Rumors Said Foreigners Were Eating Babies. Seoul Panicked.

[!NOTE] Historical File: Rumors Said Foreigners Were Eating Babies. Seoul Panicked. Location: Korea | Era: Archival History | Format: Documentary & Narrative Record

The Untold Story

In the summer of eighteen eighty-eight, a rumor spread through Seoul that foreigners were kidnapping Korean children.

The story claimed they gouged out children’s eyes for camera lenses, ground their organs into medicine, and even ate them.

The Rumor, 1888 • Eyes used for camera lenses • Organs ground into medicine • Children said to be eaten

Panicked crowds surrounded hospitals, schools, and churches run by foreigners, believing children were hidden inside.

Panic Spreads • Crowds gathered at hospitals • Schools and churches targeted too • Children believed hidden inside

The rumors named both Western powers and the Japanese. Diplomats grew alarmed and began preparing to leave the country.

The Foreign Community • Both Western powers and Japan blamed • Evacuation plans discussed • Legations pressured the Korean court

Under pressure from foreign powers, Emperor Gojong’s government reluctantly issued a public denial of the rumor.

No one was ever proven guilty. Some blamed Korea’s own former regent, a longtime political rival of the king. Others suspected a Chinese diplomat trying to scare off foreign investment. Historians still don’t agree.

Historical Discussion

💭 Yuan Shikai, the Chinese diplomat suspected of spreading the rumor, was already Korea’s most powerful foreign resident at the time - he’d been the Qing Empire’s top official there since putting down a coup in 1885. Three decades later, he’d briefly declare himself Emperor of China.

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