he end of the Russo-Japanese War (1904-05) hastened the Joseon state’s demise. Tokyo’s victorious imperialists in parliament and the armed forces had long-term plans for ruling the Korean peninsula and a huge swathe of northern China. The vulnerable King Gojong, without an army to command and influenced by pro-Japanese courtiers, was driven into seclusion and his heir was little more than a puppet watched over by Japanese generals. Thewho had tried modernising the country in the 1890s were replaced by an influx of Japanese managers in every field, from banking to bureaucracy. Post-war economic hardship and the complete erasure of Korea’s independence triggered revolts across the peninsula, and these were put down by Japanese troops. The eubyong, or ‘righteous armies’, that sprouted outside cities were neither well organised nor supported by a foreign power, although the grumbling from Tokyo insisted the Russians were behind the trouble.
