The Historical Significance of the Repatriation of Righteous Army Records Seized by the Japanese Military Police

In August 2024, the Overseas Korean Cultural Heritage Foundation repatriated two types of historical documents from Japan: nine documents related to the Righteous Army from 1908~1909, and four letters from the Hwa-seo School. The 1908-1909 Righteous Army materials are documents and letters written in the field by several militia leaders — such as Heo Wi, Yeon Gi-woo, and Yoon In-soon — who participated in the Allied Righteous Army, a nationwide militia coalition that launched the Seoul offensive in January 1908. The letters from the Hwa-seo School were written in 1851 and 1876 by Yu Jung-gyo and Choi Ik-hyeon, disciples of Yi Hang-ro. After Korea’s annexation by Japan in 1910, Yu Jung-gyo’s descendants took these letters with them when they went into exile across the Aprok River to West Ghando. All of these materials were forcibly taken by the Japanese military police during the Japanese invasion and occupation of Korea. The original owner, Akutagawa, was a member of the Japanese military police who suppressed the Righteous Army. He later became a gendarme-police officer in the 1910s, and served as a consular police officer in Manchuria during the 1920s and 1930s. In short, he was a loyal agent of the Japanese Empire who actively participated in its invasion and colonization of Korea, and later in the invasion of Manchuria. The 1908-1909 Righteous Army documents were looted by the Japanese military police who suppressed the militias, while the Hwa-seo School letters were taken in 1918 when Japanese gendarmes from Changseong, North Pyongan Province, crossed the Aprok River into West Ghando and seized the collected writings of Yi In-seok, including these letters. Akutagawa was involved in the seizure of both sets of materials. These records, therefore, are of great historical value as they vividly reveal the reality of Japan’s suppression of the Korean independence movement and serve as a stark reminder of the painful history of Korea’s suffering under Japanese colonial rule.