"Assassination of Empress Myeongseong Easier Than Expected"… Letter from Japanese Diplomat During Eulmi Incident Discovered

"Beyond the Fence to the Royal Court, Queen Assassination"

A portion of a letter sent by Horiguchi Kumaiti to his hometown friend Takehiko Sadamatsu on October 9, 1895. The letter contains the phrase "The queen is being assassinated." / Photo by Asahi Shimbun capture

[Asia Economy Reporter Na Ye-eun] A letter presumed to have been sent the day after the assassination of Empress Myeongseong (1851?1895) by a Japanese diplomat involved in the Eulmi Incident has been discovered. The letter contains the statement, "We killed the queen."

On the 16th, Japan's Asahi Shimbun reported that a letter revealing that a Japanese soldier assassinated Empress Myeongseong 126 years ago has been made public.

The letter was sent by Horiguchi Kumaiichi (堀口九万一), then Vice Consul at the Japanese Consulate in Joseon and a member of the assassination squad, to his hometown friend and scholar Takehiko Sadamatsu (武石貞松) the day after the incident. This is the sixth letter out of a total of eight letters Horiguchi sent to Takehiko from November 17, 1894, to October 18 of the following year.

Horiguchi detailed his actions, writing, "We climbed over the wall and gradually reached the royal audience hall where we assassinated the queen." He also wrote, "It was unexpectedly easy, and I was rather dumbfounded."

The letter was discovered by Steve, a Japanese-American stamp and seal researcher living in Nagoya City, at an antique shop.

Empress Myeongseong.
Photo by KBS

Kim Mun-ja, author of the book The Assassination of the Joseon Queen and the Japanese and a historian, analyzed that the letter appears to be in the author's own handwriting based on the storage location, content, postmark, and envelope preparation.

Kim said, "Considering the detailed description of the incident and family matters, it is undoubtedly the author's own handwriting," adding, "It will be a valuable resource to clarify the many still unclear details of this case."

She continued, "I was shocked by the phrase indicating that an active-duty diplomat was directly involved in the queen's assassination. It is a highly valuable document that serves as a key to explaining the unclear details of the incident."

Meanwhile, the Eulmi Incident occurred on October 8, 1895, when Japanese soldiers, diplomats, and civilians, led by Miura Gor?, the Japanese minister to Joseon, stormed Gyeongbokgung Palace, assassinated Empress Myeongseong, and set fire to the palace by pouring oil.

In the same year, 48 individuals involved, including Miura Gor? (三浦梧樓), a soldier from the Choshu domain who was appointed as the Joseon minister in September, were tried in Japan but were all acquitted due to insufficient evidence and other reasons.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.