Wayne Patterson offers a detailed account of what William Franklin Sands (1874–1946) did and experienced in Korea. While focusing on Sands's life in Korea, Patterson also briefly describes what Sands did in Japan, where he stayed for a year before his time in Korea, as well as his career after leaving Korea until his death. Sands stayed in Seoul for six years, from 1898 to early 1904. During the first two years of this period, he was secretary to the American Legation headed by Dr. Horace N. Allen, and then, until late 1903, he served as advisor to the Imperial Household Department of Korea. During his tenure with the Korean government, Sands was the highest-ranking foreigner with direct access to Emperor Kojong. When he lost his job with the Korean government, he was still young at twenty-eight years old.
“As a young man in his twenties, Sands exhibited youthful qualities of hot-headedness, independence, and defiance of authority” (p. 150), notes Patterson. Fresh out of Georgetown University and aided by his influential father, Sands began his career in Seoul as a diplomat of the United States, one of the major powers present in Korea. It was an era of imperialism. Sands's first words about Korea and its people were demeaning: “The people are dirty and ugly, and the country uninteresting and bare” (p. 20). Not long after, Sands changed his views somewhat: “This is not so bad a country after all. Once out of sight of the houses it is not so ugly” (p. 23). As a Western man steeped in a sense of superiority, he enjoyed casual female companions, lived with a Japanese girlfriend in an oversized house, and employed a couple of Chinese boy servants.
Based upon a wide range of first-rate sources that he has examined in a thorough manner, Patterson takes readers into a world of dollar diplomacy, administrative maneuvering, personal rivalry and ambition, and an exorbitant lifestyle in which Sands indulged. During the years of his stay in Seoul, the Chosŏn dynasty of Kojong struggled to survive against foreign assaults from all sides. It was increasingly clear to the imperial powers that Korea was available for the taking. Interestingly, Kojong, whom Sands disparaged for being “absolutely untrustworthy [and] utterly without conscience” (p. 29), tried to keep his dynasty alive through the wisdom of such a high-hat young American. Kojong's wishes did not materialize.
Through masterful research and description, Patterson sheds new light on how Sands's life was entwined with the fading vitality of Korea at the turn of the nineteenth century. For Sands, service in the Korean government was not really meant for Korea. It was a tool of his personal ambition and satisfaction. Similarly, for both Korean officials and Kojong, state affairs were never apart from their personal interests and desires. As Sands observed, Korea was mired in a system of governance fettered by rampant official corruption and factionalism. Patterson's lucid description brings all of these contradictions to the fore.
Beyond presenting the hitherto best discussion of Sands's life associated with Korea, Patterson offers two notable findings. One has to do with Sands's memoir, Undiplomatic Memories: The Far East, 1896–1904 (published in 1930, reprinted in 1975, translated into Korean in 1986), in which Sands “has only kind words to say about Allen” (p. 151). Yet Patterson notes that “Sands and Allen disliked each other intensely and were, more often than not, barely on speaking terms” (p. 150). The other finding is Patterson's analysis of Sands's memorials submitted to Kojong one after another in late 1902 and early 1903. Sands, as advisor to the Imperial Household Department, presented to Kojong “a laundry list of the ills facing the country” (p. 103), including reforms of military and financial systems, among many others. These memorials went unheeded. Despite his frustration, however, Sands eventually had something nice to say about the Korean people. He mentioned that Koreans “are so far superior to the Japanese and Chinese” (p. 105). It was an enigmatic twist of perceptions.
Given the biographical nature of the book, Patterson stays away from a discussion of historical issues related to Sands's tenure in Seoul. Patterson confines his analysis to Sands's activities and experiences within his networks of communication. That means that readers might be left wanting a larger context in which Sands's experiences unfolded. A chronology of his life and relevant events in Korea and beyond, for instance, would have been helpful for readers to develop a historical spectrum. However, these minor limitations do not make Patterson's book less appealing. Its rich and nuanced narrative offers readers interested in Korean history and US-Korea relations an excellent glimpse of a critical moment of the Chosŏn dynasty experienced by Sands.
