The passing of Korea (1906) by Homer Bezalee Hulbert
Who is Homer Bezaleel Hulbert?
He originally visited Korea in 1886 with two other instructors, Delzell A. Bunker and George W. Gilmore, to teach English at the Royal English School. There, he taught the children of Korean royalty and nobility. In 1901 he founded the magazine The Korea Review.
Emperor Gwangmu (formerly "King Gojong") then placed him in charge of creating a Western-style middle school. He wrote a history book on Korea that became a standard source used in the US for around half a century.
Before 1905, his attitude towards Japanese involvement in Korea was positive, as he saw the Japanese as agents of reform, in contrast to Russia, which he saw as reactionary. He changed his position in September 1905, when he criticized Japanese plans to turn the Korean Empire into a protectorate. Hulbert's 1906 book, The Passing of Korea, criticized Japanese rule. He was not so much theoretically opposed to colonialism as he was concerned that modernization under the secular Japanese was inferior to a Christian-inspired modernization.
He resigned his position as a teacher in a public middle school, and in October 1905, he went to the United States as an emissary of Emperor Gojong to protest Japan's actions. After returning to the Korean Empire in 1906, he was sent as part of a secret delegation from Gojong to the Second International Peace Conference in The Hague in June 1907. The Korean delegation failed to gain a hearing with other world powers, and the Japanese used Gonjong's actions as a pretext to force him to abdicate. He was expelled by the Japanese resident-general for Korea on May 8, 1907.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homer_Hulbert
Homer Hulbert - Wikipedia
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia American missionary in Korea (1863–1949) Homer Bezaleel Hulbert (January 26, 1863 – August 5, 1949) was an American missionary, journalist, linguist, and Korean independence activist. Hulbert went by a variety of n
en.wikipedia.org
His aforementioned book, The Passing of Korea, is available online for free.
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/The_passing_of_Korea
The passing of Korea - Wikisource, the free online library
THE PASSING OF KOREA BY HOMER B. HULBERT A.M., F.R.G.S. Author of "The History of Korea," "Comparative Grammar of Korea and Dravidian," "A Search for the Siberian Klondike," etc. Illustrated from Photographs NEW YORK Doubleday, Page & Company Copyr
en.wikisource.org
You can download a scan of the original book here.
https://ia904607.us.archive.org/32/items/passingofkorea00hulb/passingofkorea00hulb.pdf
R.I.P. Homer Bezalee Hulbert