My name is Daniel. I was an English teacher in Seoul, South Korea, and am now a writer who has published three books including South Korea: Our Story by Daniel Nardini.

                         Almost all Koreans are familiar about the story of Ahn Jung-geun's assassination of former Japanese Resident General Ito Hirobumi. I will not go into the assassination, or whether it was a just act or an act of a terrorist. But there is a name that Koreans should know because he was the one who truly determined the fate of Korea and therefore all Koreans---Yamagata Aritomo. If this name is not familiar it should be. Field Marshal Prince Yamagata Aritomo was not only a field marshal in the Japanese Imperial Army but also twice prime minister of Japan then under Emperor Mutsuhito (Meiji). Aritomo was also known as the father of modern Japanese militarism, and he advocated for the complete annexation of Korea and all other countries as colonies of Japan. Ito Hirubumi did not want Korea to become a colony, but a protectorate of Japan. The difference is considerable;a protectorate is a country that is under the protection of another country, but which retains for the most part its independence and self-government. A colony is simply a country under the complete rule of another, with no choice in its own internal affairs. Ito and Aritomo were very bitter rivals, and because Ito was the more prominent Japanese politician in Japan (having been Japan's first prime minister and then prime minister four times), his influence outranked that of Aritomo. But when Ito was assassinated, Aritomo became the senior politician. He accelerated the annexation of Korea as a colony, and he was the one responsible for all of the Japanese military policies that would be put into place for Japanese colonial rule of Korea. Had Ito lived, things might have gone differently for Korea, but we will never know.