Big Sound Temple

Queen Min's purported assassins pose for a photo.

Exactly 114 years ago, early in the morning, a large number of sword-wielding Japanese troops burst into Gyeongbok Palace, in northern Seoul, Korea. They were seeking to assassinate the 43-year-old Empress Myeongseong (also known as Queen Min), who’d recommended greater links between her country and Russia, whilst at the same time advocating a distancing in relations between Korea and Japan. The Japanese assassins in fact slew three women before confirming that one of them was their actual target; they then burnt Myeongseong’s body in a nearby pine forest.

The killers escaped to Japan, where only after immense foreign pressure were they put on trial for murder. A total of fifty-six men – including Miura Goro, a lieutenant general in the Imperial Japanese Army – were however found not guilty by a Hiroshima court, due to what was termed a ‘lack of evidence’. There remains to this day a strong suspicion that the Japanese government had a direct role in the death of Myeongseong; and as recently as 2005, two descendants of the Japanese assassins flew out to Korea, to express their regret for the actions of their ancestors.