On November 5, 2019, John Burton, Washington Columnist at Korea Times gave a talk as a part of GWIKS Special Talk Series on “Ernest Bethell and the Great Game in Korea.” Moderated by Yonho Kim, Associate Director of the Institute for Korean Studies at GW, Burton began the lecture with how he got interested in Ernest Bethell, and explained that he became interested in Korean history at the turn of the 20th century when the country was undergoing a profound transition from an isolated Confucian feudal society to one of modernity and at the same time Korea was becoming a target of great power competition when he first visited Korea in 1992.
He pointed out that there has been a growing interest in Ernest Bethell recently along with its 100th anniversary of the March 1st movement and an increased recognition of Bethell’s role in Korea’s fight for freedom. He provided the geopolitical and historical background that by the end of the 19th century, the great power rivalry had extended eastwards and to the Korean peninsula. Japan’s interest in the world was expanding after the Meiji Restoration, starting with Korea, because of its strategic geopolitical position while China was losing its regional influence. Meanwhile, Korean core had been in a state of near perpetual disarray due to a struggle for power among several leading aristocratic families.
Bethell’s family was a middle-class merchant family and moved to Kobe, Japan when Ernest Bethell was 15 years old. Burton pointed out the fact that there were a lot of opportunities for entrepreneur after the Meiji Restoration and that Kobe was open for traders with extraterritoriality and foreign trade dominating its export. He explained that Bethell enjoyed comfortable and financially secure life in Kobe where his uncle established the trading company. However, followed by the implementation of new anglo-commerce treaty that scrapped the foreign trade concessions and caused the local competition, foreign businesses were challenged by Japanese competition.
Burton demonstrated that Bethell had needed the new career path at the age of 31. Bethell worked for the British newspaper, Daily Chronical, during the Russo-Japanese War, and was a frequent contributor to the readers’ column. Burton introduced one of Bethell’s coverage on stone fight. While the British press released the favorable coverage of Japan, Bethell covered what he thought was right which was why he was fired by the Chronicle. He established the early Korean newspaper, The Korea Daily News (Daehan Maeil Sinbo in Korean) with Yang Ki-Tak. Topics covered in The Korea Daily News included righteous army, brutality of Japan in Korea, and Japan-Korea Treaty in 1905 where Emperor Gojong was forced to sign the treaty. Although he enjoyed the extraterritoriality as a British, upon Japanese Resdiency-Gerenal’s request, Bethell was prosecuted in the British Supreme Court for China and Corea. Burton demonstrated that Bethell took up the cause of Korean independence against Japanese annexation by founding a newspaper, and ultimately paid the price by being betrayed by his own government in the name of great power politics, which led to his early death.
Burton also introduced some of the other journalists who were sympathetic to Korean after witnessing brutality of Korea, including Soh Jaipil, and early Korean newspapers, including Chosun Shinbo, and Hwangseong Sinmun.
