The Japanese expected an uprising, and were all ready for one.  “Every man should be ready to fight and die in the cause of his nation’s independence,” they said tauntingly to the Koreans.  But the people’s leaders kept them in.  Up on the hills, the Righteous Army was still struggling.  The people must wait for better times.

One man stuck a proclamation on the West Gate, threatening death to the traitors.  Man after man, scholars, old soldiers, men who loved Korea, committed suicide, after telling of their grief.  “Why should we live when our land is dead?” they asked.

The Japanese sneered because the people did nothing.  “We may assume, indeed, that all fear of a national uprising is now past,” declared a semi-Government organ.  “The nation obviously has no leaders competent to execute and direct a crusade in the cause of independence.  Whether that lack is due to adroit management on the part of the Japanese or to unpatriotic apathy on the part of the Koreans we cannot pretend to judge.”

The Japanese decree announcing the annexation of the country was in itself an acknowledgment that the Japanese administration so far had been a failure.  Here is the opening paragraph:—­

“Notwithstanding the earnest and laborious work of reforms in the administration of Korea in which the Governments of Japan and Korea have been engaged for more than four years since the conclusion of the Agreement of 1905, the existing system of government of that country has not proved entirely equal to the work of preserving public order and tranquillity, and in addition a spirit of suspicion and misgiving pervades the whole peninsula.

“In order to maintain peace and prosperity and the welfare of the Koreans and at the same time to ensure the safety and repose of foreign residents, it has been made abundantly clear that fundamental changes in the actual regime of government are actually essential.”

The declaration announced various changes.  It abrogated all Korean foreign treaties, and brought the subjects of foreign nations living in Korea under Japanese law.  In other words, extra-territoriality was abolished.  The Government agreed to maintain the old Korean tariff for ten years both for goods coming in from Japan and abroad.  This was a concession to foreign importers whose trade otherwise would have been swamped.  It also allowed ships under foreign registers to engage in the Korean coasting trade for ten years more.

The annexation was put in the form of a treaty between the Emperors of Japan and Korea, as though the surrender of their land had been the act of the Koreans themselves, or their ruler.

His Majesty the Emperor of Japan and His Majesty the Emperor of
Korea having in view the special and close relations between
their respective countries and to ensure peace in the Extreme
East, and being convinced that these objects can best be attained