By the late 19th century Japan had gone to great lengths to colonize Korea (feudal Joson dynasty) by mobilizing military forces.
To set the tone for the invasion of Korea, the then Japanese government orchestrated a plot to assassinate the empress of the country.
Early on October 8, 1895 a criminal act began to be committed under the command of Miura, the then Japanese diplomatic minister to Korea.
A group of murderers including Japanese troops, policemen and ruffians rushed into the palace after killing the commander of a regiment of the Korean royal guard. They sought out the empress among court ladies and dragged her to a large hall, where she was hacked to death with her body put on a pile of wood, sprinkled with petroleum and set on fire.
The murder of Empress Myongsong was a flagrant violation of the sovereignty of Korea represented by the monarchy, and it was a horrific murder unprecedented in history of the world.
The event caused a public furore at home and abroad, setting off a tide of criticism on Japan.
The Japanese government, upset by this, brought over 40 men including Miura to trial in Japan, a nominal trial that afterwards acquitted all of them under the pretext of “lack of evidence.”
After the event, Japan’s attempts to colonize Korea got more pronounced till it occupied the latter militarily.
During its military rule over Korea (1905-1945), Japan had drafted or abducted at least 8.4 million young and middle-aged Koreans to force them to do slave labour and serve as cannon fodder of its aggressive war.
As many as 200 000 Korean women were forced into sexual slaves for Japanese troops.
The human, material and spiritual damage inflicted by Japan upon the Korean people in the last century are so egregious and enormous.
Far from making sincere apology to and reparation for their past wrongdoings, however, Japan still fails to feel guilty for them and persists in its moves to distort its sinful history and modernize its military forces for reinvasion.
History remains unchanged and Japan’s crimes against humanity in the last century can never be erased no matter how much water flows under the bridge.
Jo Myong Sun
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