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The Missionary Activity of the Japan Congregational Church in Korea
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 November 2008
The Purpose of this essay is to portray the missionary activity which the Japan Congregational Church (Nihon Kumiai Kirisuto Kyōkai) undertook in Korea between the years 1911 and 1921, and the various criticisms raised against it from both inside and outside the Church (owing to limited space we shall treat only the period up to the 1st March Movement).In doing so we shall try to illustrate at least partially the general views which Japanese Protestants held about Korea at the time.
1 Also known as the ‘San'ichi Dokuritsu Undō’ (1st March Independence Movement) and the ‘Banzai Jiken’ (Banzai Incident): a movement to achieve independence from Japan launched in Seoul on 1 March 1919 by Korean intellectuals and students. It coincided with the funeral of the Li Emperor deposed by Japan, and quickly spread throughout Korea. In the ensuing suppression by the Japanese army and police some 8,000 Koreans died, 16,000 were wounded and 53,000 arrested.
2 See Ubukata Naokichi, ‘Yanaihara Tadao to Chōsen’ (Yanaihara and Korea), Shisō (Thought), September 1965; Itani Ryūichi, ‘Hisen no Shisō—Dochaku Kirisutosha Kashiwagi Gien’ (Pacifist Thought—The Native Christian, Kashiwagi Gien), May 1967; Andō Hajime, ‘Shokuminchi Dendō to Oda Yūji’ (Evangelization in the Colonies and Oda Yūji), Kirisuto-kyō Sekai (henceforth Sekai), September 1967; Jirō, ‘Yogensha Kashiwagi Gien’ (Kashiwagi Gien the Prophet), Kyōjo, serialized from January 1968.
3 See ‘Yoshino Sakuzō to Chōsen’, Vol. 25 (January 1968).Google Scholar
4 Editorial, , Sekai, 20 August 1903.Google Scholar
5 See Nihon Kumiai Kyōkai Benran, (The Manual of the Japan Congregational Church—hereafter referred to as Manual) published in 1905.Google Scholar
6 ‘Seishō no Sensō-Shugi’, Shinjin (The New Man) (the organ of the Hongō Church), April 1904.
7 ‘Saizen-Keiei, Sengo-no’, Shinjin, August 1904.Google Scholar
8 ‘Dōka Ron, Chōsen’, Shinjin, May–June 1905.Google Scholar
9 See my article ‘Yoshino Sakuzō to Chōsen’.
10 ‘Kankoku Dendō Ron’, Sekai, 15 August 1907.
11 In 1905, through the second Japan–Korea Treaty, Korea lost her diplomatic rights. However, the anti-Japanese faction in Korea dispatched a secret envoy from the Korean Emperor to the Second Hague Conference of 1907. The envoy was rejected, and the Korean Emperor forced to abdicate by Japan.
12 Watase, , Ebina Danjō Sensei Den, p. 362.Google Scholar
13 ‘Chōsen Dendō no Kompon Mondai’, Sekai, 8 September 1910.Google Scholar
14 ‘Chōsen Dendō no Igi’, Sekai, 29 September 1910.Google Scholar
15 Soroku, Ebara, ‘Nikkan-Heigō ni Tsuite no Shokan’, Shinjin, October 1910.Google Scholar
16 Masahisa, Uemura, ‘Dai Nikkan-Heigō ni Tsuite no Shōkan’ (Korea in Great Japan), Fukuin Shinpō (Gospel News), 1 September 1910.Google Scholar
17 ‘Chōsen no Kirisuto Kyō’, Fukuin Shinpō, 8 September 1910.Google Scholar
18 Uemura stated to Kashiwagi Gien that An-jung-kun, who assassinated ItōHirobumi, had sound and praiseworthy religious principles, and asked: ‘Have those who worship the rebels of Sakurada, who assassinated Ii Tairō any right at all to withhold their sympathy from An-jung-kun?’ (Kashiwagi Gien, ‘The Religion of An-jung-kun, the Assassin of Prince Itō’ in Jōmō Kyōkai Geppō, 15 August 1910.)
19 Yoshinori, Yoshioka, ‘Chōsen Heigō to Nihon no Seron’ (The Annexation of Korea and Japanese Public Opinion), Chōsen Kenkyū, 1965.Google Scholar
20 Masahisa, Uemura, ‘Chōsen no Dendō’ (The Evangelization of Korea), Fukuin Shinpō, 22 September 1910.Google Scholar
21 Aizan, Yamaji, ‘Iwayuru Chōsen Dendō no Igi’, Shinjin, October 1910.Google Scholar
22 Shōzō, Fujita, Ishin no Seishin (The Spirit of the Meiji Restoration), pp. 67ff.Google Scholar
23 Ubukata Naokichi, ‘Yanaihara Tadao to Chōsen’ (Yanaihara Tadao and Korea). Unfortunately, Mr Ubukata has failed to notice the decisive influence of Uchimura on Yanaihara's views on Korea.
24 Editorial of Sekai, 8 June 1910.Google Scholar
25 Watase Tsunekichi, ‘Chōsen Dendō Kaishi no Ki’ (On the Commencement of Missionary Activity in Korea).
26 Ibid., 3 August 1910.
27 This table is based on the one on p. 89 of the Manual of the Japan Congregational Church for 1919. But if we compare it with Table 2, it becomes apparent that the figures (especially the earlier ones) are not entirely reliable. But they can be used as a rough guide.
28 See the Manual for each year.
29 See also the Manual for each year.
30 Sekai, , 8 October 1914.Google Scholar
31 See the Manual for 1917.Google Scholar
32 See the Manual for 1921.Google Scholar
33 ‘Kumai KyōkaiJihei Ron’, Jōmō Kyōkai Geppō, 20 May 1931.Google Scholar
34 The amount was 8,000 yen, according to Kashiwagi's ‘Aete Kumiai Kyōkai no Eidan o Nozomu’ (I Demand that the Congregational Church Make a Firm Decision). See Jōmō Kyōkai Geppō, 15 November 1919.Google Scholar
35 See the Manual for 1915.Google Scholar
36 ‘Chōsen’ (Korea), edited by Kang-dok-sang, in Gendai Shi Shiryō, Vol. 25, p. 500.Google Scholar
37 ‘Chōsen Sōtoko-fu Shisei Nenpō’ (Annual Report of the Administration of the Government General of Korea) from 1918 to 1920.Google Scholar
38 Underwood, H. H., Modern Education in Korea (New York, 1926), p. 8.Google Scholar
39 See ‘Chōsen ni Okeru Kokken Kaifuku Undō’ (The Movement for the Return of National Sovereignty in Korea), in Chōsen-shi Kenkyū-kai Ronbun Shu, Vol. I.Google Scholar
40 See ‘Chōsen Sōtokofu Shisei Nenpō’.
41 See ‘Chōsen’ 1, ed. Kang-dok-sang.
42 Ibid., p. 13.
43 ‘Kumiai Kyōkai Jihei Ron’ (On Abuses within the Congregational Church).
44 As a factor which contributed to the rapid development of the missionary activity in Korea, we must not overlook the fact that there were some Korean ministers who acted like Baiben (compradors). For example, Hyeun-sun, minister at Seoul Sang-don Church, came to Japan as a member of a group of Korean ministers in July 1911 and asserted in his speech that the task of Japanese and Korean Christians at the present moment ‘is to get rid of all ill-feeling and grudges… and to achieve national solidarity in the true sense of the word’. ‘Chōsen ni Okeru Kirisuto-kyō’ (Christianity in Korea), in Sekai, 10 August 1911. But Hyeun-sun soon abandoned this standpoint and began to participate in the 1st March Movement positively.
45 ‘Kumiai Kyōkai no Chōjin Dendō ni Kanshi Yuasa Jirō-shi no dan'wa’ (Interview with Mr Yuasa Jirō on the Japan Congregational Church's Missionary Activity in Korea), Jōmō Kyōkai Geppō, 15 November 1919.
46 Gien, Kashiwagi, ‘Jihei Ron’, Kumiai Kyōkai, Jōmō Kyōkai Geppō, 20 May 1931.Google Scholar
47 As to Kashiwagi Gien, Takeda Kiyoko had earlier written ‘Kashiwagi Gien no Shinmin Kyōiku Hihan’ (Some Criticisms of Kashiwagi Gien's Subjects' Education) in Ningen-Kan no Sōkoku; but it was not until Itani Ryūichi wrote ‘Hisen no Shisō—Dochaku Kirisuto-sha Kashiwagi Gien’ that the main outlines of the life and thought of this estimable man were put into print. See also the series of articles by Iinuma Jirō entitled ‘Yogensha Kashiwagi Gien’ (Kashiwagi Gien the Prophet), in Kyōjo. As to Yuasa Jirō, there is only one book, called Yuasa Jirō, (1932) which consists of a short biography and various people's recollections of Yuasa, edited just after his death; and a full-scale study has yet to be attempted of this unique, rebellious person who was the champion of Jiyū-Minken Undō and the leader of the Movement for Abolishing Prostitution, who gave up his seat in the Diet (of which he was an original member) and began to run Dōshisha University after Niijima's death, and was also fairly successful as a businessman.
48 See the Manual for 1914.Google Scholar
49 Kashiwagi Gien, ‘Watase-shi no “Chōsen Kyōka no Kyūmu” o Yomu’ (On Reading Mr Watase's ‘The Urgent Task of Educating Korea’), in Jōmō Kyōkai Geppō, 15 April 1914.
50 Gien, Kashiwagi, ‘Omoi Izuru Mama’ (As I Remember) in Jōmō Kyōkai Geppō, 25 July 1932; and Kashiwagi's diary 4 October 1913.Google Scholar
51 See footnote 49.
52 ‘Dendō, Chōsenjin’, Jōmō Kyōkai Geppō, 15 November 1911.Google Scholar
53 'Man-Khan o Shisatsu Shite', Chūō Kōron, June 1916.Google Scholar
54 For further details, see my ‘Yoshino Sakuzō to Chōsen’.
55 Jōmō Kyōkai Geppō, 15 April 1914.Google Scholar
56 Jōmō Kyōkai Geppō, 15 March 1915.Google Scholar
57 See Yoshino's letter to Kashiwagi at the time of Yuasa's death, in Jōmō Kyōkai Geppō, 20 September 1932.Google Scholar
58 Part II of this article will appear in the next issue of Modern Asian Studies. Translation of this article has been made possible by a generous grant from the Japan Foundation Endowment Committee.
