Queen MIn---The assasination of Queen Min

The third party's account of the assasination

Sabatin wrote down in detail what he saw and reported the incident to the Russian government. Sabatin wrote that the palace guards did not fire a single shot at the invaders and ran away, while the palace ladies in attendance stood ground. The women were thrown around but nine of them cried or tried to flee. Sabatin was captured by the Japanese and a Korean officer told the Japanese that the Russian should be killed.

At about six o'clock, Sabatin broke away from his captors. On the way out, he passed by King Kojong's father conversing with the Japanese envoy and the German envoy. The old man was all smiles, apparently satisfied with the queen's murder. The Japanese attempted to bribe Sabatin into silence but he refused and left Korea in the following year. Sabatin's eyewitness account remained buried over a century until a Korean researcher discovered it.

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In the account,
the architect, who did not know what the empress looked like, describes her as a court lady in the final paragraph. `The raid of the castle started at 5 o'clock in the morning,'' he writes. ``The sound of roaring voices came from outside the northeast gates. From hearing their fluent speech, there is no telling that they had rehearsed beforehand. Soldiers guarding the palace had already fled. Five Japanese guards and an officer stood before the doors to the queen's chambers. At that time a troop and 20-25 men in traditional Japanese attire or western-style suits stood in the courtyard.

``Having been seized by soldiers myself, when I was standing in the courtyard I saw 10-12 court ladies being dragged by their hair before they were thrown out the window. Not a single court lady let out a cry to break the complete silence. In the last moments to the 15 minutes I stood in the courtyard, five Japanese men snarled as they rushed into the chambers only to be seen dragging out one court lady by her hair.''

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Eyewitnesses to the drama, which took place in Kyongbok Palace on October 8th, 1895, such as a Russian architect Seredin-Sabatin, made it clear, however, that several court ladies were killed on that early morning only because the assassins did not know exactly what the Queen did look like

Tatiana M. Simbirtseva

This document is a small part of Minister Waeber's bulky report
on the Queen Min affair, and the only part of it that I have actually
seen. An article in the on May 10, 1995, citing Imperial
Russian archives, presented a document similar to the one given here, but
with various differences in detail, some of them contradictory. The
document is not specifically identified, appears not to
have been given in its entirety, and may be a different document from the
one given here. The Center is making an effort to obtain the entire file
of Waeber's report, which reportedly contains some 150 pages, to clarify
this and other issues.
GARI LEDYARD, CENTER FOR KOREAN RESEARCH, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY

Imperial Russian Legation, Seoul 1895, Telegram 211, Appendix
VI:

Testimony of the Russian citizen Seredin-Sabatin,
in the service of the Korean court,
who was on duty the night of September 26

After returning home, I learned that one of my Chinese
acquaintances had come by to warn me about some trouble that
was to take place in the palace the next night. But I paid no
special attention to this warning, and left for the palace at
7:00 the next evening. Again I ran into the above-mentioned
Chinese, who tried persistently to dissuade me from proceeding
to the palace, and in particular advised me not to stay there
overnight. However, the Chinese could not provide me any
concrete explanation for his warning. All I could get from
his rather incoherent and broken talk was that some kind of
plot was being prepared, that this plot was to be implemented
this very night, and that the Korean soldiers were the main
culprits.
In the palace, there was not the slightest sign of trouble,
or of any preparations for such. As night fell, only the
guards remained to stand by the wall and on the paths. The
only Europeans who stayed overnight in the palace were General
Dye and myself. At four o'clock in the morning, the Colonel
of the Palace Guard, Yi Hagyun, burst into our office and
declared that the whole palace was surrounded by rebelling
soldiers. I had been sleeping with most of my clothes on, so
I quickly collected myself and went outside to see what was
happening. However, I heard no noise anywhere, and everything
appeared calm. But a little later, General Dye came out and
asked me to accompany him to the nearest gates. We set out on
the path along the wall to the northwestern gate. In the
bright moonlight, we could clearly see through the wide cracks
in the wall that there was a detachment of Japanese soldiers
deployed several steps back on the other side of the wall;
they were standing almost motionless, chatting among
themselves in very low voices. But upon hearing our steps and
voices and noticing us watching them, they split up and
reformed on either side of the gate so that we could hardly
see any of them. Realizing that we could not learn anything
more here, we rushed to the opposite northeastern gate, where
we saw gathered in front of the gate a mob of approximately
three hundred Korean soldiers from among the troops being
newly trained by the Japanese. Judging by their numbers, they
must have constituted the major striking force of the Korean
soldiers surrounding the palace. Having now confirmed that
this was a matter of serious concern, we hurried back to the
inner palace, where the alarm had already been sounded.
General Dye immediately began to develop measures for the
defense of the palace, but unfortunately none of them could be
carried out. There was no one in the guard room, Captain Chin
was absent, the rest of the officers and some of the guards
had also gone off somewhere, and the guards that remained were
uncooperative. It was a madhouse: no one paid the slightest
attention to the orders of their superior.
Suddenly, at five o'clock in the morning, we heard gunshots
in the western palace grounds. Several Korean soldiers had
placed logs and ladders against the palace wall, climbed over
it, then penetrated the inner palace wall. At the very first
shots, the guard patrols all fled, and most of the other
palace guards followed suit. As the soldiers crawled over the
wall and unlocked the gates for their co-conspirators, General
Dye, having assembled a few guards who had remained, managed
with great difficulty to deploy them in defense of the
palace. However, when the coup plotters who had broken in
through the southern and northeastern gates fired repeated
gunshots (they were aiming their guns into the air, evidently
not wanting to kill but only to scare away), these palace
guards scattered in all directions, drawing along everyone who
happened to be in their way. Some ran to the gate where
General Dye was standing, while another group rushed through
the gate where I was standing, pushing me along with them in
through the wall of the royal compound, and had almost turned
the corner of the king's European-style house when they were
met with gunfire. The whole crowd of them then rushed back
and turned to the door connecting the king's and queen's
private chambers, where I noticed at once several Japanese in
peculiar gowns who were running back and forth as if they were
looking for someone. In the middle of the inner courtyard,
there was a detachment of 40 Korean soldiers headed by a
Japanese officer. In addition, each of the two doors, one
leading to the park and the other to the inner part of the
palace, was guarded by two Japanese soldiers. Just at that
moment, I was squeezed against a small wooden extension of the
building, and I grabbed instinctively for boards to keep my
balance. The mob then ran past me and disappeared into the
park. I remained, the only outside witness of the drama which
was taking place in the queen's chambers.
The courtyard where the queen's wing was located was filled
with Japanese, perhaps as many as 20 or 25 men. They were
dressed in peculiar gowns and were armed with sabres, some of
which were openly visible. In command was some kind of
Japanese with a long sword, apparently their chief. While
some Japanese were rummaging around in every corner of the
palace and in the various annexes, others burst into the
queen's wing and threw themselves upon the women they found
there. They pulled them out from inside their windows by the
hair and dragged them across the mud, questioning them about
something.
Fearful of a feint by the Japanese against myself as an
eyewitness to their outrages, I went up to the Japanese
officer standing nearby and asked, in English, for his
protection. When the Japanese officer did not understand me
or pretended not to understand me, I tried to explain myself
in my broken Japanese. He turned away at once and left,
seemingly letting me know that I would be there on my own. My
attempt to address the Japanese guards also bore no fruit;
they simply pretended not to notice or hear me. Then I
resolved to address the Japanese chief. I explained to him
the precariousness of my situation and asked him to provide
someone who could help me get out of the palace. After
hearing me out, the Japanese asked me, "What is your name?" I
gave him my name. "What is your profession?" --"Architect."
--"All right, we will not touch you." He called over two
Korean soldiers, who were apparently also under his command,
and ordered them to guard me. "Stand still on this spot and
do not move," he added to me, and then left to give further
orders to his men.
I stayed where I was, and continued to observe the Japanese
turning things inside out in the queen's wing. Two Japanese
grabbed one of the court ladies, pulled her out of the house,
and ran down the stairs dragging her along behind them. They
were running fast, and then took a few extra steps and came
to a stop right in front of where I was standing, just thirty
feet from the house. Only at that moment did they notice my
presence, and immediately addressed a question to me. I
responded that I could not understand Japanese and pointed to
the two soldiers guarding me. After talking to them, the
Japanese went away, leaving me unharmed. Just then a Korean
acquaintance of mine, who served in the palace as a scribe or
secretary, came into the courtyard. Seeing me in such unusual
circumstances and at the very center of the trouble, he was
positively overcome with shock and surprise. But he quickly
composed himself and ran off to catch up with the two Japanese
who had just left. He must have told them that, far from
being an architect, I was employed at the palace, and
therefore might well know its interiors and inhabitants. Both
of the Japanese, and a new one who had just joined them, ran
up to me again, grabbed me by my gown, and dragged me off to
the queen's chambers, demanding that I show them where she was
hiding. Moreover one of the Japanese repeatedly asked me in
English, "Where is the queen? Point the queen out to us!" I
tried to convince them to leave me alone because I did not
know and could not know where the queen was. But they did not
listen to me, and just kept repeating, "Where is the queen?
Point the queen out to us!"
To my great luck, the Japanese chief showed up again close
by. He noticed what was happening to me and at once
approached us. The Japanese and the Korean who had dragged me
in there began to tell him something in Japanese. He then
turned to me and said harshly, "We cannot find the queen. You
know where she is! Point out to us where she is hiding!" I
asked him to hear me out, and explained that not only did I
not know where the queen was, but because of the secluded life
of Korean women of the upper classes, I had never actually
seen her, and that this was the first time in my life that I
had ever found myself in the queen's wing. The chief seemed
to accept my arguments. I asked him to let me go. He agreed,
and gave me two soldiers, who, in order to avoid new
encounters with the Japanese soldiers deployed along the
central path, got me out of the palace by secondary paths.
While passing by the main Throne Hall, I noticed that it was
surrounded shoulder to shoulder by a wall of Japanese soldiers
and officers, and Korean mandarins, but what was happening
there was unknown to me.

GARI LEDYARD, CENTER FOR KOREAN RESEARCH, COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY

“…civilians …guarded by Japanese officers and soldiers, with a number of soldiers in Corean uniform… [took] possession of the King and the Crown Prince while others made for the Queen’s sleeping room…The Queen ran off down a corridor, but was pursued and knocked down, her assassin jumping on her breast several times while he repeatedly stabbed her with his sword…”

Extract from despatch No. 86 dated 10 October 1895, from Seoul to Peking concerning the fate of the Queen of Korea:

the photo


After the assasination

fearing an outcry of condemnation from abroad, it sent a special envoy to Seoul to inquire into the facts. Foreign Minister Miura and some forty-eight others were placed under arrest and taken to Hiroshima and imprisoned
The investigation into the Queen Min affair by the Japanese Court of Preliminary Inquiries clearly showed the guilt of Miura and others. Nevertheless, it reached the astonishing conclusion that, "...there is not sufficient evidence to prove that any of the accused committed the crime originally meditated by them." Despite the efforts of Clarence Ridgeby Greathouse, the American legal advisor to King Kojong, all of the men were acquitted on the grounds of insufficient evidenceproject

李周會,Korean vice-minister of the national defence at the time of the incident,who was also an aid to Taemon, confessed. As a result, 李周會,Korean first lieutenant 尹錫禹、朴鉄 at the time of the incident were sentenced death penalty in Korean court.They were hunged dead.

jiji

toron
dreamtale理栄会

李周會と尹錫禹と朴銑/dreamtale

当該裁判宣告書の記載された官報、陰暦1895年（開国504年）11月14日（新暦1895年（明治28年）12月28日）付は下の通り。裁判宣言書


公州府永同郡　日本人雇
被告　朴銑
26歳

漢城府北部壮洞　前軍部協辨
被告　李周會
52歳

漢城府北部弼雲臺　親衛隊副尉
被告　尹錫禹
40歳


右被告たる朴銑、李周會、尹錫禹等に対する謀反事件検事の公訴に由り審理する処、被告朴銑は本来薙髮洋服にて日本人と仮称し行跡訝ヶ敷者なるが、開国504年8月20日暁の事変に被告は日本人と共に乱徒中に混同し光化門より突入せし時、洪啓薫が拒み逆賊と称せし故を以て剣にて其臂を撃ち、直に殿閣房屋に至り坤殿の御所に突進し手を以て髻を捽して軒端に曳至り剣にて胸を揕せし後、黒褖衣にて巻き石油を灌き焼火したりと、弑逆せし次第を手にて形容せしこと歴々たりと云へる金召史の告発に由り被告を拿訊せしに、被告は一向抵頼すれども、掖属の十目を掩ひ難く、証人が丁寧に断言する所なり。


まずは朴銑に関して。
朴銑は元々、散髪して洋服を着てI'm zapaneseしている行いの訝しい者だったが、閔妃殺害事件に関し朴銑は日本人と共に乱徒の中に紛れ込み光化門から突入した時、洪啓薫がそれを拒んで逆賊と言ったため、剣で洪啓薫の腕に切りつけ、直に坤殿の御所に突進してもとどりをつかんで軒端に引いてきて、剣で胸を刺した後黒褖衣で巻いて石油を注いで火を付けた、と。
髻を捽して軒端に曳至り剣にて胸を揕せし後、黒褖衣にて巻き石油を灌き焼火したりについては、対象が明記されていませんが、閔妃の事でしょうね。

で、この弑逆した次第を細部にわたって述べる金召史の告発によって朴銑を逮捕訊問したところ、本人はしらばっくれたが、周囲の目を隠すことはできずに証人が丁寧に断言した、と。
つまり、本人は否認しているのに目撃証言で罪に問われる形になるわけです。


又、被告李周會は本年8月20日暁の事変に、迎秋門より入り直に長安堂に抵り、王太子殿下と王太子妃殿下を保護し即時退出したりと申立つるも、被告が初度の口供中に、忽ち砲聲の闕内に起るを聞き、平服にて光化門に向ひたるに堅く閉ざしあるを以て転じて迎秋門より入りたるに、番兵寂然として許多の闔門にも攔阻する者全く無かりしにより、当日変乱の事故を探究すれば、暴徒の做事設謀は是の如く疏漏なりと云ひしこと理に近からざるの辞にして、再度の口供中に闕内に闖入する際辰居門に至りしに、適々武監10餘名乱兵等に逼逐せられ列砲中危に濱したるを見、高聲にて手を揮ひたるに、彼輩が即時に武監を釈るして他処に散走したるとあり、彼輩猖獗せる場合に当り被告は何の術ありて一揮手一号令にて能く凶徒を禁遏すること是の若く容易なるべきか其由を究むれば、凶徒と締結せし情跡掩ふべからず。
3回目の口供中、凶徒が被告の号令を甘受して解散せしこと事適々湊会して同心之跡を免れ難し。
此れ乃ち、自分が終命之秋なりと自服せり。


続いて3人の中では一番有名な李周會について。
李周會は、事件当日迎秋門から長安堂に到着し、王太子つまり純宗とその妻を保護して直ぐに退出したと言うが、李周會の第一回の供述では光化門は固く閉ざされていたので迎秋門から入ったが、番兵はひっそりとしており多くの闔門でも妨げる者が全く居なかった事から、暴徒の謀計はこのように疎漏であると言うのは、道理に合わない言葉だ、と。
また、再度の供述中では、闕内に闖入する時に辰居門に差しかかった時に、武監10名余りが乱兵に迫られて危機に瀕しているのを見て大声で手をはらうと、乱兵は他へ逃げていったとあり、乱兵が猛威をふるっている時に、何故李周會の一揮手一号令で簡単に凶徒に禁じて止めさせる事ができるのかといえば、李周會が凶徒と組んでいた形跡は隠すことができない。
3度目の供述では、凶徒が李周會の号令を受けて解散したとの事も、また凶徒と組んでる形跡が見られる。
ということで、自白したも同然だろ、と。

In my opinion , Miura and Daewongun orchestrad the assasination behind the scene.Japanese and Korean soldiers were involved.

↑ GK17289_00I0006韓国官報 資料請求番号　奎17289 GK17289_00I0006　開國五百年十一月十四日　 號外 1. 裁判宣告書 http://e-kyujanggak.snu.ac.kr/GAN/GAN_SEOJILST.jsp?ptype=list&subtype=02&lclass=17289&mclass=&xmlfilename=GK17289_00I0006_0015.xml http://147.46.103.182/OIS/GAN/VIEWER.jsp?xmlfilename=GK17289_00I0006_0015&tablename=KYS_GAN_N_TBL
↑ 閣議決定案 第317号 1896年 4月 25日 第317号で李周会以外の朴銃、尹錫禹に関しては無罪として、補償金200円を出している。 別紙로 法部大臣이 청의한 朴銑의 伸寃과 尹錫禹의 褒贈과 그 恤金에 관한 건은 朴銑은 무고하므로 伸寃이 가하고, 尹錫禹는 무고에 의한 것으로 그 官을 복귀하고 褒贈과 恤金은 內閣總理大臣이 별도 供議하기로 결정됨이 가함. 朴銑의 伸寃과 尹錫禹의 褒恤 건은 각의 결정한 취지가 있어, 尹錫禹의 恤金은 200元으로 그 유족에게 下付하고 復官 후 貤贈之典은 上裁를 삼가 청하므로 각의에 供함

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