Page:Political Condition of Japan.djvu/23

 in one day. Those who wanted to know the reason why they were expelled were instantly punished with the sentence of imprisonment for two or three years and were cast into a filthy Japanese prison, where they are deprived of all comforts. Kataoka Kenkichi, a prominent Japanese Christian, was one of those unfortunate men who were thus thrown into a Japanese dungeon. The prison officials refused to admit even the Bible to the prison.

What is the foreign policy of the present Japanese government? What have they been doing as regards Corea? They induced the Coreans, who were in favor of European civilization, to adopt European customs with the connivance of the Japanese Ministers. The Chinese government began to suspect some secret design of the Japanese government. When the former brought in their conservative influences, the two factions, the Chinese and Japanese parties in Corea, began to fight. The Japanese government interfered at first; but when the Chinese influences became powerful, it gave up those who were in favor of European or Occidental civilization to the vengeance of the other party. During the last troubles in Corea, the conduct of the Japanese Ambassador, who had the full confidence of the Minister of Foreign Affairs at home, was most curious as well as disgraceful. The progressive party tried to overthrow the Corean government, in which the Chinese element predominated. When the tidings came, the Japanese Ambassador, half dressed, hastened to the palace of the Corean King and gave instruction to the Japanese soldiers to come there. When he found that the Chinese soldiers also came, he surrendered the palace and ran away, leaving the King in the hands of the Chinese soldiers. When at last he came back to the Japanese legation in Corea, he was so nervous that he even refused to give protection to the Corean political refugees. After all this disgraceful conduct of the Minister, what did the government do? It found fault with the poor Coreans and compelled them to pay a few thousand dollars indemnity, although the whole blame lay with the Chinese soldiers, who came to the palace and attacked the Coreans and Japanese; yet the Japanese government would