[Japan]: Message to Yi Ku

[Owen]

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Encrypted and Classified​

Your Majesty, It has been many years since we've had contact with each other. Your connections to Japan extend far and wide, after all it is your birth place and where you grew up. The Prime Minister has recently advised me of the talks he had with the Government in Seoul. They were to say the least, not productive. Korea is posturing itself to dictate to Japan the terms of our relationship. We want to formally recognise you and your family as the rightful rulers of Korea. We will, to the best of our endeavour, reinstate the Korean Imperial Family to the throne of Korea. It seems that Japan cannot work with 'Republic's or 'Democratic People's Republic's, we can only work with one, unified, Great Korean Empire, Daehan Jeguk. We can even formally move to unify our two monarchies under a style similar to the Austro-Hungarian Empire or the Kingdom of Norway-Sweden. The Joseon dynasty must be re-established in its rightful place in Seoul, in the Gyeongbokgung Palace. Since you moved from Japan to Seoul in 1996, we're asking you once again to return to Japan. That way we can solidify your position without fear of persecution from the Republic authorities. Please consider this proposal. Sincerely, Akihito, Emperor of Japan.

Jay

 

[Jay]

The relationship between the Republic of Korea and the Royal Family was one of ambivalence and often neglect. To say the Royal Family of Korea was anything but a family of people who were broken would not be an understatement. Prince Yi Ku had his own turbulent upbringing. He had not forgotten his early life in Tokyo aspiring for the freedom to leave the country that held him hostage. Neither had he forgotten about the struggles to simply be given a passport and the hardship forced onto him by the South after the war. His family had been broken and declared void by the South. He had spent a long portion of his life in Japan as a de-facto prisoner of the Imperial Japanese government. Like his father and other Korean royals who were kidnapped and forced often into marriages with Japanese wives to secure Japanese rule over Korea.

The Prince was a product of a broken society that engulfed Korea during the years of its colonialism. However, the symbolism of the Imperial Family was enough to consider it unacceptable in the Korean Peninsula. They were the embodiment of Korea's subjugation under the Japanese. When the Korean people declared their republic in 1919, they made it clear that the monarchy and its absorption into the Japanese was not a history they drew from. The South under President Rhee attempted to keep the royals out and did not accept them as citizens after the Sans Fransisco Treaty was signed rendering them stateless. Born in Japan, to his mother Japanese Princess and his father a Korean prince, Prince Yi spent most of his in Tokyo where he was limited by both his parents and the Japanese. After his brother had been died, allegedly by poison, his parents kept him Japan. It wasn't until the Japanese surrender of 1945 that the Prince was able to leave and by the 1950s he went for the Americas and settled in the US. The Korean community was not as receptive to the Prince, while his status of Japanese nobility led many Japanese students to view him in respect of his royal status. Neither Korean nor Japanese, none supporting him, he overcame his own difficulties alone to become a man in this harsh world. Throughout the years, a number of mental health issues crippled the broken royal family.

Yi Ku had never desired a role in politics. He never intended to take power again. While some of his estranged relatives mumbled and grumbled about their visions for governing Korea, he just nodded his head as he absolved himself of such thoughts. He could not help and look around him as he wondered, what could he do to help his family. Could he return to a land that had forsaken him? Could he work with a nation that had ruined his family? Could he sit down and talk to the grandson of a family that had ravaged his people? Yi did not have the answers. He did not wish to be rude to the Imperial Majesty, but neither did he wish to extend false pretenses to the Emperor. He spent the next several evenings alone in his little room in Korea where had lived under two years. Contemplating and staring into an abyss. His life was a complication of problems and none could lead him towards the answer he needed.

He did not know what the Japanese ambitions where for his country. What he knew was that others in his family would be willing to restore the Monarchy..he owed this little to his people and to rectify the sins of the royal family. He was man of very little debt, but the burden in his heart that he carried from the time he left Japan to the United States and his hopes to return home. Who was he kidding, he was his own man. He needed to face this challenge as every other before him. What did he have to lose? He opened a little box and pulled out a quill with some ink, as he pulled paper and began to write to the Emperor. After many revisions and finally writing it in an appropriate style he would have the letter delivered by a former friend of his from his business days. The letter would be delivered to the Imperial Court of Japan in Tokyo.

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Dear His Imperial Majesty,

I am humbled by your message and being in correspondence of you. Please accept this letter from me.

Letter for His Imperial Majesty

His Imperial Majesty,

It has been many years since our two families were in correspondence. I pray that your health is well and your nights are peaceful and mornings calming. I hope to be honored and welcomed in Tokyo once more so that we may converse on the presented ideals. While I continue to hope our two nations come together, I hope we can talk as men about the future and possibilities opened.

The division of my people and erasing the arbitrary lines drawn between us serve no one except foreign meddling. The continued propagation of the division through the divided nations by foreign powers continues a legacy of domination. While I can not speak for beyond the future, I hope that we may converse freely. With your invitation I would be happy to visit the country of my birth and where I have spent much time in.

Sincerely,
Yi Ku

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Owen

 

[Owen]

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Encrypted and Classified​

Your Majesty, I would be honoured to welcome you to Tokyo. Indeed, you may move here. We would like to see the entire Korean Imperial Family relocate itself to Japan with some level of secrecy. You will be given residence at the Akasaka Palace inside the Akasaka Imperial Property west of the Imperial Palace. You will be given full protection by the Imperial Guard and all members of the family will receive remuneration from the state. I have discussed this with the Prime Minister and he has agreed to pass appropriate budgeting measures to enable this. We wish to elevate members of the Korean Imperial Family to the Privy Council, give them seats in the Imperial Diet in the House of Peers and to elevate yourself to the Supreme War Council. Sincerely, Akihito, Emperor of Japan.

Jay

 

[Jay]

His Imperial Majesty,

I appreciate your accommodations and care given to me. I hope I may be frank about your requests. I don't know if I will be able to convince the family to relocate to Japan both for logistical as well as ideology reasons. It is difficult to coordinate with the different family members. To say our cohesive family unit has collapse would be an understatement. I am sorry to burden you with these familial matters. I hope that once we meet in Tokyo, I may be able to carry a message back to them and convince those whom I am able to contact to join me in Japan to discuss the restoration of our family. I hope to discuss your generous offers in more depth soon.

Sincerely,
Yi Ku,

Owen