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It is still a matter of debate whether the patriotic act of An Chunggun, namely, the 1909 shooting of Ito Hirobomi, the ex-Resident-General of Korea, was an independent act by An or accomplished in systematic cooperation with Taedonggongbosa, a newspaper company run by Koreans in the Russians city of Vladivostok. Earlier research supporting the view that the act was plotted and planned at Taedonggongbosa has been refuted, but since material suggesting cooperation with Taedonggongbosa still coexist with material to the contrary, a finite conclusion has not been yet reached. This essay demonstrates the need for a complete reappraisal of the properties of various historical materials, and carries out a reexamination of the characteristics of several types of data. It points out that sources—including An Chunggun’s own writings, his testimonials in examinations and in court, Japanese records of the trial and the reports of Japanese agents, a play by a Japanese playwright in the 1930s, and memoirs by An’s associates from after 1945—are all limited in their ability to record the complete truth, and that future research therefore must incorporate multiple source while taking the characteristics of each into account. The current study does not reach a conclusion between the cooperation hypothesis and independent action hypothesis, and stops at proposing several hypotheses; however, the need outlined here to consider the characteristics of each type of material will lend useful insights to further productive discussion. |
