War is to-day the final arbiter in the affairs of men, and it is as
yet the final test of the worth-whileness of peoples. Tested thus,
the Korean fails. He lacks the nerve to remain when a strange army
crosses his land. The few goods and chattels he may have managed to
accumulate he puts on his back, along with his doors and windows, and
away he heads for his mountain fastnesses. Later he may return, sans
goods, chattels, doors, and windows, impelled by insatiable curiosity
for a "look see." But it is curiosity merely--a timid, deerlike
curiosity. He is prepared to bound away on his long legs at the
first hint of danger or trouble.
Northern Korea was a desolate land when the Japanese passed through.
Villages and towns were deserted. The fields lay untouched. There
was no ploughing nor sowing, no green things growing. Little or
nothing was to be purchased. One carried one's own food with him and
food for horses and servants was the anxious problem that waited at
the day's end.
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