Korea (Hamilton)/Chapter 21

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It is difficult for us in England to understand how far-reaching may be the evils, resulting from the complete failure of the rainfall, in countries where the population relies upon it for their daily bread. A brief mention, in the Press, of the lateness of the monsoon gives no sign of the anxiety with which many millions of people are regarding the approaching harvest. Water means life to the rice-fields, and a drought implies, not alone the failure of a staple crop, but famine, with disorder and starvation, disease and death, as its accompaniments. A drought in the rice-fields makes a holocaust of the people in the winter. The forces of law and order at the disposal of the Government of India place some restraint upon the populace. In the Far East, where the civil administration is ​incompetent to deal with the exigencies of the situation, and the systematic dispensation of relief is unknown, the decimation of the population and the complete upheaval of the social fabric follows closely upon the break-down in nature. Indirectly, too, the consequences of famine in India prove this.

An even more emphatic evidence of the effects of a drought, where the population live upon the rice crop, is afforded by the appalling loss of life and the grave eruption of disorder, which took place in Korea as the consequence of the famine in 1901. Widespread ruin overtook the country; the inland districts were thronged with mobs of desperate people. Persons, normally peace-loving and law-abiding, banded together to harass the country-side, in the hope of extorting sufficient food to keep their families and themselves from starvation. Hunger drove whole communities from the villages to the towns, where no provision for their welfare existed. Anarchy prevailed throughout the country, the dire needs of the population goading them to desperation. A horde of beggars invaded the capital. Deeds of violence made the streets of Seoul unsafe after darkness, and bandits carried on their depredations openly in the Metropolitan Province. From a peaceful and happy land of sunshine and repose, Korea was transformed, in a few months, into a wilderness of misery, poverty, and unrest.

The measures for relief were quite inadequate, and although rice was imported, large numbers of the people, lacking the money with which to buy it, starved to death. The absence of an efficient organisation in the face of this further disaster increased the confusion. Before any arrangements could be made for their relief, several ​thousands had died. More than 20,000 destitute people were discovered in Seoul, out of a population of rather less than 200,000. Reports from the provincial centres disclosed a relapse into a state of absolute savagery in many rural

districts. Famine, pestilence, and death stalked abroad in Korea for months, and many, who escaped starvation, lost their lives subsequently in the great wave of disease which swept over the land.

It is impossible to believe that the famine would have assumed its late proportions had the Government of Korea maintained its embargo against the exportation of cereals from the country. There can be no doubt that the withdrawal of this prohibition contributed to the scarceness of the food-stuffs which were procurable by the people, when their straits were most severe. Mortality returns from the ​areas devastated by the famine prove that the welfare of more than one million persons was affected. The action of Japan, therefore, in insisting upon the suspension of the prohibition in order that the interests of some half-dozen Japanese rice merchants might not suffer, deserves the utmost condemnation. The primary responsibility for this great loss of life rests entirely with the Japanese Government. In terrorising the Government of Korea into an act, the consequences of which brought death to one million people, the Japanese Government committed themselves to a policy which traversed alike the dictates of reason and common sense, and outraged every principle of humanity. The impartial observer must hold Korea guiltless in this matter. It is, indeed, deplorable that the vehement opposition of the Korean Government was not respected. Nevertheless, the incident is valuable, as an illustration of the objectionable attitude which distinguishes the Government of Japan in its relations with Korea.

At the beginning of the drought the inhabitants of Seoul believed that the Rain God was incensed. The Emperor and his Court offered expiatory sacrifices upon three occasions. As the rains were still withheld a period of penance was proclaimed, in which prayers and fastings were ordained, the populace ceasing from every form of labour and relapsing into a condition of supreme idleness. Unhappily, while the great mass of the people refrained from work, the Emperor continued to employ many hundreds of labourers upon the construction of the new Palace buildings. This proceeding was held by the superstitious subjects of His Majesty to account for the singular inclemency of the Rain Demon, and some anxiety was felt in the capital lest the usual calm of the city should be broken by riots. These ​horrors were spared to Seoul, however, by the fortuitous visitation of a passing shower. Men and women resumed their toil, rejoicing in the belief that the evil influences had been overcome. It was, however, but a brief respite only that was granted. In a short time the drought prevailed throughout the land, drying up the rice-fields, scorching the pastures, and withering the crops. Under this baneful visitation, the circumstances of the people became very straitened. Hundreds were reduced to feeding off the wild roots and grass of the wayside, and isolated cases of cannibalism were reported.

The exceptional character of the drought lends interest to the hydrometrical records for Chemulpo from 1887 to the middle of 1901, which were forwarded to the bureau by the correspondent of the Physical Observatory, St. Petersburg. The rain-fall given is for the years 1887 to 1900, inclusive, and the first half of 1901; the snow-fall is reduced to the proportion of water which the melted snow would make. Professor H. Hulbert has pointed out, however, that in estimating what is or what is not a proper amount of rain, it is necessary to know in what season of the year the rain has fallen. Thirty inches of rain in November would be of less value to the rice-fields than half that amount if it fell in June. In the cultivation of rice, rain must fall at the proper time. Otherwise it is valueless, and, although adding to the actual measurement of the fall, a very considerable deluge, under these conditions, would be of no material advantage to agricultural interests. ​

YEARS	RAINFALL	SNOWFALL	TOTAL	FOG	RAIN	SNOW
	inches
1887	30.86	2.00	32.86	13d 3h	19d 17h	4d 2h
1888	20.91	2.15	23.06	14d 5h	12d 6h	3d 3h
1889	28.18	0.91	29.09	25d 13h	25d 5h	5d 9h
1890	47.00	1.06	48.06	12d 18h	27d 10h	0d 64h
1891	41.04	1.66	41.70	13d 5h	30d 20h	3d 7h
1892	34.04	1.20	35.24	15d 20h	16d 10h	4d 6h
1893	50.64	3.55	54.19	31d 5h	36d 6h	8d 11h
1894	31.81	0.64	32.45	33d 18h	21d 9h	1d 8h
1895	31.88	2.06	33.94	32d 7h	29d 11h	6d 17h
1896	31.08	5.15	36.23	51d 7h	27d 0h	2d 0h
1897	48.35	3.23	51.58	24d 5h	31d 17h	4d 18h
1898	37.80	4.73	42.53	31d 14h	29d 19h	5d 15h
1899	25.07	2.05	27.12	———	18d 19h	1d 3h
1900	29.14	0.83	29.97	———	21d 2h	0d 20h
1901	7.09	0.06	7.15	7d 5h	3d 7h	2d 0h

I give, also, the rainfall during the years 1898-1901, at the period when a plenteous rain is of supreme importance to the rice industry:

Year	June	July	August	Total
1898	4.5	10.0	11.0	25.5
1899	8.5	7.5	6.7	22.7
1900	2.0	6.2	4.5	12.7
1901	0.3	2.7	1.1	4.1

In a rice-growing country such as this is, it is essential that an adequate supply of rain should fall during the three summer months to allow of the seed-rice being transplanted and to ensure the maturing of the grain. In 1901, owing to the lack of water, the bulk of the seed-rice was never transplanted at all. It simply withered away.

It is, of course, inevitable that one of the immediate ​results of famine should be a general increase of mortality throughout the country. The impoverished condition, to which so many thousands of Koreans were reduced, weakened their constitutions so seriously that, in many cases, even those who were fortunate enough to escape starvation found their powers fatally impaired. There were many whose inanition and general debility, resulting from their deprivations, had rendered them peculiarly susceptible to disease. More particularly was this the case in the inland districts.

Under normal conditions, malaria is, perhaps, the most common disease in Korea. It prevails in all parts of the country, but it is specifically localised in sections where there are numerous rice-fields. Small-pox is nearly always present, breaking out in epidemic form every few years. Nearly all adults, and most children over ten years, will be found to have had it. Leprosy is fairly prevalent in the southern provinces, but it spreads very slowly. While this disease presents all the characteristics described in the text-books, the almost imperceptible increase, which distinguishes its existence in Korea, is strong presumptive evidence that it is non-infectious.

The great enemy of health is the tubercle bacillus. The want of ventilation, the absence of sanitation, and the smallness of the houses, foster this little germ. Tubercular and joint diseases are common; also fistula, hare-lip, diseases of the eye, throat and ear. The most common disease of the eye is cataract; of the ear, suppuration of the middle drum, in the great majority of cases the result of small-pox in childhood. Cases of nasal polypi are also very numerous. Hysteria is fairly common, while epilepsy and paralysis are among other nervous disorders which are encountered. ​Indigestion is almost a national curse, the habit of eating rapidly large quantities of boiled rice and raw fish promoting this scourge. Toothache is less frequent than in other countries; diphtheria and typhoid are very rare, and scarlet fever scarcely exists. Typhus, malarial remittent fever, and relapsing fever are not uncommon. Venereal disease is about as general as it used to be in England.

In short, there is a preponderance of diseases which result from filthy habits, as also of those produced by the indifferent qualities of the food, and the small and overcrowded houses. Most of the diseases common to humanity present themselves for treatment in Korea.