伊藤博文 와 韓國駐箚憲兵隊

Ito Hirobumi and the Japanese military police in Korea

This study aims to look into Ito Hirobumi’s awareness about the Japanese military police in Korea through the issues about Resident-General’s military authority, Resident-General’s subordination of Japanese military police in Korea, and supplementary military police system. Ito Hirobumi demanded the power of the Japanese military police in Korea under the condition of accepting the position of Resident-General so ended to face strong opposition of the military strongly arguing ‘independence of right to exercise supreme command’. However, there was no powerful figure to replace Ito and he succeeded in borrowing authority of the best commander, Meiji emperor and obtained concessions. In fact, Ito himself had active will to take the first Resident-General but the military authority was necessarily required to prevent the Japanese’ military’s vested rights ruling Korea through Russo-Japanese War. However, such Japanese military authorities in Korea as Hasegawa Yoshimichi didn’t accept that a civil servant Resident-General acquired their military power, and they opposed continuously even after the proclamation of Residency-General. The opposition of the Japanese military police in Korea was strong as they were planning to rule Korea by focusing on the military force from Russo-Japanese War. Such a situation led to weaker Resident-General power about the Japanese military police in Korea. Due to the military authority issue of Residency-General, Ito was against the Japanese military police in Korea but intensified Korea’s police to cope with the opposition instead of relying on the Japanese military police. Firstly, he tried to expand Korean civilian police so expanded advisory police and integrated Korean civilian police as one by focusing on Japanese police. Along with the expanded power of Korean police, Ito tried to secure the authority about the Japanese military police in Korea. He aimed to establish the right of the Japanese military police that is a military and police organization, instead of the Japanese military troops in Korea that expected his authority was opposed by them. General police affairs except for the military police were all subordinated to Resident-General by imperial order of Japanese Army of 1907, and arrangement, dispatch and even service regulation were controlled by Resident-General. Ito secured the authority of the Japanese military police in Korea and at the same time expanded the organization actually. This shows that Ito made an opportunity to intensify Korean police organization from the expansion of the civilian police to the expansion of the military police. Ito’s disappointment about Korean police that failed to prevent a righteous army’s struggle played a big role in such a movement. Amidst conflicts between the police and the military troop’ authority, Ito’s awareness was centered on the military police and then expanded the number of the military police actively according to the supplementary military police system, instead of repairing the Korean police.