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178 cHAPTeR 7 Solo Drive for Korean Independence in Europe and Marriage to Francesca Donner Diplomatic and Publicity Efforts in Geneva and Moscow On march 9, 1932, Japanese military officials proclaimed the establishment of manchukuo, with Henry Pu-yi (1906–1967), the “last emperor of China [Emperor Xuan-tong],” as its nominal head of state. this promulgation of a new political entity was little more than a diplomatic follow-up to the successful invasion and occupation of manchuria by Japan’s Guandong army, which had begun on September 18, 1931. Indeed, the Guandong army kept a firm hold on the reins of power; its commanding officer was also appointed the Japanese ambassador to manchukuo, a post that gave him veto power over the passive Pu-yi. Japanese rhetoric about manchukuo’s independent status and China’s previous mismanagement of the area was unconvincing, and despite the puppet state’s early efforts to gain diplomatic recognition, by 1934 only El Salvador, the Dominican republic, and the vatican had extended this courtesy. Western observers’ suspicions about Japan’s imperialistic ambitions were for the most part confirmed when the lytton report became available on October 1, 1932. this comprehensive document was the end result of China’s appeal to the league of Nations for assistance, made shortly after the initial “manchurian Incident” unfolded in September 1931. But by the time the league Commission of Enquiry, led by lord victor a. lytton, arrived in manchuria in 1932, the puppet regime of manchukuo was solidly entrenched. the commission studied the circumstances surrounding the outbreak of hostilities and the potential legitimacy of an independent manchukuo state, and it found the Japanese claims unjustified and generally vindicated China’s position. after receiving the lytton report, the plenary session of the league of Nations started its process of deliberation by setting up a special committee, the Committee of Nineteen, on December 9, 1932.1 Syngman rhee, still smarting from his impeachment by the Korean Provisional Government in Shanghai in 1925, the bankruptcy of his tongji Investment Company, and the subsequent Democratization revolt in Solo Drive for Korean Independence in Europe 179 Hawai‘i in the early 1930s, saw a diplomatic opening in Japan’s advance into manchuria. He hoped to take advantage of heightened anti-Japanese concerns in the United States and Europe—as well as in China and Korea— to press for the cause of Korean independence. Coincidentally, members of the Comrade Society in Hawai‘i were urging him to go to Geneva and present Korea’s case before the league of Nations.2 Such hopes were undoubtedly stirred by intermittent reports of fervent anti-Japanese activities by Korean independence activists in both Japan and China. In January 1932, Yi Pong-ch’ang (1900–1932) had attempted to assassinate the Japanese emperor by lobbing a hand grenade in front of the Sakurada Gate in tokyo. three and a half months later, at Hung-k’ou Park in Shanghai, Yun Ponggil (1908–1932) had set off a bomb as a group of high-ranking Japanese military and civil officials assembled for a celebration of the emperor’s birthday, killing or wounding a number of them. among those wounded was Shigemitsu mamoru (1887–1957), who would later become Japan’s minister of foreign affairs and was famously on board the USS Missouri to sign the Japanese surrender in 1945; his walk across the ship’s deck was made all the more laborious by the artificial leg that had replaced the limb he had lost to Yun’s bomb thirteen years earlier. although rhee welcomed support from the Comrade Society to embark on diplomatic endeavors, he found more significant backing on November 10, 1932, when the cabinet of the Korean Provisional Government in Shanghai (by then under the control of the pro-rhee Seoul Faction ) asked that he travel to Geneva “for the presentation of the freedom of our Country and disclosing the Japanese [aggression] to her neighbor country contrary to the treaty with her neighbor” to the league of Nations (Fig. 7.1). rhee was formally appointed the head plenipotentiary (t’ŭngmy ŏng chŏn’kwŏn susŏk taep’yo) of the Korean delegation.3 Consequently, on December 11, rhee called on Dr. Stanley Hornbeck, head of the Far Eastern Division of the State Department in Washington, D.C., and asked him for a passport. Surprisingly, within days he was granted a “diplomatic passport”—“the like of which had never been heard of,” according to rhee—signed by...

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