일본정부와 조선 내정의 개혁안(1894.6)

Japanese Government s Proposal for Reforming the Korean Government

The aim of this paper is to examine Japan s East Asia policy from the late May to the middle of June in 1894. On the 30th of May the Japanese government made it clear that it would send its troops to Korea if China decided to send its forces to Korea. The dispatch was expected to suppress the Donghak forces and secure Japan s exclusive control over Korea by carrying out the reform of Korean internal affairs. On the second day of June, however, the Japanese government decided to send its troops to Korea immediately even if the dispatch of Chinese forces was not yet decided. Again it moved back and reached the conclusion that it would send its troops only as a response to the Chinese provocation of war. Consul Odori was summoned and it decide to send its troops led by Oshima to Korea. At first Odori opposed the entry of Japanese forces into Seoul, but later he dropped his moderate position toward China as Japan discarded its cooperative stance with China on the thirteenth day of June. A few days later Japan carried out the forced reform of the Korean government by itself. The Japanese move amounted to an official declaration of war against China. Ito Hirobumi, Mutsu Munemitsu and the military played a major role in carrying out Japan s East Asia policy. My research shows that three major players shared a goal of making Korea Japan s protectorate and cooperated with each other in their efforts to find ways to suppress peasants rebellion and intervene in the Korean internal affairs. This fact raises serious doubts about the previous views that Ito who favored the cooperation with China suppressed successfully the hard-line policy of Mutsu and the military, the Japanese government simply followed the military hard-liners, or the Japanese government was driven to war against China by the public opinion.