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ABSTRACT
This article examines the coverage of Sun Yatsen’s pan-Asianism speech in November 1924 by three colonial-era Korean daily newspapers (Dong-A Ilbo, Chosun Ilbo and Mai-Il Shinpo), in the context of the events immediately before and after the speech. My interest lies in illuminating how Sun’s message was interpreted differently by these dailies. On the one hand, the Dong-A Ilbo, as a nationalist newspaper, sought to evoke anti-Japanese sentiments and the desire for national independence in its readers through Sun’s voice. For the Dong-A’s Korean readers, Sun was a symbol of anti-colonial nationalism. On the other, the Mai-Il Shinpo, which was published by the Japanese colonial government, reported enthusiastically on Sun’s pan-Asianism speech to promote the idea of Japan–China cooperation and a Japan-centred regional order in East Asia. A closer examination of Sun’s anti-colonial and pro-Japanese political stance and how these newspapers interpreted his pan-Asian vision provides an opportunity to reconsider how political East Asia was envisioned differently from the Korean, Japanese and Chinese perspectives. In addition, analysing Sun’s speech, in which a Sinocentric mindset was incorporated into the newly conceptualised trans-national vision, deepens our understanding of the complicated relationship between nationalist and internationalist thinking in East Asia.
Notes
1. The Romanisation of the names of these newspapers follows what they chose at that time as their English names.
2. Dong-A’s ardent interest in Sun’s trip to Beijing led on one occasion to the publication of a report by an unconfirmed source. On Sun’s departure from Shanghai for Japan, Dong-A’s correspondent in Shanghai sent a telegraph report to his employer, which was printed in Dong-A on 23 November 1924 and stated that Sun might visit Korea on his way to Japan. Sun did not in fact visit Korea. This report evidently reflects Dong-A’s enthusiastic response to Sun and his trip. As this report indicates, his trip made the news in Korea.
3. Sun’s visit to Japan in November 1924 can also be understood as an endeavour to gain Japan’s political and financial support, prior to his talks with the newly established Duan Qirui government and the influential northern warlords who backed Duan, such as Zhang Zuolin. The Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs did not approve of Sun’s plans, as both Duan and Zhang were pro-Japanese and Japan supported Duan’s government. Therefore, the Japanese government did not endorse Sun’s visit to Tokyo. As a result, his visit was unofficial and limited to Kobe (Pae, Citation1996, 151; Yang, Citation2005, 317).
4. Sun was even reported to have offered Manchuria to Japan in return for Japanese aid against Yuan Shikai. According to a Japanese industrialist, he was prepared to include Mongolia as well in return for support from Japan. The Japanese side turned down his offer (Schiffrin, Citation1980, 197).
5. As discussed by Smith (Citation2014, 18–19), Chen (Citation2010) provides a renewed conceptualisation of Asia as a region from a non-Japanese perspective and Li (Citation1992) is a representative book-length treatment of Sun’s pan-Asianism.
6. After he arrived in Tianjin on 4 December, he could not travel further to Beijing due to illness, which later turned out to be liver cancer. He was advised to rest and undergo medical treatment in Tianjin and limited his participation in political activities. At that time, the political situation in Beijing was rapidly changing and was not as he had expected to find it. Most importantly, with the support of Feng Yuxiang and Zhang Zuolin, a new government was formed and Duan was appointed the head of the government on 24 November. The launch of the new government significantly limited the scope of Sun’s political negotiations with the northern warlords. Although they were still open to talks with Sun, any further delay from Sun’s side was unacceptable. So, after a long delay in Tianjin, he finally travelled to Beijing by a special train on 31 December. However, he was unable to make a speech to the huge crowd that had gathered at the Beijing railway station to greet him, and only waved his hat to them. By then, his health had severely deteriorated. After arriving in Beijing, he was on bed rest, and political activities seemed impossible. Despite undergoing surgery for his liver cancer, he did not recover and died on 12 March 1925 (Pae, Citation1996, 149; Citation1997, 195–196).
7. Dong-A started to dispatch correspondents to foreign countries in 1924. Before then, the newspaper would temporarily dispatch its reporters in Korea to foreign countries only when needed (Yi, Citation2017, 65). Like Dong-A, Chosun dispatched Kim Tong-sǒng and Yi Sang-ch’ǒl to China in late 1924 to cover the military upheaval in northern China (Kim, Citation2014, 76).
8. ‘Wen’ is Sun Yatsen’s original given name.
9. The same Dong-A page also featured a photo of Sun and his wife on their arrival in Kobe.
10. At that time, Dong-A took a negative view of discourses about the alliance of Asia, as these were mostly proposed by Japan, a country the newspaper viewed as an imperialist and expansionist power that was hindering the formation of the alliance. For example, see its editorial on 2 May 1924. Dong-A also pointed out on 18 July 1924 that the current movement to form an alliance among Asians would fail, as the movement had originated in and was led by Japan and therefore would not receive a positive response from the people of other Asian nations.
11. Sometimes the column was written in Esperanto.
12. Dong-A’s first English-language column on 1 December 1923 was entitled ‘A message to the world’. The column started with a statement that ‘[t]he world must have been waiting for a voice from the Korean people. There has been, indeed, no means by which it might have kept in touch with the heart of this isolated people’. It went on to say that ‘[w]e, on our part, have an innumerable series of stories of our own life to tell the world, and also innumerable cases of our own affliction to put before the court of human conscience and sympathy … How anxiously have we been wishing to let the world know of them!’ This English-language column was translated into Korean as well. The Korean translation was printed on the front page of that day’s edition.
13. As reported by Dong-A on 23 November 1924, Sun expressed his pro-Japanese, pan-Asian views even before he arrived in Japan. Upon departing Shanghai for Japan, he released a statement to the Japanese people in which he stressed the need for the Japan–China alliance to rescue China and for unity of the entire yellow race to protect themselves against Western powers and to bring peace in East Asia. In the statement, he said that the reason he was going to Japan was to listen to the Japanese government and Japanese people’s opinion on his ideas. Meanwhile, Dong-A’s article on 27 November reported that Sun’s pro-Japanese leaning provoked opposition to his visit on the part of Chinese people living in Kobe. According to the article, having noticed the anti-Sun atmosphere, the local Japanese police became concerned. The article went on to say that anti-Sun seditious leaflets were distributed in downtown Kobe on 24 November, so, while searching for the suspects, the police were vigilantly guarding Sun. A report on the anti-Sun atmosphere and the distribution of anti-Sun leaflets in Kobe had been run by Chosun one day earlier. The articles in Dong-A and Chosun were almost identical, because both were based on the same telegraph report sent from Kobe. On the same day, Chosun ran a short article reporting that the police, worried about the anti-Sun atmosphere, had tightened security inside and outside the Oriental Hotel, where Sun was staying. On 27 November, Mai-Il also ran an article on the anti-Sun leaflet distribution.
14. For detailed information about the censorship apparatus and censors, see Chŏng (Citation2005) and Pak (Citation2007).
15. Aside from confiscation, sometimes parts of English-language columns were erased, as seen in the column, for example, on 6 November 1924.
16. The 21 demands were put forth by Japan in January 1915 to gain special privileges in China. China was forced to reach an agreement with Japan in May of that year. This agreement created a surge of anti-Japanese sentiment in China.
17. Dong-A’s criticism of government censorship was articulated in another English-language column, published on 14 November 1924 under the title ‘Censorship’.
18. Next to this report, Mai-Il printed a portrait of Sun with the caption, ‘Mr Sun Wen, asserting the unity of Asian nations’.
19. The reception of Sun’s pan-Asianism speech in Taiwan, another colony of Japan, was somewhat different from that in Korea. Whereas his speech was unacceptable to Dong-A and Chosun, Taiwanese journalists and intellectuals, who were much better acquainted with him than were Koreans, responded more contemplatively. They tried to understand the speech not on a separate or stand-alone basis but as part of the great body of writings and other speeches that he had produced. The difference between the speech’s reception in Korea and Taiwan was also related to the different approaches taken by intellectuals in Korea and Taiwan towards national independence. For the most part, Korean intellectuals placed ultimate importance on national independence. However, Taiwanese intellectuals at the time were primarily interested in achieving autonomy, be that independence or some other form of autonomy within the Japanese Empire or within Greater Asia (Smith, Citation2014, 281–282).