Ito Hirobumi

Itō Hirobumi (1841–1909) began as a samurai of the Chōshū domain in the late Edo period and rose to become one of the leading statesmen of Meiji Japan. As the first Resident-General of the Korean Empire, he forced the conclusion of the 1905 Eulsa Treaty and spearheaded Japan's encroachment on Korean sovereignty. He was killed by An Jung-geun at Harbin in 1909, and is remembered in modern Korean history as a symbol of the nation's loss of sovereignty.