The Japanese had evidently set themselves to acquire possession of as much Korean land as possible.  The military authorities staked out large portions of the finest sites in the country, the river-lands near Seoul, the lands around Pyeng-yang, great districts to the north, and fine strips all along the railway.  Hundreds of thousands of acres were thus acquired.  A nominal sum was paid as compensation to the Korean Government—­a sum that did not amount to one-twentieth part of the real value of the land.  The people who were turned out received, in many cases, nothing at all, and, in others, one-tenth to one-twentieth of the fair value.  The land was seized by the military, nominally for purposes of war.  Within a few months large parts of it were being resold to Japanese builders and shopkeepers, and Japanese settlements were growing up on them.  This theft of land beggared thousands of formerly prosperous people.

The Japanese Minister pushed forward, in the early days of the war, a scheme of land appropriation that would have handed two-thirds of Korea over at a blow to a Japanese concessionaire, a Mr. Nagamori, had it gone through.  Under this proposal all the waste lands of Korea, which included all unworked mineral lands, were to be given to Mr. Nagamori nominally for fifty years, but really on a perpetual lease, without any payment or compensation, and with freedom from taxation for some time.  Mr. Nagamori was simply a cloak for the Japanese Government in this matter.  The comprehensive nature of the request stirred even the foreign representatives in Seoul to action.  For the moment the Japanese had to abandon the scheme.  The same scheme under another name was carried out later when the Japanese obtained fuller control.

It may be asked why the Korean people did not make vigorous protests against the appropriation of their land.  They did all they could, as can be seen by the “Five Rivers” case.  One part of the Japanese policy was to force loans upon the Korean Government.  On one occasion it was proposed that Japan should lend Korea 2,000,000 yen.  The residents in a prosperous district near Seoul, the “Five Rivers,” informed the Emperor that if he wanted money, they would raise it and so save them the necessity of borrowing from foreigners.  Soon afterwards these people were all served with notice to quit, as their land was wanted by the Japanese military authorities.  The district contained, it was said, about 15,000 houses.  The inhabitants protested and a large number of them went to Seoul, demanding to see the Minister for Home Affairs.  They were met by a Japanese policeman, who was soon reenforced by about twenty others, who refused to allow them to pass.  A free fight followed.  Many of the Koreans were wounded, some of them severely, and finally, in spite of stubborn resistance, they were driven back.  Later, a mixed force of Japanese police and soldiers went down to their district and drove them from their villages.