Editing March First Movement (section)

== Japanese disinformation campaign ==
Japan attempted to stop information about the event from leaving the peninsula. Major Japanese newspapers made some initial reports on the event; they almost uniformly downplayed its scale and did not cover it as the main story.<ref name="YNA 2019 14"/><ref name="YNA 2019 10" /> Eventually, the Japanese government issued restrictions on what could be published of the protests,{{Efn|Scholar Penny Bailey argues that while the extent of regulations on Japanese coverage of the movement is unclear, such regulation was typical at the time. Bailey also argues that self-regulation was possibly practiced because of how the Home Ministry's Police Bureau had previously censored and punished critical reporting.<ref name="Japan Focus" />}} and coverage on them significantly slowed.<ref name="YNA 2019 14"/><ref name="YNA 2019 10">{{Cite web |last=김 |first=용래 |date=2019-02-21 |script-title=ko:[외신속 3·1 운동] ⑩ 일제 치하서 울려퍼진 佛혁명가 '라 마르세예즈' |url=https://www.yna.co.kr/view/AKR20190218002100081 |access-date=2024-05-02 |website=[[Yonhap News Agency]] |language=ko |archive-date=May 2, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240502011220/https://www.yna.co.kr/view/AKR20190218002100081 |url-status=live }}</ref> The English-language newspapers ''[[The Japan Chronicle]]'' and ''[[The Japan Advertiser]]'' published a number of articles that were about the violent suppression of the movement, with the latter covering the events of the Jeamni massacre.<ref name="EncyKorea Movement" />

=== Information leak ===
Foreign witnesses in Korea played a significant role in documenting and photographing the movement, as well as sharing information on it abroad.<ref name="YNA 2019 14"/><ref name="CVJ2"/> The first communication on it to leave the Japanese empire was in English and went to [[Shanghai]]. This led to the first international article on the movement being published there on March 4.<ref name="YNA 2019 14"/> News of the protests first reached the United States on March 10, via a [[cablegram]] sent by Korean independence activists in Shanghai to [[San Francisco]].<ref name="YNA 2019 14"/> By the following day, the story appeared in American papers. Some articles questioned the veracity of the story; in the March 11 issue of the ''[[Honolulu Star-Bulletin]]'', judge John Albert Matthewman, who had previously volunteered for the [[International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement|Red Cross]] in Korea, stated that he felt that Koreans in Shanghai had fabricated the story. He argued that Japan had been so repressive that such a large-scale protest was nearly impossible.<ref name="YNA 2019 14"/>

=== Japanese statements ===
Japan had been conducting a public relations campaign in the U.S. for at least a decade prior to the movement. Information on Korea had previously largely reached the U.S. through well-funded Japanese media channels. These narratives deliberately portrayed Korea as in need of civilizing, and Japan as a positive influence on the peninsula.{{Sfn|Palmer|2020|p=204; 213–214}}

In response to the increasing numbers of foreign inquiries, various Japanese entities released public statements that promoted a range of narratives. Some denied that protests had occurred in Korea at all, some downplayed the scale of them, and some claimed that they had been fully suppressed much earlier than in reality.<ref name="YNA 2019 14"/>{{Sfn|Palmer|2020|pp=208-209}} There are records of the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs requesting that the United States and Germany stop their newspapers from publishing claims about the protests that it deemed to be rumors.<ref name="YNA 2019 14"/>

A number of Japanese statements described the protests as the violent riots of extremist upstarts, highlighted Japanese casualties of the protests, and claimed any violence while suppressing the protests was done in self defense.<ref name="YNA 2019 14"/><ref name="YNA 2019 5" /> Some statements, such as one published in the ''[[Great Falls Daily Tribune]]'' on April 15, 1919, portrayed the protests as left-wing [[Bolsheviks|Bolshevik]] uprisings, and portrayed Japan as attempting to halt the spread of communism.{{Sfn|Palmer|2020|p=204}} Many statements blamed Christian missionaries for inciting the unrest.{{Sfn|Palmer|2020|pp=210–211}}{{Sfn|Ku|2021|pp=|p=129}}

In April 1919, Japanese politician [[Gotō Shinpei]] gave a speech at a luncheon attended by U.S. Treasurer [[John Burke (North Dakota politician)|John Burke]]. Gotō argued that Japan was on a civilizing mission in Korea and that its intentions were noble. He blamed reported abuses on low-level colonial authorities. He argued that Korea's annexation was legal, and likened the legal arguments for the annexation to those used to justify the American occupations of [[Puerto Rico]] and [[American Philippines|of the Philippines]].{{Sfn|Palmer|2020|pp=|p=209}}
[[File:Inazo Nitobe LCCN2014686321 cropped.jpg|thumb|177x177px|[[Nitobe Inazō]] argued that Koreans were uncivilized and incapable of self-governance.{{Sfn|Palmer|2020|p=210}}]]
Japanese diplomats published statements in which they claimed Koreans were uncivilized and incapable of self-governance.<ref name="YNA 2019 14"/><ref name="YNA 2019 6" />{{Sfn|Palmer|2020|p=195}} Japanese academic [[Nitobe Inazō]] toured the U.S. and gave speeches and wrote articles promoting these narratives. In a June 24 article, he argued that Koreans were so incapable of self-governance, that if Japan granted them independence for a six-month trial period, they would request to be colonized again.{{Sfn|Palmer|2020|p=210}}

Articles in the colonial government–backed newspaper ''[[Keijō Nippō]]'' echoed these narratives. One such article read:

{{Blockquote|text=Koreans believe that after the President of the United States [Woodrow Wilson] established the League of Nations, even small and weak countries would avoid the domination of Great Powers, and be able to maintain their national independence. How foolish they are! Ah, [you] pitiful Koreans! You are governed by evil thoughts... Awake! Awake! ...If you do not have an understanding of the situation of the world, you will be doomed to perish.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Yoshiaki |first=Ishiguro |date=2004-03-30 |title=The Korean Student Movement in Japan and Japanese Anxiety, 1910–1923 |url=https://cir.nii.ac.jp/crid/1390572176391011456 |journal=国際基督教大学学報 3-A,アジア文化研究 |language=en |volume=30 |pages=94–95 |doi=10.34577/00002705 |archive-date=January 26, 2024 |access-date=May 13, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240126091326/https://cir.nii.ac.jp/crid/1390572176391011456 |url-status=live }}</ref>}}

In January 1920, Governor-General Saitō published a four-page statement in the magazine [[The Independent (New York City)|''The Independent'']], in which he argued that Koreans had been exaggerating or completely lying about the protests. He argued that Japan had "no other desire than to improve the condition of the Korean people". He claimed that he would create a government so good that Koreans would choose to abandon their identity in order to become Japanese. His administration published a number of texts in English about Korea, such as ''Pictorial Korea'' and ''Educational Korea'', that promoted these messages.{{Sfn|Palmer|2020|pp=209–210|p=}}

=== Statements from foreign supporters of Japan ===
[[File:Sidney Lewis Gulick in 1919 (cropped).jpg|thumb|175x175px|Westerners such as [[Sidney Gulick]] advocated for Japan's continued rule over Korea.{{Sfn|Palmer|2020|pp=211–212}} (1919)]]Foreigners sympathetic to Japan repeated claims that Koreans were uncivilized and incapable of self-governance; their statements were published in various newspapers internationally.<ref name="YNA 2019 14"/><ref name="YNA 2019 6" />{{Sfn|Palmer|2020|p=195}} Examples include Prof. Edmund Davison of Drew University (whom was born in Japan),<ref name="YNA 2019 6" /> [[Sidney Gulick]], and former diplomatic advisor to Japan [[George Trumbull Ladd]].{{Sfn|Palmer|2020|pp=211–212}}

The English Church Mission (ECM) in Korea, unlike a significant majority of other missionaries in Korea, often expressed views more sympathetic to Japan. Their reports expressed doubt that Japanese authorities were intentionally killing Korean protestors.<ref name=":8">{{Cite book |last=Ion |first=A. Hamish |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PAjZAAAAMAAJ |title=The Cross and the Rising Sun, Volume 2,: The British Protestant Missionary Movement in Japan, Korea and Taiwan |date=1990 |publisher=Wilfrid Laurier University Press |isbn=978-0-88920-218-4 |pages=205–207 |language=en}}</ref>

=== Rebuttals from foreigners ===
In March, thirty foreign missionaries in Korea met and planned how they could draw international attention to Japan's acts in Korea; they reportedly adopted the slogan "No Neutrality for Brutality".<ref name="CVJ2" /> Schofield and other foreign missionaries documented the protests and shared information with the international press.<ref name="CVJ2" /><ref name="VanVolkenburg 2021">{{Cite web |last=VanVolkenburg |first=Matt |date=2021-04-20 |title=[Korea Encounters] Frank Schofield, 'a most dangerous man' and an 'eternal Korean' |url=https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/nation/2024/05/177_307037.html |access-date=2024-05-02 |website=[[The Korea Times]] |language=en |archive-date=May 2, 2024 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240502202636/https://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/nation/2024/05/177_307037.html |url-status=live }}</ref> In August, Schofield traveled to Japan on behalf of the missionaries in Korea. He conducted a range of activities to publicize what he had seen. He met with Prime Minister [[Hara Takashi]] and other prominent Japanese politicians and asked them to take action to stop the violent suppression of the protests. He gave a public lecture to hundreds of foreign missionaries in Japan, in which he strongly criticized colonial policies.<ref name="Ministry Schofield" /> The missionaries published a number of articles and rebuttals in Korea, Japan, and abroad about the protest.<ref name="CVJ2" /><ref name="YNA 2019 5" /> For example, a report in the colonial government–backed English-language ''[[The Seoul Press]]'' claimed prison conditions were like those of a health resort;<ref name="YNA 2019 5" /> Schofield published a rebuttal that ridiculed the claim and described in detail the methods of torture employed by the Japanese. In retaliation for his acts, Japan pressured him into leaving Korea in 1920.<ref name="CVJ2" />

American journalist [[Valentine S. McClatchy]], publisher of ''[[The Sacramento Bee]]'', was in Seoul and witnessed Gojong's funeral and much of the early protests. He described Japanese investigators following him and searching his house in an apparent effort to stop him from leaking information about the protests. McClatchy would eventually leave Korea on March 17, but made a point of traveling around the peninsula and documenting what he saw before his departure. Upon his return, he dedicated the front page of the ''Bee''<nowiki/>'s April 6 issue to the protests, and criticized Japan for manipulating information on the event.<ref name="YNA 2019 5" />
[[File:Homer Bezaleel Hulbert.jpg|thumb|181x181px|American Korean independence activist [[Homer Hulbert]].]]
American missionary [[Homer Hulbert]], who had previously served as a personal envoy of the Korean monarch Gojong, published articles and gave speeches on the Korean situation to large audiences in the U.S. On one occasion, he gave a speech to 1,200 people in Ohio. On March 1, 1921, he gave a speech to 1,300 people in New York City.{{Sfn|Palmer|2020|pp=205–206}}{{Efn|Palmer argues that much of this audience was likely non-Korean, as there were around 100 Koreans in New York at the time.{{sfn|Palmer|2020|pp=205–206}}}}

A number of churches argued that Japan should alter its policies in Korea, although they did not openly advocate for Korea's independence.{{Sfn|Palmer|2020|pp=206–207}} The Commission on Relations with the Orient of the Federal Council of the Churches of Christ conducted a three-month investigation of the protests and published a 125-page report that concured with Korean reporting.{{Sfn|Palmer|2020|pp=206–207}} The [[Presbyterian Church in Canada]] compiled and published a report with its evidence of the protests' suppression. One of its foreign mission board secretaries wrote, "Mails and cables are censored and the World is kept in ignorance whilst Japan is posing as a civilized nation".<ref name="CVJ2" />

=== Rebuttals from the Korean diaspora ===
Korean-American independence activists attempted to sway U.S. public opinion on the protests through writings and speeches.{{Sfn|Palmer|2020|pp=199–200}}{{Sfn|Ku|2021|p=132}}<ref name="YNA 2019 7" /> They established the [[League of Friends of Korea]] in April, which was dedicated to publicizing the independence movement.{{Sfn|Palmer|2020|pp=205–206}}{{Sfn|Ku|2021|p=132}} The organization would eventually have branches in 19 cities and upwards of 10,000 members.{{Sfn|Palmer|2020|pp=205–206}} In 1921, Henry Chung published ''[[The Case of Korea]]'', a book that criticized Japanese colonialism and advocated for Korean independence.{{Sfn|Palmer|2020|pp=199–201}}{{Sfn|Ku|2021|pp=132–133}} Japan attempted to halt the book's publication. In spite of this, ''The New York Times'' published an abridged version of the book, and the entire book was submitted into the American [[Congressional Record]].{{Sfn|Ku|2021|pp=133–134|p=}} Chung gave dozens of talks on his book and, according to scholar Brandon Palmer, became a noted figure in American intellectual circles, with significant audiences at his talks.{{Sfn|Palmer|2020|pp=199–201}} Some of their writings strategically focused on the disproportionate persecution of Korean Christians, which they knew would evoke sympathy from American audiences. They also placed Korea's situation in the context of increasing Japanese colonialism and aggression, particularly that in China.{{Sfn|Palmer|2020|pp=201–202}}

In Russia, Korean journalists published writings in newspapers such as the ''[[Ch'ŏnggu Sinbo|Hanin Sinbo]]'' about the protests that were quoted by Russian journalists.<ref name="YNA 2019 8" />

According to the analysis of one South Korean journalist, international publications became increasingly skeptical of Japan's narratives as time progressed.<ref name="YNA 2019 14"/> According to the analysis of Palmer, Korean public relations efforts continued into the early 1920s. They attempted to push for recognition at the 1921–1922 [[Washington Naval Conference]], but were rebuffed. At the conference, Japan relinquished [[Shandong Problem|its holdings in Shandong]] and agreed to a number of demilitarization and openness policies. Palmer theorizes that these concessions quelled American criticisms of Japan.{{Sfn|Palmer|2020|pp=213–214}} Palmer argued that the pro-Korea media campaign had some lasting success in influencing American opinion of Japan and Korea. However, the overall American public remained apathetic about Korea, and no significant policy changes occurred as a result of it.{{Sfn|Palmer|2020|pp=207–208; 213–214}}