Japan sent the large force to Korea for the first time during the Sino-Japanese War in 1894, which was Japanese arbitrary invasion upon Korea. After the end of war, Japan stationed its troops of a battalion in Korea. Since then, Japan continued to increase its troops stationed in Korea. After winning victories in the Russo-Japanese War in 1905, Japanese troops stationed in Korea reached a large force of two divisions. Why did Japanese imperialism demand such large force stationed in Korea?
After winning victories in the Russo-Japanese War, Japan sent Ito Hirobumi to Korea to improve its control of Korea. Ito threatened King Gojong and demanded that he accept the protectorate treaty, ‘the Treaty of 1905’, which implied that Japan would be given full authority over all aspects of Korea’s relations with foreign countries.
The shocking provisions of the treaty that divested Korea of the sovereign power to maintain relations with foreign governments evoked bitter anger and opposition from the entire Korean population, intensifying the resistance of ‘the righteous army’(the Ui-byong, 義兵) and ordinary people. Especially, the strength of ‘the righteous army’ was more increased after the joining of ex-ssoldiers of the Great Han Empire who were dissolved forcibly by Japan in August, 1907.
The Japanese Army continued to develop the military operations to eliminate Korean resistants, ‘the righteous armies’, since 1906. 11,419 Korean people were killed in the name of ‘the righteous army members ‘by the Japanese troops from May in 1906 to June in 1911. Especially during the 17 months since August, 1907 just after the dissolution of the Army of the Great Han Empire in force, about 85.4% of the toll were killed. This means that the mass killings by Japanese troops had been scheduled systematically before the dissolution of the Army of the Great Han Empire in order to eliminate the Korean people’s resistance wills against the aggression of Japanese imperialism. This massacre of the righteous armies could be defined as a kind of genocide, because they were killed indiscriminately and cruelly without mostly military or physical resistances. The Most of righteous armies were armed with the primitive weapons such as spears, matchlocks or outmoded guns which were useless against the attacks of Japanese troops, who were armed with the latest weapons such as improved Murata rifles, newly developed machine guns, and rapid-fire guns.
After these mass killings, Japanese imperialism mobilized about 7,000 military policemen from Japan to search for the righteous armies and keep a watch over the people who had resistant wills against Japanese imperialism or supported the righteous armies instead of the Japanese garrison troops stationed in the provinces of Korea.
The last big operation of Japanese forces against the righteous armies took place in Honam province during September and October 1909 in the name of ‘the big south Korea operation’. Over 420 people were killed and thousands of people were captured. Some of them were executed afterwards, and the others were mobilized for compulsory labors. Since then, the strength of the domestic righteous armies began to be weakened quickly. Survivors of the righteous armies moved abroad to Manchuria to prepare the new struggles for the independence of Korea. After all, Japan annexed Korea as its colony under the military police system in 1910’s.