한말 일본군의 의병 진압과 의병 전술의 변화 과정

Abstract

The ‘Righteous army’(義兵) uprised at the first time in 1895 against the Japanese infringement of Korean sovereignty, ‘the murder of Korean Queen’, and ‘the Royal decree’, ‘the Order of Cutting Hair’. It uprised again in 1904 against the Japanese violation of Korean territory before and after the Russo-Japanese War, and Its anti-Japanese struggle continued about 10 years in Korean Peninsular since then. Many Righteous Army soldiers including patriotic militia were slaughtered by Japanese troops especially since the compulsory winding-up of the Korean Empire army in August, 1907. This writing is aimed to comprehensively reconstruct the strategy and tactics of the Righteous troops against Japanese assaults and suppression especially focused on the Honam province after the compulsory winding-up of the Korean Empire army. Here we are analysed the various materials which is possessed by the National Institute of Defence Studies, Ministry of Defence including ‘the Camp Journal of the 14th Infantry’, the documents of Japanese stationary troops HQ in Korea, and ‘the Jeon Hae-san’s diary’ during the war, so-called ‘the Righteous Army War’. The station of Japanese army in Korean peninsular since the Russo-Japanese War meaned the all-side military domination of Japanese imperialism over Korean people. Therefore, the clash of both the militia supported by Korean people and Japanese stationary troops was not avoidable. The Japanese government dispatched military forces of a brigade including the 14th infantry regiment to Korea in July, 1907 which were placed in the southern provinces of Korea peninsular in order to suppress the ‘local militia’. The Japanese garrisons in Korea continued to exercise the big military operations to suppress and slaughter them in the middle and southern part of Korean peninsular since August, 1907. They operated against the militia including the dispersed Korean soldiers in serial order clockwisely first in Kyonggi & Kangwon provinces, second in north Chungchong & north Kyoungsang provinces, third in south Kyoungsang province, and last in Honam(Jeolla) province. They operated partly in the northern part of Korea, ‘Hamkyoung’ province, but importantly concentrated upon the entire suppression over the militia in the southern part of Korea. They considersd the southern militia as the obstacles of the colonial domination over Korean peninsular by Japanese imperialism. A large number of Korean people including the militia of ‘the Righteous Army’ were slaughtered for the first one year since the compulsory winding-up of the Korean Empire army in August, 1907. The total number of the slaughtered militia is 12,597 persons, which was recorded in the remained document of the Japanese stationary army in Korea. The factors of the victory of Japanese troops were their modern weapons, the better-informed system and intelligence activities, the better transportation system like the railroad. But the wrong strategies or tactics of the ‘righteous militia’ also was one of the reasons their great defeat. The Honam militia who realized the limit of the earlier strategy and tactics of the militia tried to find out the new way for a long time resistance. The compulsorily dispersed soldiers joined the local militia in Honam province. They avoided the large encounters with the Japanese troops, and developed the guerilla attacks. They tried to collect the miliary supplies through the cooperative ties with the local residents, and obtained the relatively safe base camp with their assistances. They also promoted the information gathering against the enemies. They tried to obtain the modern & better developed weapons by all means, and were trained under the leadership of the ex-soldiers of the Korea Empire. Honam militia resisted for two years in spite of the strong and non-stop suppression of Japanese troops. After all, Japanese government decided to dispatch the infantry brigade from Japan to Honam province, Korea in May, 1909 in order to suppress entirely the Honam militia, and planed a finely worked-out, so-called ‘the great operation for Honam suppression’ in September & October, 1909. Finally the Honam mlitia were suppressed. That meaned the downturn of the Righteous Army War as one of Korean nationalist movements since the Russo-Japanese War. But the Righteous Army succeed to the struggle of the Korean independent Army against the rule of Japanese Imperialism before August 15, in 1945.