Today marks the 131st anniversary

October 8, 1895, the Eulmi Incident.
The day Japanese forces invaded Gyeongbokgung Palace,
assassinated the Queen of Joseon, Empress Myeongseong,
and even burned her body.
Yet, some people(?) nowadays say things like,
“Minbi (Queen Min) did so many wrong things that she deserved to die,” which I simply cannot understand.
For example...
Suppose my grandmother wielded power within our family and made many mistakes.
Even so, if a neighbor broke into our house armed,
raped and murdered her, and burned her body,
and then, years later, her descendants
brought up her mistakes before the neighbor's murder
and said, “She deserved to die”—would that be a normal way to act?
One can criticize Empress Myeongseong's political choices and her merits and demerits all they want.
However, that is a completely different matter from foreign powers invading a nation's palace and murdering its Queen.
If Empress Myeongseong was at fault, our history can evaluate her coldly and objectively.
But no mistake whatsoever
can serve as a justification for a foreign power to invade another country's palace and assassinate its Queen.
I am not saying we should unconditionally worship Empress Myeongseong as a hero.
I just want people to think about whether mocking and criticizing our murdered Queen
before addressing Japan's act of aggression
is truly a correct historical perspective.
You have the freedom to criticize your ancestors, but there is no need to hold the aggressor's sword for them.
At the very least, when discussing history,
we must first be clear about who the aggressor was and who invaded the palace to commit murder.