1868 - A group of Japanese samurai overthrew the Togukawa shogunate and established Emperor Meiji as ruler of Japan, signaling the dawn of Japanese imperialism.
March 26, 1876 - Syngman Rhee was born to a wealthy yangban (Korean upper class) family. Rhee was to impact Korea in major ways, some historians say, the worst thing in her history.
1887 - Chiang Kai Sek was born in Chikou, China.
1893 - Mao Zedong was born in Shan Shan, Hunan Province, China.
1894 to 1895 - The First Sino-Japanese war: Japan occupied Korea in less than two months. The Japanese Navy defeated the Chinese Fleet at the mouth of the Yalu River. The Japanese troops stormed the fortress of Port Arthur (Lushun, Manchuria); Japan seized Taiwan and Southern Manchuria.
Photo: Japanese troops land in Korea in 1904
Feb. 10, 1904 - Japan went to war with Russia. Japanese troops landed on Korea and moved into Manchuria. Czar's troops had occupied northern regions of Korea and the Japanese were welcomed as liberators. The Russians raped and robbed poor Koreans whereas the Japanese treated them as their brothers.
March 10, 1905 - Kim Tubong was born. Kim was to become the ranking Korean communist in China and the first president of North Korea in 1948. Kim is known as Kim San in Helen Snow's famous book - The Song of Arirang - A Korean Communist in Chinese Revolution, - first published in 1941.
April 13, 1904 - The Japanese Navy destroyed the Russian Pacific Fleet at Port Arthur, Manchuria.
May 27, 1905 - Japanese Adm. Togo decimated the Russian Baltic Fleet in the Korean Strait (Strait of Tsushima). Russia capitulated. This was the first war in which the yellow race defeated the white race since the days of the Mongols.
Photo: Czar's army surrenders to the Japanese at Port Arthur
Sept. 5, 1905 - The Treaty of Portsmouth (New Hampshire, USA) was signed; US recognized Japanese interests in Korea and southern Manchuria; and Japan recognized American interests in the Philippines. Pres. Teddy Roosevelt let Japan have Korea and Manchuria.
Photo: US President Roosevelt trades Korea for the Philippines
Nov. 1905 - Japan formulated the Protectorate Treaty and established the Office of Resident-General in Korea; Japan took over foreign and military affairs of Korea. The Yi Kingdom became a semi-colony of Japan.
Washington: Rhee Syngman met Teddy Roosevelt and pleaded for American support for Korean independence. Foreign nations (including US) withdrew diplomatic missions from Seoul. Rhee enrolled at George Washington University and spent 2 years at Harvard. In 1907, he enrolled at Princeton University and became the first Korean Ph.D.
Japan disbanded the Korean Army (Yi Army) using a clever deception. The cream of the Yi Army was gathered in Seoul for an exhibition. Some 3,000 of the top military fell for the trap. A massacre of the unarmed men occured and the survivors fled from Seoul and organized ant-Japanese guerrilla units. The Japanese officers trained Yi army and carried Japanese weapons. Korean officers were sent to Japanese military academies.
Photo: Yi army units parade on the palace ground
1907 - The Korean Righteous Army (Ui Byong Dae) was joined by elements of the Yi Army and anti-Japanese yangban (Korean aristocrats). The Army conducted guerrilla actions against the Japanese. Koreans in large numbers migrated to Manchuria and Siberia. Korean farmers were welcomed in both countries. Several officers of the Yi Army formed independent armed units in Siberia and Manchuria.
Photo: Anti-Japanese partisans in Korea
1909 - Chiang Kai Sek graduated from Chimbu Gakko (a Japanese military school). Chiang joined Kuomingtang in Japan. Later, Chiang attended a Russian military school in Moscow.
Oct. 1909 - A Yi Army officer, Gen. Ahn Chung Gun, killed Ito Hirobumi - the Japanese architect of the Korean colonization. Ahn killed Ito at Harbin as Ito was getting off a train. Ahn was arrested and after months of torture, was executed on March 26, 1910. Ahn was born in 1879 in Haeju. In 1905, he went to Manchuria and formed a guerrilla army.
Photo: Ito, left standing, and Korean aristocrats
Photo: King Kojong (seated) with his Yi cabinet members
1910 - Japan annexed Korea. The majority of the Yi government officials, including Emperor Kojong went along with the Japanese. Korean rich and intelligentsia embraced the Japanese language and culture as their own.
Japanese colonists and Korean collaborators believed that Korea and Japan had deep historical and cultural ties and that a big-little brother relationship existed between Korea and Japan. Their goal was complete assimilation of Koreans into the Japanese Empire.
1910 - The Righteous Army was crushed. The survivors fled to Manchuria and formed the Korean Independence Army led by Gen. Yi Tong Whi. Gen. Yi established training centers for his Army and conducted cross-border raids into Korea. Some one million Koreans lived in Manchuria (Kirin district) and supported Yi's Independence Army, some 5,000 strong. Yi absorbed small bands of Korean armed units into his Army. Korean patriots formed these bands as early as the late 1800's during the Peasant Wars led by Tonghak.
Gen. Yi Tong Whi was born in 1850 into a landlord family in Hamgyong Namdo. His father was a Confucian scholar. Gen. Yi graduated from a Japanese military academy in Tokyo. He helped establish the first military academy of Korea and was commander of an infantry division of the Yi Army. Yi was a major in the Yi Army at the time of its disbandment in 1907.
In 1911, Gen. Yi fled to Manchuria with several thousand Yi soldiers. Yi and his troops participated in the Russian October Revolution for which Lenin was grateful to Gen. Yi. In 1918, Yi formed the Korean Communist Party in Siberia.
1910 - Rhee Syngman returned to Korea as a teacher at Seoul YMCA and as a Christian missionary (Methodist). Rhee received Ph.D. from Princeton University on a Methodist scholarship.
Photo: A Korean Independence Army unit in Manchuria - Yi army uniforms are in use
