Why did the Japanese army choose Yongsan?
Seoul National University researcher Kim Baek Young used an old map to explain. Yongsan Station, the gateway to the region, was a railway junction on the peninsula at that time, and the Gyeongui Line and other rail arteries extended from it. It was located where the army could easily keep watch on the Korean imperial palace. “The Japanese army built a massive military base where it could easily monitor the king and move to other places on the peninsula by rail,” said Kim. The Gyeongbu Line was another important route that was completed in January 1905. A ferry service to and from Shimonoseki, Yamaguchi Prefecture, also started the same year. In April of 1906, the entire Gyeongui Line was operational. In only a few years, during which the Russo-Japanese War was waged, Japan had built a railway that extended across the peninsula almost into northeastern China, a distance of some 950 km. The distance is approximately the equivalent of Tokyo to Shin-Yamaguchi on the Tokaido-Sanyo Shinkanse
