouth saw Russia acknowledge Japan's hegemony over Korea, and, on 17 November 1905, Japan and Korea signed the Eulsa Treaty, which deprived Korea of its diplomatic sovereignty and made it a protectorate of Japan. Choe Ik-hyeon led the formation of the "Righteous Army of Eulsa", which rebelled against the Japanese a second time, but he was defeated, captured, and sent to Tsushima, where he died during a hunger strike in 1906. Shin Dol-seok led an army of over 3,000 veteran soldiers, peasants, fishermen, tiger hunters, miners, merchants, and laborers in continued resistance, but he was also defeated, and the second "Righteous Army" was crushed.
Righteous Army of Jeongmi, 1907[]
In June 1907, a desperate King Gojong sent three secret emissaries to an international peace conference at the Hague, which was originally supposed to have been held to address the Russo-Japanese War, particularly the rules of naval warfare. The envoys were refused entry to the convention, and one of them, Yi Tjoune, committed suicide out of despair. When the Japanese government discovered Gojong's intrigue, they forced him to abdicate in favor of his son, Sunjong, on 19 July 1907; on 1 August, the Korean Army was formally disbanded. The Japanese statesman Ito Hirobumi then attempted to establish himself as Japan's first Resident-General in Korea, effectively subjecting Korea to colonial rule. This led to a Korean rebellion, with Hong Beom-do and Yun Hui-sun forming the "Righteous Army of Jeongmi". The Righteous Army amassed 10,000 troops and marched to liberate Seoul from the Japanese, but it was routed by a Japanese counter-offensive, with 20,000 Japanese soldiers - with support from naval artillery - defeating them near Incheon.
13-Province Alliance Righteous Army[]
The Righteous Army retreated from Seoul, and, in 1908, Yi In-yeong raised the "13-Province Alliance Righteous Army" to continue the struggle. The Japanese army responded by burning villages, and they killed 17,000 Righteous Army soldiers and wounded more than 37,000. Unable to fight the Japanese head-on, the Righteous Army split into small bands of partisans who continued the struggle. The Japanese crushed the peasant army, forcing its remnants to flee to Manchuria and Primorsky Krai to continue the fight.
Annexation of Korea[]
With the Korean rebellion crushed, the Japanese government sent Terauchi Masatake to finalize Japanese control over Korea. Korea had already been colonized by 170,000 Japanese settlers and merchants by 1910, and, on 22 August 1910, King Gojong reluctantly signed the Japan-Korea Annexation Treaty, ceding all rights over the sovereignty of Korea to the Emperor of Japan. Korea thus became a Japanese province, and the United Kingdom and United States recognized the annexation under the 1902 Anglo-Japanese Alliance and the 1905 Taft-Katsura Agreement, respectively. Japan then set about assimilating the indigenous Koreans into Japanese culture by merging the Korean folk religion with Shinto, and Korean nationalist resistance soon took the form of an armed Korean independence movement.