Bar fights and Russian spies: Just another day at Daibutsu Hotel

Daibutsu Hotel is the large multi-storied building in the center of the image. Robert Neff Collection

By Robert Neff

There is an old saying that in wine there is truth but often one man's truth is merely an opinion that would be better kept to himself. Unfortunately, alcohol also inspires people to want to share their truths with everyone around them ― often in a loud voice.

In December 1886, a serious incident took place at Daibutsu Hotel in Chemulpo (modern Incheon). The hotel was one of the largest and most popular in the port. It was also fairly cosmopolitan. Although it was located in the Japanese settlement of the port, it was frequented by sailors from various nations' warships and merchant vessels, businessmen and residents of Chemulpo, and those just passing through the port seeking opportunities.

One of the latter, Walter Laws, a Black American, was sitting at a table and drinking (probably Japanese beer) with a member of the Korean Customs Service. Laws, who seems to have been emboldened with his drink, made a derogatory comment about a Chinese man at the counter.

Daibutsu Hotel can still be found in Incheon's historical district, August 2019. Robert Neff Collection

He apparently meant for only his companion to hear it, but the Chinese man either had great hearing or Laws spoke a lot louder than he intended, and the comment was overheard. According to Laws, the man overheard the comment and "felt aggrieved and dared me to repeat. I repeated it, he shoved me. I struck him." Judging from Laws' account, it was a harmless comment but was it?

E. H. Parker, the British consul in Chemulpo, described the Chinese man as being respectable and said he had done nothing to provoke the American. According to Parker's account, the Chinese man was at the counter paying his tab when the American suddenly made an obscene comment about the man's mother. Infuriated, he returned the comment to Laws who suddenly administered an uppercut which laid out his Chinese opponent.

Immediately a crowd gathered and vowed vengeance upon the American for the unprovoked attack. Fortunately for Laws, the British constable entered the hotel and managed to save him from the crowd which appears to have been cowed by the constable's uniform.

The American was then transported to the Chinese consulate (there being no American consulate in Chemulpo) so that he could be kept in the jail for his own safety. Laws was furious at being confined and Parker told the Chinese constables that if the American became violent they were authorized to put him in irons.

Parker then informed Laws that he would be transferred to the "'nearest U.S. Consul' in strict accordance with Treaty." Laws decided not to wait and tried to break out of the jail which compelled Parker to send a message to the USS Omaha, an American warship in the harbor, and request Laws be held aboard the ship until the American minister could resolve the issue.

Aboard the warship, Laws sobered up enough to state that he felt deeply ashamed at the result of his hasty action. He explained that he had immediately apologized to his victim but his apology was rejected which resulted in him being arrested and kept in jail for 22 hours without a hearing.

The captain of the warship seemed sympathetic to his prisoner's plight and described him as "an inoffensive young man" who came to Chemulpo in search of employment and was only guilty of a simple case of assault.

Others, however, did not view Laws in such a favorable light. The Japan Gazette declared Laws to be "a destitute American ... [who] committed a brutal and unprovoked assault on a peacable [sic] Chinese storekeeper [and] had to be escorted on board of the U.S.S. Omaha by a guard of marines." The newspaper sanctimoniously declared that "most of the hard cases have been deported from here, and more of that ilk coming will be met with a warm reception."

Parker assigned a good deal of the blame upon John M. Birch, the American consul at Nagasaki, who, wanting to rid his own port of beachcombers, "foolishly" arranged for Laws to travel to Chemulpo aboard the steamship Higo Maru. Parker suggested that Laws, being penniless, should be deported promptly back to Nagasaki. If he remained in Chemulpo there would surely be additional trouble.

The American representative, Rockhill, agreed and Laws was placed right back on the Higo Maru for its return trip to Nagasaki. No one was pleased with the decision except Rockhill.

Parker was worried that there was a tinge of illegality in the way in which the matter had been handled: The assault had been committed by an American upon a Chinese citizen in a Japanese establishment in the Japanese settlement and a British constable arrested the American perpetrator and had him confined temporarily in the Chinese jail until he could be taken aboard an American warship.

Fortunately for Parker, the foreign community was distracted by a murder trial in Seoul and the question of his authority was quickly overlooked.

Daibutsu Hotel continued to be a danger to those with loose lips. In the summer of 1900, Japanese newspapers reported that Chemulpo was awash with Russian spies.

"One of these, who gives out that he is a teacher of languages and is accompanied by a Japanese woman, revealed his true character while playing the part of an eavesdropper in [Daibutsu] hotel where Japanese officers were lodging."

Of course, a large Russian in a Japanese hotel bar, drinking very little and seemingly more intent on listening to those around him, tends to arouse suspicion so, according to the Mainichi (newspaper), a number of Koreans were "engaged as spies by the Russians."

Considering the tendency of Daibutsu Hotel's patrons to eavesdrop, perhaps the proprietor should have reminded them of another old saying ― "silence is golden."

Robert Neff has authored and co-authored several books, including Letters from Joseon, Korea Through Western Eyes and Brief Encounters.