Page:Japan by the Japanese (1904).djvu/221
masters, who fled into the house of their chief and accused the soldiers of false crimes. Bin-ken-ko ordered the arrest of the would-be chief malefactors, and sentenced them to death. The garrison now rose in a body and ran to Tai-in-kun, who formally appeased them, but secretly agitated them into a general rising, having for its double object the massacre of the Queen and the members of the Bin family, and the clearing Corea of the hated Japanese. The soldiers seized the arsenal, and, joined by a mob of several thousand Coreans, attacked the Japanese Legation in the evening of the 23rd of July, 1882. On the next morning they killed the then presiding Minister, Li-sai-wo, in his house, and, intruding into the royal palace, killed the army financier, Bin-ken-ko, and other hated officials. The Queen and the other members of her party concealed themselves, and so did also the members of the Japanese party. The angry soldiers surrounded the King, and forced him to say where the Queen lay concealed. As he would not do this, his life was in great danger, when Tai-in-kun made his appearance, and, appeasing the soldiery, received from the King full power to dictate the civil and military affairs of the kingdom. During the ten days that followed, the political enemies of Tai-in-kun were proscribed, and killed to the number of 300. The Queen, too, was proclaimed to be dead, and the ceremony of Court mourning was gone through, for the purpose, it is said, of facilitating the discovery of her whereabouts.
The attack on the Japanese Legation in Seoul is narrated as follows by the military attaché, Captain Midzuno. Late in the afternoon of the 23rd the following anonymous note was received by the Minister Resident, Hanabusa:
‘In great hurry, cannot write long, a band of riotous people with soldiers on their side seem to be intending attack upon your Legation. Be prepared for defence, and should they come to actual attack, will a not be better for you to get out of danger even by the use of arms?’
A few minutes after six o’clock several thousand Coreans surrounded the Legation, and with loud yells, threw stones at its occupants. They set the neighbouring house on fire, and the conflagration was fast consuming the building of the Legation. Out of the twenty-five persons then found in the Legation, only Captain Midzuno, an orderly attached to him, one police officer, and five policemen, were armed. The policemen guarded the front gate, which was flung open while the Minister remained inside and prepared for departure. The inmates now formed themselves into a compact mass, and, with the Minister and the national flag in the middle, made a sortie into the very thick of the mob, killing about