The Japanese authorities will probably do two things.  They will order the closing of schools under various pretexts where Christian teaching is still maintained.  They will endeavour to secure the elimination of those missionaries who have shown a marked sympathy with the Korean people.  They have ample powers to prosecute any missionary who is guilty of doing anything to aid disaffection.  They have repeatedly searched missionary homes and missionaries themselves to find evidence of this.  Save in the case of Mr. Mowry, who was convicted of sheltering some students wanted by the police, they have failed.  Even in that case the original conviction has been quashed on appeal.  Such evidence does not exist, because the missionaries have been really neutral.  Neutrality does not satisfy Japan; she wants them to come out on her side.  Unfortunately her action this year has turned many away from her who tried hard up to then to be her friends.

XIII

TORTURE A LA MODE

“The main thing, when you are tortured, is to remain calm.”

The Korean spoke quietly and in a matter-of-fact way.  He himself had suffered torture in its most severe form.  Possibly he thought there was a chance that I, too, might have a personal experience.

“Do not struggle.  Do not fight,” he continued.  “For instance, if you are strung up by the thumbs and you struggle and kick desperately, you may die on the spot.  Keep absolutely still; it is easier to endure it in this way.  Compel your mind to think of other things.”

Torture!  Who talks of torture in these enlightened days?

Let me tell you the tale of the Conspiracy Case, as revealed in the evidence given in open court, and then judge for yourself.

When the heads of the Terauchi administration had made up their minds that the northern Christians were inimical to the progress of the Japanese scheme of assimilation, they set their spies to work.  Now the rank and file of spies are very much alike in all parts of the world.  They are ignorant and often misunderstand things.  When they cannot find the evidence they require, they will manufacture it.

The Japanese spies were exceptionally ignorant.  First they made up their minds that the northern Christians were plotting against Japan, and then they searched for evidence.  They attended church services.  Here they heard many gravely suspicious things.  There were hymns of war, like “Onward, Christian Soldiers” and “Soldiers of Christ Arise.”  What could these mean but that Christians were urged to become an army and attack the Japanese?  Dangerous doctrines were openly taught in the churches and mission schools.  They learned that Mr. McCune, the Sun-chon missionary, took the story of David and Goliath as the subject for a lesson, pointing out that a weak man armed with righteousness was more powerful than a mighty enemy.  To the spies, this was nothing