Our nation and its sovereignty have been wretched from our grasp by the greed and deception of our neighbors. The people of Korea have been subjugated by a foreign power, and our natural resources exploited. Our national pride and history obliterated by a war that we neither won nor lost. This war, The Sino-Japanese War, officially began in August 1894. However, tensions have been brewing much longer. Since the 1870s, both China and Japan have controlled the majority of our economic markets (1). To "defend" these interests, both countries have had troops stationed in Seoul and other major cities. In 1884, a pro-Japanese group attempted a coup supported by Japanese troops. After an embarrassing defeat by our National Guard, Japan proposed the Li-Ito Convention, in which Japan and China agreed to withdraw troops from Koreas soil. Unfortunately, our nation was now sandwiched between these two great powers vying for supremacy, was vulnerable to attack. Our government was weak and the Tonghak Rebellion threw or nation into Chaos (2). At the request of Queen Min, China sent troops to help quell the rebellion. Japan viewed this as an opportune moment to seize control of Korea for itself. Under the pretext of protecting Korea and Japanese citizens in Korea, Japan dispatched 7000 troops to Korea (3). The War officially began with a preemptive strike at Asan Bay by Japanese war ships (4). Within a several months, Japan had won a series of decisive battles around Seoul and Pyongyang and had driven China back into Manchuria with a stunning naval victory at Weihaiwei, which destroyed the Chinese fleet (5). China was forced to sue for peace and sign the Treaty of Shimonoseki, which ended the Conflict (6). The Armistice paved the way for Japans annexation of Korea and established Japan as the new superpower in the East.

The during the Sino-Japanese War, Korea was used a pawn in competition for ascendancy between a rapidly modernizing Japan and the incumbent power, China. These two combatant nations determined the fate of Korea without the input of the Korean people. They monopolized trade and excluded Korean businesses (7). The war and the ensuing occupation destabilized the government. The rapid introduction of a "modernization plan by the Meiji Japanese, erased the memory of many of our historical achievements and created an infrastructure in the image of Japan. This blurred our originally distinct culture. The Sino-Japanese War redirected the course of Korean politics, economics, and culture. It created the sentiment that Korea no longer belongs to the Koreans. The following excerpt form Yi Sang-hwas "Does spring come to stolen fields?"(8) resonates this sentiment.
"The land is no longer our own
Does spring come just the same
To the stolen fields"

I, like many, ride the growing tide of nationalism, is time for the people of Korea to take control of our future. I am tired of many complaints and few actions. Why let ourselves be controlled when we as a nation have the power to control? We will no longer be the pawns of ambition.

Sources

1. Ki-baik Lee, A New History of Korea, trans. Edward W. Wagner, ed. Edward J. Schultz (Cambridge, Ma: Harvard Universtiy Press, 1984), 287.

2. Geoff Simons, Korea The Search for Sovereignty, (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1995), 115.

3. Ki-baik Lee, 289.

4. Ki-baik Lee, 290.

5. "Sino-Japanese War," [http://www.ox.compsoc.net/-gemini/simons/historyweb/sino-war.html], January 28, 2002

6. Onwar.com, "China Japan War 1894-1895"[http://www.onwar.aced/data/sierra/sinojapanese1894.htm], January 28, 2002.

7. David I. Stienberg, The Republic of Korea: Economic Transfprmation And Social Change,(Boulder:West View Press, 1989) 38-39.

8. Ibid

Images

1. Arts and Designs of Japan, "Our army attacking Pyongyang Castle during the Sino-Japanese War," [http://www.artsanddesignsjapan.com/cat21/text/58.html], January 28, 2002.

3. Louis Chor, "Map: The Seige of Weiheiwei," [http://www.ualberta.ca/~chor/whw1895.html], January 31, 2002.

2. Macau Museam, "The Treaty of Armistice of Shimonoseki," [http://www.macaumuseum.gov.mo/htmls/tempexhi/SinoJapan/Message_chi.htm], January 28, 2002.

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