러일전쟁 발발 후 대한제국내 동향과 공주 진위대(公州鎭衛隊) 사건

Abstract

After the start of the Russo-Japanese War in 1904, as Japanese troops were stationed throughout the Korean Peninsula, and more Japanese were employed in the military operation and railway construction, clashes between Koreans and Japanese occurred frequently. Most of the incidents were caused by Japanese domination or criminal acts such as theft, assault, and murder. In order to conduct the war efficiently, Japan monitored public sentiment and trends in Korea. While the Japanese often blamed Koreans for conflicts between Korean and Japanese, they recognised that the number of thefts, assaults, and murders committed by Japanese, and anti-Japanese sentiment was growing among Koreans. Japan attempted to maintain “security” by increasing the number of police stations or dispatching Japanese garrison to areas where conflict was common.
 The “Jinwidae(鎭衛隊) Incident” in Gongju, Chungcheongnam-do, in September 1904, was similar in nature to incidents elsewhere at the time. In this case, a Korean and a Japanese resident of Gongju, Kan Shintaro, assaulted each other over a minor argument, resulting in minor injuries and damage. However, Japan used the fact that the Koreans involved were soldiers in the Gongju provincial army, Jinwidae and Korean government’s failure to act quickly as a pretext for military intervention. Immediately after the incident, Japan dispatched the Japanese garrison to arrest the soldiers and bring them to Seoul. The Korean government was concerned that the dispatch of Japanese troops would stir up public atmosphere in the Gongju area, and protested to Japan that the Japanese troops' arrest of the Jinwidae soldiers was an act that damaged Korea's national integrity, and engaged in diplomatic negotiations to calm the situation. For the next three months, Korea and Japan argued over the issue of punishment and compensation, but the two sides settled on punishing the Jinwidae soldiers involved in the incident and paying compensation.
 In order to bring Korea under Japanese power, Japan was pursuing a plan to not only win the war militarily, but also to reduce and eventually disband the Korean Army, making it completely dependent on Japanese military power. As Japan was movin g forward with these plan s, an in ciden t in volvin g a Jinwidae soldier in Gongju occurred, and regardless of the nature of the incident, which was a private quarrel and assault between two individuals, Japan responded militarily, spinning it as a demonstration of the “uselessness” of the Korean army.