[Exclusive] Japan attempted to take Gojong to Nagasaki

Documents show Gojong resisted the plan, Russian Czar Nicholas II opposed the plan, Roosevelt criticized it while acknowledging the protectorate treaty.

Japan attempted to take Emperor Gojong to Nagasaki during the 1904-1905 Russo–Japanese War, diplomatic documents obtained by The Korea Herald show.

The documents show how the Japanese viewed Emperor Gojong as a major obstacle to annexing Korea and planned to take him to Nagasaki. 

The plan is discussed in the various diplomatic dispatches. The documents also indicate active interest by various powers on the issue. The Russians opposed the plan, the British are said to have agreed with the removal the emperor as well as the annexation plan and President Roosevelt of the U.S. postponed his decision on the establishment of protectorate over Korea but criticized the plan to remove Emperor Gojong.

Gojong goes on an outing upon hearing the news of his son King Yeongchin's return from Japan. (Yonhap News)

  

A copy of the letter sent by Lev Urusov, Russian envoy in Vienna, to Agenor Goluchowski, foreign minister of the Austro-Hungarian monarchy on April 30, 1905. The underlined paragraph reads: “The foreign ministry has recently recognized, from a reliable source, that the Mikado government had the intention to transfer the Emperor of Korea to Japan and install him at a palace built for this purpose in Nagasaki.”

 

Karoly Fendler, lecturer of Korean history at Budapest University ELTE, Hungary

 

Jung Sang-su, history department research professor and lecturer at Myongji University (Lee Sang-sub/The Korea Herald)

Hand-copied pages of the 26-page report “Japanese intention to take the Korean Emperor to Mokko.” Karoly Fendler copied the content by hand because the Foreign Policy Archives of Russian Empire prohibits making photocopies. (Karoly Fendler)