2
1st. Monday. Cloud most of the day.
3
Seoul home. About 23 Centuries ago a young King of one of the warring states of China asked the sage Maing Ka: How is the world to be settled in peace?(天下惡乎定) . The sage answered: Unification will settle it. (定乎一) . The King again asked: Who can unify it?(孰能一之) . “He who doesn't love killing can unify it". (不嗜殺人者能一之) Replied the sage. As a matter of fact it was not a pacifist or one who didn't love killing people but a Great killer Chin Shi Whang, who built the Great War, that unified the world then known to the Chinese. A little more than a century ago Talleyraud, the great French diplomet asked Wellington if he knew if a country where a weary old Frenchman could spend his remaining days in peace. "By God, I don't know" was the prompt answer of the Iron Duke. A poor Korean woman who went to Kanto 10 or 12 years ago to find a better country that Korea, asked her father after she had recounted the hardships she and her husband had experienced in Kanto infested with bandits, communists, independents etc.―"Father, where can we find a land of peace?"
5
2nd. Tuesday. Very hot. Bright.
6
Seoul home. Glad to hear our brother Chi Wang and family in Kyoto are all safe.
8
3rd. Wednesday. Cloud a.m.
9
Seoul home. Heavy showers last night and early morning. One shower between 12 and 1 p.m. and another between 3 and 4.
11
4th. Thursday. Pretty. Hot.
12
Seoul home. 10:30 a.m. had a chat with Mr. Wilbur who had just returned from a trip to Manchuria, visiting with Mr. Harmon and party the Y.M.C.A.s in Mukuden, Hsing King, Kirin, and Harbin. Mr. Wilbur's plan is to go to Shanghai in case the Chinese Y. there agrees to pay him just enough to make up the difference between the favorable rate of exchange here and the depreciation of the Japanese Yen in Shanghai In Seoul he gets ￥300.00 for ＄100.00 while in Shanghai he will get only ＄90.00 Chinese silver for ￥100.00. In case he doesn't go to China, he will visit America for two months; then return to Korea to help the Korean Y. Mr. Wilbur is a gentleman and he is wanted everywhere.
14
5th. Friday. Cloud a.m.
15
Seoul home. 5 p.m. the Central Y. Board of Directors had its regular meeting. Koo's reports in all departments were full and encouraging. Rev. Park Yong Hui. one of Cynn's Positive Bandits having resigned, a substitute had to be elected. Mr. Koo and I wanted to put Dr. G.L. Paik on the Board. But Mr. Yi Man Kyu was elected.
17
6th. Saturday. Sun. Hot
18
Seoul home. 11 a.m. went to the Completion Ceremony of the Chosun Il Po Building. A four storied structure; cost ￥320,000.00 including the site.
19
The handsome auditorium was comfortably full. The Vice Governor was present and read an address. Mr. Kwon Dong Jin and I were asked to make the congratulatory speeches. Was surprized not to see any of the Dong-A-Il-Po's staff present. Hyon D.W. tells me that no invitation was sent to the Dong-A Office at all. If true, I wish the Chosun Il Po had been more generous. As it is the war between the two papers has become acute and open.
21
7th. Sunday. Sun and cloud.
22
Seoul home. 9:00 a.m. with 璋, 埼, 珽, went to Chemulpo for sea bathing. The two elder boys seemed to enjoy swimming after a year of city life during which they hadn't seen the sea. Returned to Seoul by 4:10 train.
23
The Municipal office observed(or had it observed) a week of antiepidemic propaganda, with lanterns, posters, little flags on autos and street cars. One of the things this sanitary week recommends to the people is to catch flies. All very good. But how about the night soils and garbage bins which the city authorities neglect to remove for weeks in the streets or sections of the city where Koreans live thickest? The city authorities collected recently near ￥20,000.00, to set up big lamp posts on both sides of the Bell Street. The Central Y. had to pay ￥350.00 for the honor of having two lamp posts in front of the Y. building. In the mean time some of the streets and alleys in the Korean sections are simply abominably neglected in measures of sanitation. The moment these sections or streets are occupied by Japanese residents the authorities will all of a sudden awaken to the fact these streets must be kept clean for the happiness and prosperity of the dear Korean!!!
26
Seoul home. The hottest day so far. 95°F.
28
9th. Tuesday. Very hot.
29
Seoul home. Italy is determined to Koreanize or Manchurianize Ethiopia. Mussolini is sending troops, airplanes etc. to Eritria to be ready to bounce upon the black kingdom to make it a protectorate. That race or nation which refuses or fails to adapt itself to the changing conditions of the world so as to make itself strong enough to defend its rights―as Japan has done―that race or nation simply invites to be Koreanized or Manchurianized. Why blame Italy? If she doesn't annex Ethiopia some other Power will do it.
31
10th. Wednesday. Rain from 8 a.m.
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Seoul home, Mr. Wada and Mr. Yi Joo Yon of the First H.C. School callde 1 p.m. That school needs a new building which will cost something like ￥300,000.00. The Governor of Kyong Ki Do asked Mr. Wada to raise half of the sum from the Koran Community of Seoul. Prince Yun Yong Koo or rather his son subscribed, or promised to give ￥100,000.00 which he had no power to give since all his property is in the custody of King Yi Household! Another fellow promised to give ￥100,000.00. if he sold his family treasure for ￥500,000.00. or more! Won In Soo, however, has given ￥20,000.00. in hard cash. Mr. Wada wants me to get the Korean papers interested in the school so as to drum up some subscriptions.
34
11th. Thursday. Rain a.m. Cloudy―Steamy p.m.
35
Seoul home. Over three weeks my dear Dr. Dentist has been tinkering with my teeth. He is turning my teeth into a gold mine―especially for himself, I suppose.
36
The Osaka Mai-nichi Correspondent in Adis Abbaba writes that Italy will have a tough time in conquering Ethiopia. The people is warlike. The climate is tropical so much so that an Italian soldier can't stand it long. The country is mountainous. Water is scarce. Above all the King is wise and brave. Mussolini must be intoxicated with success and power as Napoleon was when he invaded Russia. I hope the Ethiopians will teach Mussolini a lesson that Italy will never forget.
38
12th. Friday. Rain. Intermittent showers.
39
Seoul home. Lunch at the Lily Garden. Pastor Won Ik Sang called and talked for 2 and half an hours. He intimated that his anti-Cynn group is thinking about sending a delegation to Henry Appenzeller and his sister to ask them why they keep Cynn on their school boards. He also asked me the names of the members of the Committee who are helping Pak In Duk in her rural work, so, called. He evidently intends to urge the Committee to discontinue their co-operation in her work as she is unworthy of the confidence of her American patronesses. I tried to convince Mr. Won that neither the Appenzellers nor the foreign members of Park. I. D.'s Committee will notice his protests or warnings until Cynn and Pak scandal has been legally proved.
41
13th. Saturday. Showers on and off.
42
Seoul home. Weak peoples, individuals and nations whine about the fact that Might is Right, or Might makes Right. But when you think about it, Might is a commodity which a nation pays for with immense price. Think what Japan, for instance, had to pay to get her "Might". She sacrificed some thing like 400,000 men and untold amount of treasure in two great wars to climb to the position where her might not only defends her rights but where she can safely take the rights of other peoples with her might. She didn't pick up her might as the last King of Korea picked up his independence, so called. Sixty years of incessant and intelligent efforts in which the whole nation of 60 millions acted as one man for one supreme object―that of making Japan a might nation―did the wonder. For this the Feudal System which kept alive the war-like spirit of the nation for 20 Centuries must be thanked.
44
14th. Sunday. Misty rain a.m.
45
Seoul home. 9:00 a.m. went to Chemulpo with Joseph for the hot sea-water bath. Returned by 11:20 a.m. train.
47
15th. Monday. Pale―Steamy
48
Seoul home. Mr. Imaida, the Vice Governor General invited a few representatives of Confucian, Buddhist, and Christian Communions to an informal conference on the best means and ways for "Developing Heartfield"(心田開發) viz: the best means for promoting the spiritual welfare of the people. Mr. Niwa and I were only two Christians. The room is so big for such a small group that I couldn't catch much that was said. A Confucian scholar advanced the opinion that Confucian ethical teaching are best suited for the purpose. The Buddhist priests said that the religious needs of the Korean people can be best supplied by Buddhism. Mr. Yi Nung Wha said that since all religions have different objectives of worship, the Korean people can unite in worshipping the Heaven which is believed by all religions. Mr. Niwa said something about the campaign which the Japanese Christians had started last year for deepening personal experience in religious life. The Vice Governor General entertained the group to a lunch at the Chosen Hotel.
50
16th. Tuesday. Beautiful. Hot.
51
Seoul home. Heat tempered by south westly breezes. Over 110 people gathered in 大西館 to celebrate the 100th Anniversary of the death of 丁茶山.
53
17th. Wednesday. Sunny. Hot.
54
Seoul home. Jung Da San Whose memory we honored last night was one of the greatest scholars Yi Dynasty has produced or rather persecuted. He was suspected being a convert to Christianity and his enemies did everything to make him miserable. But for the kind sympathy of the King, Jung Jong, who appreciated the great merit of the scholar he might have been killed. He spent 16 years in exile. He left valuable manuscripts in 70 volumes on many varied subjects.
55
Even now people who belong to "Noron" party refuse to read or buy his book simply because he was a Nam-in.
57
18th. Thursday. Beautiful. Hot
58
Seoul home. 6 p.m. to Myong Wol Kwan where about 50 or more people gave a supper party in honor of Mr. Pak Sung Bin whose book on "Korean Language Study" 朝鮮語學 has just come out. He spent nearly 18 years on it. He re-wrote the whole book four times before the final copy was sent to the Press. He is a thorough working and close-thinking man.
60
19th. Friday. Steamy. Hot.
61
Seoul home. Shintoism is the cult of Loyalty. Its gods are the reigning Mikado and his ancestors who have one and all descended from the Sun Goddess. The Japanese nation holds on this Religion-of-Loyalty making devotion to the Devine Dynasty the cardinal virue of every Japanese. This Imperial-god worship more than any one simple force, enabled the Loyalists to effect the Meiji Restoration; it unified the once divided kingdom of Feudaldom into one patriotic unit that worked out by the wisdom and courage of the galaxy of great statesmen and wariors. The wonderful Meiji Revolution; it fought and won the wars with China and Russia. The Japanese leaders are leaving no stone unturned to revive and restrengthen this worship of Loyalty to prevent the ancient system of the Japanese nation from being sapped and disintegrated by the damnable Communism. That's all right. But the official efforts that are being made to make the Koreans to believe in the Shinto doctrines of the Sun-Goddess and other goods are rather too premature. You can make a man bow his head but you can't make him believe a doctrine by sheer force.
63
20th. Saturday. Cloudy. Heaty.
64
Seoul home. 6 p.m. a farewell tea given in the Central Y. in honor of Mr. Wilbur who is to leave for Shanghai soon.
67
Seoul home. Rain from last night all day today. 9 a.m. with 璋, 埼, 珽 went to Chemulpo for sea bathing. Children enjoyed swimming very much. Returned by 4:10 p.m. train.
68
One of the chief items of income to Aga Khan, a Mohammedan Prince of India whom his followers regard as a divine being is to sell the water he has bathed in. When a famous Buddhist priest of Japan makes tour in the interior the simple hearted villagers bottle away the water he bathes in either to put it into their bath-tub or to drink it as medicine(?) . About 30 years ago a cheat named Chai Dong Ji(蔡同知) pretended his saliva had certain medical virtues. People, especially women, crowded around him to have cakes covered with his saliva.
70
22nd. Monday. Cloud. Rain to 8 a.m.
71
Seoul home. Brother Chi Chang tells me that Mr. 佐伯, the Chief of Provincial Police Bureau again asked him the other day through Jung Jai Hup to lend(?) ￥1,000.00, this time for his private use. Chi Chang further told me that he had given ￥2,000.00 for the Si Joong Hoi and ￥1,000.00 for the Jujitsu Hall in the Police department. I fear he gave too much.
74
Seoul home. Rain from about 10 last night―all night and all morning.
75
Tremendous rain between 7and 10:30 p.m. Had to go to brother Chi Chang's home by 10:40 gasoline car to celebrate the 1st Anniversary of his boy's birthday. Rain stopped about 1 p.m. Water rose 30 feet at the Han Kang Pedestrian Bridge. The villages along the river at Dook-Sum, Mapo and Suh Kang had hundreds of houses submerged. One is forcibly reminded of the flood of 1924(乙丑年) .
77
24th. Wednesday. Steamy and Hot.
78
Seoul home 8:30 attended the second conference which the Vice Governor General convened to discuss the means of promoting the Spiritual Welfare of the People. The conference was held in the office of the Chosen Shrine. Mr. 申錫麟 suggested among other things, that the Imperial Rescript on Education(敎育勅語) should be read three times a months in all schools.
79
Mother went to Song Do this afternoon for the Summer. 璋善 and 琦善 also accompanied her.
81
25th. Thursday. Sunny. Hot.
82
Left Seoul 8 a.m. for Song Do. Mother well. Returned to Seoul with 璋善 and 琦善 by 4:40 p.m. train. Understand they had a big shower in Seoul this afternoon but we didn't have a drop of rain in Song Do.
83
The sun is an immense mass of molten material 332,000 times the mass of the earth. Its temperature said to be 5,000° to 7,000° Fahrenheit. From its photospheric surface flames of fire shoot up for 5,000 miles or more now and then. I don't know what all this means but I guess the sun is something very hot. Now our Japanese Shinto friends tell us that the Sun-Goddess, Ama-terasu O-mikami, is the August Ancestress of the Imperial Family. This is even harder to understand than the, to me, meaningless Astronomical measures of time and space. For considerations of nationalism and patriotism the natives of the Japanese Islands who have been in doctrinated from infancy in Shinto mythology for the last 20 centuries may swallow these august facts without question. But to make the Korean children(and grown people too) to worship this unknowable Deity, willy nilly, is rather an unwise policy. You can't force a Belief into a man's heart by sheer means of temporal power.
85
26th. Friday. Sunny. Hot.
86
Seoul home. 9 a.m. went to Chemulpo with 璋, 埼, 珽, 寶, 瑛 and 益民. They enjoyed swimming until 3:30. Returned home by 4:10 train.
88
27th. Saturday. Steamy a.m. Rain 2~4 p.m.
89
Seoul home. The valley if Chui Woon Jung has, during the last 16 months or so, been built up with nearly a hundred new houses most of which are now occupied. Naturally the householders have petitioned the Municipal Office for water supply from the city water works. This Municipal Office told the petitioners that they would supply the water if the latter could present the names of 15 house owners who might each use exclusive pumps. The petitioners presented 20 names of exclusive users. Then the Municipal Office said they did not have money to install the water mains for the present. So the whole village of near 100 house-holders have been compelled to get their water to quench thirst to say nothing of washing and bathing. The Municipal Authorities and the Police Officials would have supplied the village with water, had there been 5 Japanese householders. A fine example of treating Koreans and Japanese alike as the children of the same Imperial Benediction.
91
28th. Sunday. Steamy. Hot.
92
Seoul home. 10 a.m. with 珽善, 寶姬, 瑛姬 went out to 傳巖亭. Returned home 6:30.
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29th. Monday. Very hot.
95
Seoul home. Must be over 90° F. today. Invited. Mr. 張利旭, the Principal of Shin sung Higher Common School to lunch at Mitsukoshi Restaurant. Wife, 恩姬, 寶姬, 瑛姬, 珽善 also lunched there.
96
Some definitions of Religion:
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It is "morality touched by emotion". Mathew Arnold. Professor Tylor: It is "The belief in Spiritual Beings". Professor Whitehead: It is "What the individual does with his own solitariness". Professor Ames: It is "The pursuit on the part of the community or the individual member of the community of what are thought to be the highest social values". Professor Stratton: It is "Man's whole bearing toward what seems to him the Best or Greatest". Professor Lowie: "Its essence is the sense of something transcending, the expected or natural, a sense of the Extraordinary Mysterious or Supernatural". Salomon Reinach: It is "a sum of scruples which impede the free exercise of our faculties". Professor Haydon: It is: "The co-operative guess for a completely satisfying life". G.B. Shaw: It is "That which binds men to one another and irreligion that which sunders". Hawelock Ellis: "Now and again we must draw a deep breath of relief―and that is religion". I define it as man's effort or wish to extend and prolong the good things of this life minus its ills, on the other side of death line.
99
30th. Tuesday. Very hot.
100
Seoul home. Wife, Sunhui Grandma with children except 明姬 and 恩姬, went to Chemulpo for sea bathing. Returned home 4:10 p.m. train.
102
31st. Wednesday. Very hot.
103
Seoul home. Tremendous rain in the north. The Yalu River rose so yesterday afternoon that thousands of houses were submerged under several feet of water on both sides of the river. The great iron bridge missed just an inch or so to have been completely under water. This is certainly a record. The conscienceless and heartless cutting down of the forests on the mountains from which the Yalu receives its mighty volume of water must be largely responsible for this fearful flood.
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