Lawmaker criticizes textbooks for correctly describing the violence of the Samil protests

An article in today's Joongang Daily declares in its headline that "Textbooks do disservice to March 1 movement."

Rep. Han Sun-kyo, a lawmaker of the ruling Saenuri Party, told the JoongAng Ilbo on Thursday that he analyzed Korean and Japanese history textbooks he received from the Seoul-based think tank Northeast Asian History Foundation and Korea’s Ministry of Education and found the results troubling.

He said a “considerable number of Japanese history textbooks are distorting the facts or minimizing the significance of the March 1 Independence Movement.”

March 1, 1919, remains a touchstone of Korean nationalism as the day when activists declared Korea’s independence and triggered large-scale peaceful demonstrations against Japanese colonial rule (1910-1945).

One Japanese middle school history textbook published by Jiyusa says the March 1 independence movement in Seoul “initially was planned as a non-violent rally but gradually became a large-scale movement,” and that “the army was mobilized and because of a clash on both sides, there were many casualties.” [...]

But Han added that Korean history textbooks also have inaccuracies, and there are many cases where they “describe the non-violent March 1 movement as violent” or do not mention key events or figures such as Yoo Gwan-soon’s martyrdom. [...]

According to Han’s study, half of the eight Korean high school history textbooks inaccurately described the independence movement as being “violent.” Three other textbooks failed to describe the movement adequately.

He found that only one publisher, Chunjae Education, explained the movement accurately and in detail. “As time passed, the protests grew more intense and military and police fired at people during the demonstrations, leading to deaths,” it said. The text emphasized, “The demonstrations were highly regarded internationally for holding to the principle of non-violence while trying to express resistance to Japanese imperialism.”

The problem is, the textbooks describing the independence movement as being "violent" are being accurate. While some of the Japanese dispatches during the Samil Uprising reported in the New York Times described violence on the part of demonstrators, I didn't realize just how violent the protests were until I read Frank Baldwin's "Participatory Anti-Imperalism:The 1919 Independence Movement" (Journal of Korean Studies, Volume 1, 1979, pp. 123-162). One assumes this contains some of the material in his dissertation, "The March First Movement: Korean Challenge, Japanese Response" (Columbia University, 1969). In his article, he notes that between March 1 and April 10, 1919, there were "approximately 667 peaceful demonstrations" as compared with "approximately 460 violent incidents." Here is his description of the nature of the protests:

Initially the demonstrations were nonviolent, partly to enhance the moral appeal of the protest and partly because of the vastly superior Japanese police and army forces. The usual pattern of demonstrations was that activists assembled a crowd and a local leader read the declaration of independence. The crowd roared its approval and then marched around the area shouting for Korean liberty.

As the independence movement spread and intensified, however, its character changed into often violent confrontation. This was a response to the severe, frequently brutal suppression of the protest by the Government General, which included firing on unarmed crowds and torture of prisoners. In many areas, a peaceful demonstration was suppressed by the authorities with force, and resulted in violent counterattacks on police and gendarmes. In other areas, frustrations, anger, and pent-up grievances turned peaceful demonstrations violent even without official provocation. In still other cases, tension from sustained demonstrations and confrontations, probably exacerbated by official violence, erupted into assaults on Government General personnel and facilities. In late March and early April, parts of Korea were in open, bloody rebellion. Governor General Hasegawa Yoshimichi requested troop reinforcements

During March and April the first stage of the 1919 movement occurred—the overt and violent period. Hundreds of thousands of Koreans engaged in open political actions ranging from lusty shouts for freedom to intrepid assaults on Government General outposts and vengeful mutilation of unlucky Kenpeitai, the Japanese gendarmerie. The second stage of the movement began in May and lasted until about April, 1920. During this stage, the independence activists changed their form of political activity from overt protest to covert planning and organizing, mostly in support of the Korean provisional government formed in Shanghai on April 10, 1919. The presence of additional troops from Japan, mass-arrest tactics, and stringent security measures made open protest activity unfeasible if not impossible.

Before those additional troops arrived, however, the Government General was hard pressed to maintain control and protect its staff, settlers, and infrastructure:

The Government General juggled the available troops, withdrawing some from North and South P'yöng'an and Hwanghae, now regarded as safe, and assigned them to southern Korea, where the violence was rapidly spreading. On March 25 eight infantry companies were spread thinly over five southern provinces—North and South Kyöngsang, North and South Cholla, and South Ch'ungch'öng. The assignment was made with the hope that they would only be needed until March 30. But the Koreans kept up their attacks. Crowds formed everywhere in Seoul, stoning police stations and trolley cars. In five villages near Seoul, myön chiefs were threatened and myön offices attacked. In many places Koreans armed themselves with clubs and stones and attacked the closest police station or my on office. March 27 and 28 were frantic, tragic days as Koreans attacked in many localities only to be beaten off by troops and suffer heavy casualties. Thirty nine Koreans were killed in a single incident in Kyönggi Province. The governor general authorized new troop assignments on the 28th but the attacks continued. On March 31 Koreans armed with clubs, sickles, and other improvised weapons stormed gendarmerie units and police stations at several places in Kyönggi Province. They attempted, sometimes successfully, to burn the local public buildings—myön offices, post offices, police stations—and cut telephone lines. In one place the crowd tried to burn the stores of Japanese merchants. Many Koreans were killed and wounded in the assaults. Despite heavy casualties and against seemingly hopeless Koreans continued the fight. [...] April 2 was perhaps the bloodiest single day of the independence movement as Koreans continued their attacks on gendarmerie units, police stations, myön offices and school buildings. Demonstration marches were a thing of the past: these crowds were prepared to fight.

Below is a list of casualties on the Japanese side:

In a lengthy recounting of a violent protest in Sacheon, Pyeongannam-do on March 4, which Baldwin describes as a "typical demonstration that began peacefully and ended in violence," three Korean police officers are reported as being killed in addition to a Japanese police officer, which makes clear that the numbers above do not include Korean Government General employees, suggesting that more people died than are listed. Most ironic in the assertion that the Samil Protests were peaceful is this statement by Baldwin:

Because of continued Korean violence, the Government General requested troops from Japan, which served to further discredit Japanese rule in the colony and provided additional incentive for the Hara administration in Tokyo to make reforms. Violent forms of participation appear to have been most important in changing Japanese policy.

Additionally, the Jeam-ri massacre (looked at here) is better explained as the culmination of escalating violence on both sides rather than an out-of-the-blue mass killing by the (evil) Japanese.

The tale of "peaceful Samil demonstrations" serves the cause of depicting Koreans as a peaceful people beset upon by marauding outsiders; that is to say, victims with no responsibility for their actions. What better way to depict this fairy tale than a children's book about Yu Gwan-sun from the 한국 위인 전집 (Great people of Korea Collection) published by 노벨과 개미(looked at in more detail here):

Evil Japanese:



Peaceful, victimized Koreans:




Returning to the Joongang Daily article:

Han also found that only one publisher, Jihak Publishing, described the patriot [Yoo Gwan-sun] in its text. In contrast, four out of seven Japanese contemporary history textbooks included Yoo.

The omission of Yu Gwan-sun from Korean textbooks is rather interesting. She's become an icon of the independence movement, much as Sin Mi-seon and Sim Hyo-sun became icons for those protesting the presence of USFK in Korea. Here is a poster which was once on the wall of the Yu Gwan-sun Underground Cell building at Seodaemun Prison:



Can you imagine any of the male icons of the Korean independence movement being depicted in this way? Besides being the oddly cheerful face of the fight for independence, she's often depicted as the embodiment of victimization (and thus embodies Korea throughout its entire history, according to some nationalist takes on Korean history). Here she is in the 'Great people of Korea Collection' book about her:



She also helps sell chicken, apparently (from 2005):

"Eat Ddorae Orae Chicken and protect our land, Dokdo!"

The final paragraph of the Joongang Daily article offers this short biography of Yu:

Yoo (1902-1920) was a prominent independence movement activist who was one of the organizers of the March 1 movement. She eventually faced torture at the hands of Japanese officers and died in prison in September 1920. When her family asked for her body to be returned to them, Yoo’s body was returned cut into pieces.

In truth, most of the "organizers" of the movement offered themselves up for arrest after reading the declaration on March 1, essentially robbing the movement of its most respected leaders at its very inception. Yoo certainly organized protests in Cheonan after leaving the Ehwa school girl for girls, but is more likely remembered because she was a student at a prominent missionary school, and because she is the perfect symbol of innocence brutally snuffed out by the brutal Japanese. The main problem I have with the paragraph above, however, is that she was certainly not "cut into pieces." As is described by Jeannette Walter, an English teacher at Ehwa, in Donald Clark's "Living Dangerously in Korea (The Western Experience 1900-1950),"

Yu Kwansoon, a little sixteen-year-old girl, died in prison. We had her body brought back to the school, and the girls prepared cotton garments for her burial. [...] However, when I was in Korea in 1959, I was interviewed by a group from Kwansoon's school, and I assured them on tape that her body was not mutilated. I had dressed her for burial.

One wonders if it is Rep. Han Sun-kyo or the Joongang Daily that is responsible for that canard once again being trotted out. A disservice may be have been done to the memory of the Samil Movement, but I'm not convinced its the textbook makers who are responsible.

Bits and pieces

Comedian Jeong Chan-u got more of a response than he bargained for when he appeared on 'Cult Two's Veranda Show' on MBC on Tuesday wearing the sweater seen below, causing controversy. Netizens weren't impressed, saying they were reminded of Japanese war crimes, and that even if it was unintentional he should have seen such a response coming, and so he apologized on twitter yesterday for causing offense.

(Also regarding MBC, someone decided to have some fun when an MBC program censored the breasts in Botticelli's The Birth of Venus.)

Speaking of controversy, a week ago it was reported that a restaurant in Itaewon had caused controversy by naming a fried chicken dish 'Heukhyeong,' or 'black big brother.' Mike Hurt dug to the bottom of this and found that it had been blown out of proportion by an irresponsible media outlet. It's nice to see Mike back to regular blogging.

On the topi of restaurants and eating, Gord Sellar has written a post placing the 먹방, or 'broadcast eating' in context, as well as another looking at why good restaurants so often go bad in the Seoul area.

As well, this interview with the elderly Chae Hyun-gook, a fascinating, if mostly unknown, figure who financially supported aspects of the democracy movement in the 1970s and 1980s is well worth reading. I liked this:

The worst of all is politicians who are desperate for strife. Ideologies and any other things are not important. They just can’t stand amicable relationships and are in need of discord to be influential.

Exactly.

At the other end of the age scale, I also found these personal looks by a young woman at the influence of her father on her decision to become a journalist and on his work with the Korea Center for Investigative Journalism worth reading.

Seoul's modernizing skyline... in 1897

On February 23, 1897, the Independent published this article about Seoul's changing skyline:

What's interesting about that article is that one gets the idea that a 'Europeanized' 'foreign settlement' with 'European buildings' was an accoutrement that Seoul - and Korea- needed in order to be truly modern.

As for the buildings referenced, the French Legation was located on what is now the grounds of Ewha Girls' High School in Jeong-dong. The 'new Cathedral in Chonghen (?)' refers, of course, to Myeong-dong Cathedral, while "another Catholic Church in Yakhen" is Yakhyeon Catholic Church, near Seoul Station.

The Russian legation once looked like this, but now only the tower stands (see here).

The British Legation still stands today, while the long-gone customs building stood near the old Shin-a Ilbo Building, according to a nearby plaque. The "New Methodist Church in Chongdong" still stands today as Chungdong First Methodist Church, while a later building from the 'Methodist School' [Paichai Hakdang] still exists today as the Appenzeller/Noble Museum (the building standing at the time of the Independent article can be seen here). The Japanese consulate (which was built in 1895 and stood on the northern slope of Namsan) can be seen here (fourth photo).

I've written about the Jeong-dong area before. Though Seoul may have been modernizing, neither that, nor the declaration that Korea was an empire later in 1897, saved Korea from being colonized by Japan. An interesting book being published this spring is Todd Henry's Assimilating Seoul: Japanese Rule and the Politics of Public Space in Colonial Korea, 1910-1945; an excerpt of the book can be read at the link. I imagine the book will incorporate some of his earlier writings about colonial Seoul, including "Respatializing Choson's Royal Capital: The Politics of Japanese Urban Reforms in Early Colonial Seoul, 1905-1919," a chapter in the book Sitings: Critical Approaches to Korean Geography. This chapter has a fascinating map showing the Japanese government's original plans for colonial Seoul, which included streets radiating out from a plaza along present-day Euljiro. The plan was never carried through, but one city in which such a plan was carried out is Jinhae; a 1946 map of the city can be found here (first result). Right next to Jinhae is Masan (actually, both cities were incorporated into Changwon a few years ago); here is a post about Masan's first modern buildings.

My, what a pointy nose you have...

Japanese airline ANA has apologized for this commercial.


 (From here.)

 Fun stuff. Big noses are a staple of depictions of westerners in Korea as well.

Never forget!

This would appear to be an apt soundtrack for this post...



A few weeks ago I heard banging in the hallway during class and realized that the 'airport-themed enclosure' near the English rooms was being torn down (by hand, using hammers and chisels).

 You'll never guess what replaced it:

That's right - a display about those islets and a TV with a live feed showing one of the islets - complete with the sound of the sea and wind (but not the sound of the police stationed there saying, "Golly, I'm so glad to be stationed here!").

It's kind of insidious really... a constant reminder of something that really isn't important in the larger scheme of things. Why not a live feed of Seoul Station plaza, and a reminder of the homelessness problem? Or a live feed of the empty area behind Yongsan Station, allowing students to question the hubris of developers and the folly of mega-development plans? Because that would be silly, and might cause people to start thinking about the wrong things. So hey, kids - don't ask what those islets can do for you; ask what you can do for those islets. Oh, and raise your middle finger to Japan while you're at it. Mansei!

Joongang Daily hopes Japan will "turn more proactive in banning racial discrimination"

So two weeks ago a Japanese court ordered the anti-Korean group Zaitoku-kai ["an association of citizens who do not tolerate privileges for Korean residents in Japan"] to stop a "hate speech" campaign and awarded damages in the case. As Agence France-Presse continues,

A civil court in Kyoto also ordered the group and its activists to pay some 12 million yen ($120,000) in damages to the elementary school run by affiliates of the pro-North Korean General Association of Korean Residents in Japan.

The Joongang Daily offered its suggestion to Japan in an editorial titled "Japan must act against hate."

A Japanese local court for the first time recognized hate speech as a crime, ordering an association of ultra-nationalist civilian groups campaigning against non-Japanese residents to pay damages to a school run by pro-North Korea residents in Japan. The court said the rallies and language used by Zaitokukai and its supporters, held near the school, were illegal because they go against an international treaty that bans racial discrimination. It is the first such case in Japanese judiciary history and will likely rein in activities that menace Korean residents in Japan as people can now file suit against hate speech and activities by anti-Korean groups.

Zaitokukai has recently been more blunt and aggressive in its protests and propaganda against non-Japanese residents, thanks to a passive response by the conservative government. Japan is a member of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination and yet does not punish racial discrimination. The latest court ruling was a civil case, not criminal. It remains unclear if the Japanese government and legislature could revise the law in order to create the legal grounds to punish racial discrimination. Tokyo rebuffed advice by the United Nations Committee on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights in May to draw up an anti-discrimination law, saying it does not have any bigotry that demands a law.

The Seoul government issued a statement that it strongly wished the ruling would help stop racial discrimination and other activities against ethnic Koreans.[...]

We hope Japanese society will turn more proactive in banning racial discrimination and hate speech. The government must also act to rein in the improper activities of Zaitokukai and other similar groups. [Emphasis added.]

I'm not entirely sure why the Joongang Daily pointed out that "Japan is a member of the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination and yet does not punish racial discrimination," because Korea is also a member of CERD -  and  has done even less in regard to racial discrimination, particularly in regard to citing to CERD, and also lacks an anti-discrimination law.

This may be the first use of CERD in Japan to punish hate speech, but it certainly isn't the first use of CERD to punish racial discrimination. It was in fact a case in 1999 - Bortz v. Suzuki - which first cited to CERD. In the case, a Brazilian woman who was told to leave a jewelry store sued the owner and eventually won damages of 1.5 million yen ($12,500). As this translated opinion points out, Asians in Japan are more likely to "experience subtler, perhaps more deeply-rooted, forms of discrimination," while non-Asian foreigners are more likely to "experience more overt forms of discrimination" such as "ejection from a store, denial of entrance into a store, rejection on a housing application, being shooed away."

These acts clash with notions of fundamental fairness that westerners expect in society. For the westerner, the lawsuit is the preferred method of restoring persons injured by such behavior. The challenge for Bortz was where to find relevant law. The Japanese Constitution prohibits discrimination based on race, but only for its own citizens. Bortz’s lawyer had the vision to invoke the U.N. Convention to End All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD), which Japan signed in 1996. Judge Soh Tetsuro likewise exhibited creativity in applying international law domestically, via tort law, to fashion a modest, but unprecedented, remedy for Bortz.

While the ROK has been a party to the ICERD since 1978 (18 years longer than Japan) and has declared that the treaty "has the same authority of domestic law and does not necessitate additional legislation," no court in Korea has ever cited to CERD, even when it has been brought to its attention (such as in this case). Japan, on the other hand, has had a handful of successful suits seeking damage for racial discrimination.

In addition, while Japan never signed the optional protocol which allows individuals to bring a case against the state itself, Korea did, but - again - it had never been used until the case of a foreign English teacher who lost her job for refusing to do an HIV test for contract renewal was accepted by the CERD committee last July. Not many people in Korea would know about this, of course since no media outlet - Joongang Ilbo included - reported on the case. And again, Korea responded to this case 9 months later - 6 months after the deadline. And as was noted here, in its reply

[t]he government neither denied that foreign teachers face mandatory HIV tests nor claimed the tests were necessary for public health reasons. In fact, it said nothing about the testing of foreign teachers upon entry, and countered that Education Ministry guidelines no longer require re-testing upon renewal of annual contracts.

Which is, to put it gently, completely untrue. But yeah, get your act together, Japan!


As Agence France-Presse notes,

In handing down the ruling, presiding judge Hitoshi Hashizume said the group’s actions "constituted racial discrimination as defined by the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination."

"The actions are deemed intended to arouse a sense of discrimination among the public toward Korean residents in Japan," he said.

Hate speech, per se, is not illegal in Japan. The civil court’s ruling turns on the racial element of the outbursts.

In the case of the teacher who lost her job for refusing HIV testing prior to bringing the case to the CERD committee, the CERD was cited in her complaint to the National Human Rights Commission and the Korean Commercial Arbitration Board, but was ignored by both. So, there is no way to appeal directly to the CERD Committee in Japan but courts will cite to it, whereas in Korea you can appeal to the Committee (and wait a long time for a response) but courts have never cited to it.

All of which makes the Joongang Daily urging "Japanese society [to] turn more proactive in banning racial discrimination and hate speech" rather hypocritical, to say the least, especially it makes very clear just whose 'human rights' it's concerned with:

It is the first such case in Japanese judiciary history and will likely rein in activities that menace Korean residents in Japan as people can now file suit against hate speech and activities by anti-Korean groups.

It might be more honest to say the paper - in very correct ethno-nationalist manner - is trying to promote 'Korean rights.'

Now, on the one hand, it could be argued that carrying out protests near a school where participants rant about wanting to kill all Koreans is more serious than passing discriminatory laws requiring drug and HIV testing, and it's certainly more threatening. The thing is, though, if xenophobes and racists get invited to contribute to immigration policy - as they have in Korea - why would they ever need to hold a vocal protest?

Back in early 2011, Anti-English Spectrum - which I will make clear no longer exists after its leader Lee Eun-ung left the website - posted a new introductory message at the top of their (or 'his,' really) site:

These are the goals of the Citizens for Upright English Education:

To realize English education completely taught by Korean English teachers.
The best method is to keep our children away from overheated private English education and throw out unfit native speaking instructors.

To realize a public education system in which the English teachers are all Korean, we must make an effort to compile a budget for Korean English teachers from the more than 300 trillion won of the English education budget wasted on keeping native speaking assistant teachers.

The way public education is now with native speaking instructors simply using their native tongue must disappear.

Also, to provide safe English education for our children, continual monitoring of unfit native speaking instructors should be implemented.

We will inform citizens of misunderstandings caused by native speaking instructors who create distortions, and will also inform about the existence of honest, hard working native speaking instructors.

Moving from depicting foreign teachers as AIDS-infected, drug-addicted, morally unfit child molesters in order to justify demands for ever-stricter health and criminal record checks (which were ultimately granted), by early 2011 they wanted "only domestic English teachers" in public schools, to "keep our children away" from foreign instructors in English hagwons ("overheated private English education"), and to "throw out unfit native speaking instructors" (ie. all of them), thereby ethnically cleansing the sphere of English education in Korea. You can't say they were being unclear about what they wanted, or that they were unambitious.

And if it seemed like they were thinking big, well, why not? They had already accomplished all of their other goals, like continued (and ever stricter) drug and AIDS tests for foreign teachers, demonization of foreign teachers by the media and politicians, and their influence of public opinion in regard to foreign teachers. They complained about 'drinking parties' at GEPIK orientations, got New Daily to report on it, and GEPIK changed its policy. By the end of 2011, the budget issue had already gained traction with enough provincial or city council politicians for GEPIK to dramatically slash its native speaking teacher budget and for Seoul to plan to do the same. So when Lee Eun-ung left the group in 2011, he could do so rest assured that the had accomplished most of his goals, and that to that point attempts to undo them had failed.

I have to wonder how many similar groups in Japan would be able to say that.

[Hat tip to Benjamin Wagner.]

[On a similar topic, Michael Hurt reminded me of this on Facebook last week.]

A “Cash” Transaction in Korea

Foreign correspondents in Korea during the Russo-Japanese War 

Part 1: From Japan to Korea
Part 2: In Seoul and Chemulpo
Part 3: Along the coast of Korea
Part 4: R.L. Dunn: Jack London knows not fear

I hope to return to this at some point - discovering that Collier's Magazine can be read online has lead me to find several new articles, especially those by the photographer R.L. Dunn, who accompanied Jack London and Frederick McKenzie as the first foreign correspondents in Seoul in 1904. Below is one of the more interesting photos and stories associated with Robert Dunn from that time, as published in the June 4, 1904 issue of Colliers.

A “Cash” Transaction in Korea

R. L. Dunn, Collier's special war photographer in Korea, wrestled with many hardships and obstacles in his march from Seoul to Ping-Yang. Some of them he expected and tried to forestall. Others he met as they befell. He had not reckoned with having too much money as one of the troubles of campaigning in Korea or anywhere else. The photograph, which shows Mr. Dunn in the middle background, does not explain itself, because it conveys the impression that he is examining a huge heap of sausage, possibly procured as an addition to his field commissary.

As a matter of fact, however, the photographer helplessly surveying a mountain of money three feet high and sixty feet around the base. It is Korean currency, copper coins, in strings of a thousand each, the kind of disk, with a square hole punched out of the middle, which was first used in China, and a few hundred or thousand years later borrowed for the fiscal system of the Hermit Kingdom. From fifteen to thirty of these "cash" are required to equal the value of an American cent. A string of a thousand will weigh several pounds, a dollar's worth will make a load for a strong man.

Mr. Dunn had no intention of stripping Seoul of its small change when he gave the fatal order to Kurita, his interpreter. He was making ready his outfit for the advance, and it occurred to him that a supply of native money would be indispensable, inasmuch as a good deal of forage and other supplies must be obtained along the way. In addition, Kurita assured his master that many necessaries on their list could be had only in districts further north, and that "plenty of money" must be packed along. “Plenty of money” meant at least two or three hundred dollars to the American bound on a campaign of weeks. But he told Kurita to go out and find change for one hundred and fifty dollars, and be quick about it.

The forenoon passed and no Kurita returned. He was needed for a dozen urgent errands, and the afternoon was nearly spent, before Mr. Dunn became uneasy, impatient, then alarmed. The interpreter must have absconded, and all the foreign correspondents in sight were rounded up as a searching party. It was useless to notify the native police, and the photographer and his friends did not delay for official justice to be awakened from its slumbers. Just as the expedition was starting forth, one of the hotel boys came running up the street, beckoning to Mr. Dunn, shouting breathlessly: "Come, look, see, master. Kurita no can do. Have got, but no can do."

The boy led the way to a courtyard in the rear of the hotel, where the hapless Kurita yelled for joy as he sighted the party:

"Plenty money, got him cheap," was the interpreter’s greeting. "What you wanchee me do now?"

In the words of Mr. Dunn, as he wrote about it in a letter to the office:

"It took me only an instant to realize that I was the proud owner of what looked like a whole city block of real money-money enough to sink a ship, money piled in heaps and heaps, money enough, you would think, to last a spendthrift a million years."

Kurita had filled the order, and the coolies had been staggering under their burdens of “cash” from every corner of Seoul to the courtyard since morning, while the native money changers had put up their shutters until they could renew their stock.
“I had the money all right,” says Mr. Dunn, “but what could I do with it? I could not carry it, and nothing short of an army could move it. We paced around the edge of the heap and measured sixty-odd feet of circumference, while the average height was at least three feet. Kurita insisted that twenty men were needed to guard my wealth, night and day, until I should be ready to move it.”

Mr. Dunn was ready and eager to take the field, so nothing else could be done than to take a few strings of “cash” for immediate wants, and leave the mountain where it lay until its owner should come again to Seoul. Kurita was authorized to employ a guard of worthy and brave men, of strictest integrity, and a score of them, standing watches in relays, hovered around the concentrated opulence when collier’s photographer and his interpreter hurried away to the front.

They returned two weeks later, to find that many strings of “cash” had evaporated, although the guards swore by a million-odd saints and devils of the Korean mythology that not one copper coin was lacking. However, when it came to paying the wages of the guards for two weeks, on top of the singular depreciation noted, the mountain of cash had melted almost to nothing. It was a fact that the heap of money had eaten itself up, and the only beneficiaries were the sentinels, who shuffled away, doubled over with the weight of installments of their wages, and later came back with carts to collect the remainder.