Korea under Japanese rule

Period of Japanese Rule
Korean Name
Hangul	일제시대 or 일제강점기
Hanja	日帝時代 or 日帝强占期
Revised Romanization	IljeSidae or IljeGangjeomgi
McCune-Reischauer	IlcheSidae or IlcheKangjŏmgi
Japanese Name
Kanji	日本統治時代の朝鮮
Hiragana	にほんとうちじだいのちょうせん
Rōmaji	nihontōchijidainochōsen

Korea under Japanese rule was the period of Japan's de facto administrative control of Korea from 1910 to 1945. Japan's involvement began with the 1876 Treaty of Ganghwa during the Joseon Dynasty of Korea and increased with the subsequent assassinations of Empress Myeongseong at the hands of Japanese agents in 1895 and the former Resident-General of Korea, Itō Hirobumi, in 1909 by the Korean activist An Jung-geun. It culminated with the 1905 Protectorate Treaty and the 1910 Annexation Treaty, both of which were eventually declared "null and void" in the 1965 Treaty on Basic Relations.

Japanese control of Korea ended with the surrender of Japan to the Allied forces in the in 1945 following their defeat in World War II. The Korean Peninsula was subsequently divided into North and South Koreas, although there have been continuing disputes between Japan and the two Koreas.

In Korea, this period is called the Japanese Imperial Period (일제시대) or the Imperial Japanese Forced Occupation Period (일제강점기). In Japan, this period is called Period of Japanese Rule in Korea ([日本統治時代の朝鮮] Error: {{Lang}}: unrecognized language code: jp (help)).

Background

In the late 19th century and early 20th century, various Western countries were competing for influence, trade, and territory in East Asia while Japan strove to transform itself into a modern power. Great power status at the time depended in part on access to colonies which could provide raw materials. Securing colonies in turn depended on naval power, which required bases for the increasingly large battleships of the era, and a chain of coal stations for warships to restock the fuel for their boilers. The newly modernised Japanese government regarded Korea, which was geopolitically close to Japan as an essential bulwark against colonization by the Western powers. The Mongolian army had attempted to invade Japan via the Korean Peninsula in the 13th century. However, Korea was a subordinate of China. The Japanese government initially wished to separate Korea from China and make Korea a Japanese satellite. Japanese imperialism under the Meiji government was formulated very much as a response to the intrusion of the Western imperialists into East Asia. Japan "saw Korea as a keystone of national defense". Western scholars have frequently asserted that the Japanese decision to annex Korea arose out of concern for its own security needs.

Treaty of Ganghwa

Main article: Treaty of Ganghwa

Following the Meiji Restoration, Japan signed the Treaty of Ganghwa with Korea, granting extraterritorial rights and opening three Korean ports to Japanese trade in February of 1876. The rights granted to Japan under the treaty were similar to those granted to Western powers in Korea.

Assassination of Empress Myeongseong

Main article: Empress Myeongseong

In 1895, Empress Myeongseong was assassinated by Japanese agents. The Japanese minister to Korea, Miura Goro, is thought to have orchestrated the plot against her, though neither he nor any of the agents were found guilty by the Japanese court. A group of Japanese agents entered the Imperial palace in Seoul, which was under Japanese guard, and Empress Myeongseong (also known as "Queen Min") was killed and her body desecrated in the North wing of the palace. The empress had incurred the wrath of Japan for attempting to prevent Japanese interference in Korea.

After the assassination of his consort, Emperor Gojong refused to talk with his father, the Daewon-gun, believing him complicit in the assassination. Empress Myeongseong may have been instrumental in having Emperor Gojong take charge of the state, removing the Daewon-gun from power.

Donghak Rebellion and protests for democracy

The outbreak of the Donghak Rebellion in 1894, changed Japanese policy toward Korea. Fearing the Korean dynasty might be in the throes of disintegration, the Meiji leaders decided upon military intervention to challenge China and to keep Korea from falling under the control of another power. An uprising occured due to a combination of public anger at the government for high taxes on rice and religious fervor due to a messiah called Jeung San Do (the syncretic religion based upon Buddhist/Taoist tenents and the teachings of Gang Il-Sun). The uprising began in the northern part of Jeolla province in southwest Korea and spread to central Korea. The Korean government in Seoul asked for Chinese assistance in ending the revolt. When China sent troops into Korea, Japan presented the Chinese dispatch as a provocation and sent its own troops to Korea. China and Japan went to war ( the First Sino-Japanese War ), which Japan won, and China signed the Treaty of Shimonoseki in 1895. Among its many stipulations, the treaty recognized "the full and complete independence and autonomy of Korea," ending Korea's status as a tributary state of China.

So Chae-p'il, ( who had visited the United States and learned Western ways ), and Protestant missionaries, introduced Western political thought to Korea. Soon after, protesters took to the streets, demanding democratic reforms and an end to Japanese and Russian influence in Korean affairs. The Russians had become involved in Korean politics because the king did not trust the Japanese, and had gone to the Russian embassy in Seoul in order to run the country in an unimpeded manner. Fear of imprisonment by the Japanese government led So Chae-p'il to leave Korea for America again in 1898.

On the road to annexation

Russia gained control of several of Korea's forests and mines after permission was given to Russia to build and operate the Chinese Eastern Railway across Manchuria. Japan and Russia soon engaged in the Russo-Japanese War in 1904 and 1905. Japanese victory in the conflict put an end to Russian influence in Korea. Shortly afterwards, Japan and the United States, in the Taft-Katsura Agreement (in Japanese: 桂-タフト 協定 Katsura-Taft Kyōtei), agreed that Japan would be given a free hand in Korea, a departure from previous US statements which had led the Korean Emperor to believe that the United States government would support Korean independence. In return, Japan agreed not to interfere in the American-occupied Philippines.

A secret agreement was concluded between William Howard Taft and Prime Minister Katsura Taro in July 1905. In November, Japanese Prime Minister Ito Hirobumi came to Seoul in order to establish a protectorate over Korea. Accompanied by Ambassador Hayashi Gonsuke and the commander of the Japanese troops in the peninsula, Hasegawa Yoshimichi, and escorted by militaries, he penetrated the Imperial Palace and demanded that Emperor Gojong and his ministers sign a protectorate convention drafted in Tokyo. The subsequent rejection by the Emperor and the Prime Minister ignited anger and threats ensued in Japanese part, with thousands of Japanese troops entering Seoul and surrounding the Palace. After two days, on November 17, 1905, five ministers (known as the Five Eulsa Traitors) yielded to the Japanese demand and signed the treaty under duress.

Thus on November 17 1905, the matter was concluded and Korea became an effective Japanese protectorate, with the signature under duress by the five aforementioned ministers, of the Eulsa Treaty. The agreement is known in Japan as the "Second Japanese-Korean convention" (第二次日韓協約, [Dainiji Nikkan Kyouyaku]) or "Japanese-Korean treaty of protectorate" (保護日韓条約, )[Hogo Nikkan Jouyaku].

The treaty had two main components. First, Japan was to take control of Korean foreign affairs and relations. Second, the local government was put under the supervision of a "Resident-General" (Japanese: 当管, Toukan), a position directly subordinated to the Emperor of Japan. Japan unilaterally defined the powers conferred to its supervisor - the right to use the local Japanese military forces to maintain order, authority over every Japanese officer there, the power of direct intervention in the decision process of the government. Finally, the Resident-General had the authority to issue decrees as necessary. Hirobumi was the first to hold the position.

In June 1907, the Second Peace Conference was held in The Hague. Emperor Gojong secretly sent three representatives, commissioned to bring the problems of Korea to the world's attention. The three envoys ultimately failed, as they were refused access to the public debates by the international delegates who alleged the legality of the protectorate convention, which deprived Korea of its diplomatic prerogatives. Out of despair, one of the Korean representatives, Yi Chun, committed suicide at The Hague.

In response, the Japanese government took stronger measures. On July 19, as a consequence of his offense, Emperor Gojong was forced to relinquish his imperial authority and appoint the Crown Prince as the regent. The Japanese officials used this concession to force the accession of the new Emperor Sunjong following abdication, which was never agreed to by Gojong. Neither Gojong or Sunjong was present at the 'accession' ceremony. Sunjong was to be the last ruler of the Joseon Dynasty, which had been founded in 1392.

Annexation of Korea

Flag of the Resident General of Korea

In May 1910, the Minister of the Army of Japan, Terauchi Masatake was also appointed "Resident General of Korea", with the mission to settle the last details of a formal annexation. He proceeded to take his dual position in Korea on July 23.

On August 22, 1910, Korea was effectively annexed by Japan with the Japan-Korea Annexation Treaty signed under duress by Lee Wan-Yong, Prime Minister of Korea, and Terauchi Masatake, who became the first de facto Governor-General of Korea (Japanese: 総督, Soutoku), and the last Resident-General of the defunct protectorate. All lands formerly belonging to the Korean Empire continued to be occupied by Japan until Japan's surrender to the Allied Forces on 15 August 1945.

For fear that upheaval and dissent should occur, the text was published one week later and applied the same day. The treaty stipulated:

• "Article 1: His Majesty the Emperor of Korea concedes completely and definitely his entire sovereignty over the whole Korean territory to His Majesty the Emperor of Japan.
• Article 2: His Majesty the Emperor of Japan accepts the concession stated in the previous article and consents to the annexation of Korea to the Empire of Japan."

The treaty that brought about effective Japanese control, whose legitimacy is still claimed by the Japanese government, is no longer accepted as valid in contemporary Korea or by modern international law, as it was obtained under threat of force. Even without the application of modern standards the treaty is still considered invalid as only the imperial seal of Korea was affixed. The Korean Emperor had refused to give his signature, as attested in his last testament, an act required to bring any new legislation or diplomatic agreement into force as per Korean laws of the period. This period of illegal annexation and colonization is part of the reason why anti-Japanese sentiment is still present in North and South Korea.

Independence Movement

After the former Korean Emperor Gojong had died, anti-Japanese rallies took place nationwide beginning on 1 March 1919 (the March 1 (Samil) Movement). A declaration of independence was read in Seoul. It is estimated that 2 million people took part in these rallies. The protests were violently suppressed: according to Korean records, 46,948 were arrested, 7,509 killed and 15,961 wounded; according to Japanese figures, 8437 were arrested, 553 killed and 1409 wounded. The Encyclopedia Britannica states that about 7,000 people were killed by the Japanese police and soldiers during the 12 months of demonstrations. The March 1 movement was a catalyst for the establishment of the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea in Shanghai in April 13, 1919 Some Koreans left the Korean peninsula to Manchuria and Primorsky Krai. Koreans in Manchuria formed resistance groups known as Dongnipgun (Independence Army) which would travel in and out of the Korean-Chinese boundary, fighting guerrilla warfare with the Japanese forces. These guerilla armies would come together in 1940s as Korean Liberation Army, The Armed Forces of the Provisional Government bringing together the Korean resistance groups in exile. The government duly declared the war against Japan and Germany on December 9, 1941, and the Liberation Army took part in allied action in China and parts of South East Asia. Tens of thousands of Koreans also joined the Peoples Liberation Army and the National Revolutionary Army.

After the declaration of independence and the subsequent massacres, some of the aspects of Japanese rule considered most objectionable to Koreans were removed. The military police were replaced by a civilian force, and limited press freedom was permitted. Two of the three major Korean dailies, the Dong-a Ilbo and the Chosun Ilbo, were established in 1920.

Continued anti-Japanese rallies, such as the nationwide uprising of students in November 1929, led to the strengthening of military rule in 1931, after which freedom of the press and expression were curbed. Many witnesses, including Catholic priests, reported that Japanese authorities dealt with alleged insurgency severely. When villagers were suspected of hiding rebels, entire villages of people are said to have been herded into public buildings (especially churches) and massacred when the buildings were set on fire. One priest who witnessed the aftermath of a mass killing by Japanese forces termed their actions "utterly savage and against the will of the Holy See". In the village of Cheam-Ni near Suwon, for instance, a group of 29 people was gathered inside a church which was then set afire to burn them alive. Such events deepened the hostility of many Korean civilians towards the Japanese government.

World War II

The Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea in Shanghai was considered to be the de jure representation of the Korean people. It coordinated much of struggle against Japan in China and Korea itself throughout the Period of Japanese Rule. On December 9, 1941, shortly after the Attack on Pearl Harbor, the provisional government, under the presidency of Kim Gu, declared war on Japan. The military force of the Provisional Government, the Korean Liberation Army took part on allied side in Chinese and Southeast Asian theatres. Tens of thousands more Koreans volunteered for the National Revolutionary Army and the Peoples Liberation Army. However, they neither invited to San Fransisco nor became a signatory of the Treaty of San Francisco because they were not recognized as a wartime ally and the Japanese government did not agree to treat Zainichi Koreans as a victorious nation.

Following the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan surrendered to the Allied Forces on 15 August 1945, ending 35 years of Japanese occupation. US forces under General John R. Hodge arrived in the southern part of Korea on 8 September. Colonel Dean Rusk proposed splitting Korea at the 38th parallel at an emergency U.S. meeting to determine spheres of influence during this time.

Economy and Exploitation

Many scholars and historians have cited the period of Japanese occupation of Korea as a time of rapid industrial development after a long period of economic stagnation during the Choson era. Although this is factually true, the greater question remains whether Korea would have been able to industrialize on its own had it not become a colony (See Below: Controversy over the Nature of the Japanese Rule).

In many ways the 'industrialization' of Korea marked not a modernization, but a form of colonial mercantilism, with a colonial economic system designed for Japan's, not Korea's, needs. Emphasis on developing infrastructure (virtually non-existent or negligible at the time) was largely to facilitate the exploitation, transport and eventual shipment of commodities such as raw materials (timber and leather), foodstuffs (mostly rice, meat and fish), and mineral resources (coal and iron, particularly rich in the northern provinces) to Japan proper.

General average life expectancy did rise during the colonial era, however these figures are generally misleading since life expectancy is heavily dependent on the criteria used to select the group and these figures included the Japanese population living in Korea--who had access to better nutrition, health care, commodities, and higher protein diets. Widespread economic poverty and malnutrition for the Korean population remained endemic, aggravated by the annual confiscation of Korean rice for export to Japan. The average amount of Korean rice exported to Japan rose from 1,056,000 sacks in 1912 to 7,161,000 sacks in 1937.

As Imperial Japan began feeling the strains of WWII, Japan "siphoned off more and more of Korea's resources, including its people, to feed its war machine."

Pattern of settlement

Duus shows how the Japanese settlers in Korea also played an important role in expanding Japanese influence, a migration which took place in several waves. With the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese war it consisted of mostly petty merchants, peddlers, construction workers, characterized as a "swarm of penny capitalists and carpetbaggers" who were "often rapacious and dishonest". After 1905, the Japanese government wanted its settlers to take root in Korea and encouraged further migration to help consolidate and expand influence. By 1910, the number of Japanese settlers in Korea reached over 170,000, creating the largest overseas Japanese community in the world.

Many Japanese were interested in acquiring agricultural land in Korea even before Japanese landownership was officially legalized in 1906. Many Japanese took advantage of loose Korean conveyancing practices to acquire land largely for investment purposes, using Koreans as tenant farmers. Japanese landlords included both individuals and corporations, such as the Oriental Development Company it is estimated that by 1910 perhaps 7 to 8 percent of all arable land was under Japanese control.

The Japanese seizure of Korean land first became widespread during the time the Korea was a Japanese colony. The Imperial Japanese government handed out large tracts of Korean land at subsidized costs to any Japanese family willing to settle in Korea as part of a larger effort at colonization. Former Korean landowners as well as agricultural workers became internally displaced, having lost their entitlements to labor and property almost overnight. Those who did labor under Japanese landlords did so under significantly higher taxes. As such, Korean farmers suffered under the high degree of their labor, which was required in order to supply rice to an increasingly urbanized Japan. The ownership registration process that Japan required of the Koreans made it difficult, if not close to impossible for self-employed Korean farms to keep their estates from being exploited and taken away by the Eastern Real Estate Corporation, which had been established during the beginning of the colonial era by the Japanese Governor-General to confiscate all land of hereditary ownership. Consequently, Japanese landowners succeeded in monopolizing the management of Korean farms and property. This is well demonstrated during the years 1916, 1920, and 1932, during which the ratio of Japanese land ownership started at 36.8%, then rose to 39.8%, and finally jumped to 52.7%, while the ratio of Korean ownership began at 63.2%, decreased to 60.2%, and finally fell to 47.3%. This colonial policy of land confiscation without compensation, coupled with the rice confiscation lead to severe and persistent famines and food shortages throughout the Korean countryside.

Forced Labor Conscriptions

With the onset of the Pacific War Japan began to experience increasing labor shortages as a result of over-drafting Japanese males for the military. Although the Japanese government allowed private and government recruitment of Korean workers, tens of thousands of Koreans were conscripted into forced labor.

About 5,400,000 Koreans were conscripted into forced labor from 1939 to 1945. About 670,000 of them were taken to Japan, where about 60,000 died between 1939 and 1945 due mostly to exhaustion or poor working conditions. Many of those taken to Karafuto Prefecture (modern-day Sakhalin) were trapped there at the end of the war, stripped of their nationality and denied repatriation by Japan; they became known as the Sakhalin Koreans. The total deaths of Korean forced laborers in Korea and Manchuria for those years is estimated to be between 270,000 and 810,000.

In 1938, 0.8 million Koreans were living in Japan as immigrants. The combination of immigrants and forced labor workers during WWII brought that estimate to about 2 million Koreans living in Japan at the end of the war (GHQ estimation). In 1946, 1.34 million people returned to Korea (also estimated by GHQ) and 0.65 million Koreans remained in Japan.

Politics and Culture

Residents of the Korean peninsula, whether ethnic Korean or Japanese, did not have the right to vote or right to hold office in Japan's House of Representatives (衆議院). The election law was amended in 1945 to allot 18 seats of the House of Representatives to the Korean peninsula, but this did not go into effect because of the end of the war later in the same year. Koreans in Japan were, however, eventually given the right to vote and to hold office. Park Choon-Geum (박춘금, 朴春琴) was the first ethnic Korean to be elected into the House of Representatives in 1932, and re-elected in 1938. Several members of the Korean Royalty were appointed to the House of Peers (貴族院) including Park Young-Hyo (박영효, 朴泳孝) in 1932. 38 Koreans were elected into local assemblies in 1942.

Assimilation of the Royalty

Following the forced dissolution of the Korean Empire and the assassination of Empress Myeongseong at the hands of Japanese agents, the Korean royalty was incorporated into the Japanese royalty. Since the Japan-Korea Annexation Treaty was never signed by the Korean Emperor, an effort was made to inter-marry the royalty of the two houses in an attempt to further justify the unlawful occupation of Korea. Yi Eun (이은; 李垠), then the Imperial Crown Prince of Korea, married Masako (方子) of Nashimotonomiya (梨本宮). Koreans who supported or helped the annexation (known as Chin'il-pa Korean: 친일파; 親日派) were also given titles of Japanese nobility. Lee Wan-Yong (이완용; 李完用), the last prime minister of the Korean Empire, was given the title of Count (later Duke) by Japanese fiat and against Korean resistance. In total, 76 Koreans were titled Count, Baron, etc. all of which were later invalidated by the Korean Governments after formal charge of betrayal.

'Cultural Genocide'

The Japanese colonialization of Korea has been mentioned as the case in point of "cultural genocide" by the Comparative Genocide Studies group of the University of Tokyo. The colonial government put into practice the suppression of Korean culture and language in an "attempted to root out all elements of Korean culture from society".

"Focus was heavily and intentionally placed upon the psychological and cultural element in Japan 's colonial policy, and the unification strategies adopted in the fields of culture and education were designed to eradicate the individual ethnicity of the Korean race."

Initially the colonial government sponsored a Korean language newspaper to counter-act the strong and pervasive anti-Japanese sentiment following the annexation, and in fact kept issuing a Korean language newspaper "毎日新報" until the Japanese surrender in 1945. However, this attitude soon shifted in an attempt to control newspapers that did not endorese the official Japanese views and a series of stringent newspaper laws were later imposed for all publications in Korea, requiring them to be submitted to censorship before publication. A study on Japanese Periodicals in Colonial Korea by Columbia University states: "newspapers and journals were routinely confiscated, suspended and forced out of publication" during this period.

Other means of cultural suppression included the method of "altering" public monuments, including several well-known temples, palaces, scripts, memorials, and statues. Songs and poems, originally dedicated to Korean Emperors, were re-written to adore the Japanese Emperor. Carved monuments underwent kanji alterations to delete or change part of their meaning.

Two of the more notorious events included the Sungnyemun, a virtual symbol of Korea, which was altered by the addition of large, Shinto-style golden horns near the roofs (later removed by the South Korean government after independence), and the incident of Gyeongbokgung, a former Korean Palace which was demolished and the Governor-General's house built in the exact location. In addition, many ancient Korean texts that were discovered mentioning Korean military and cultural exploits or Japan's inferiority and uncivilized behavior such as the Wokou were deleted methodically; in general the awareness of Korean history among Koreans declined during this period. This process of altering history was called Joseonsa Pyeonsuhoe.

This eventually led to a revival in Korean nationalism, including in-depth research projects into Hangul, the Korean alphabet, which resulted in the standardization of the Korean writing system by scholars such as Lee Hui Sung(이희성) and Choi Hyun Bae(최현배) in the 1930s, as well as underground publications of books about historical Korean figures. Historians such as Sin Chae-ho(신채호) were active in trying to present a Koreanized version of ancient history using textual material.

Forced Name Changes

Main article: Sōshi-kaimei

In 1911 a proclamation (Japanese: 朝鮮人ノ姓名改称ニ関スル件) was issued barring ethnic Koreans from taking Japanese names and to retroactively revert the names of Koreans that had already registered under Japanese names back to the original Korean ones. This was done to discourage Korean immigration to Japan. In 1939 however, Imperial Decree 19 (조선민사령 "帝令19朝鮮民事令") went into effect, whereby all Koreans had to surrender their Korean family name and adopt Japanese last names. A country study conducted by the Library of Congress states that "Korean culture was quashed, and Koreans were required to speak Japanese and take Japanese names." This forced name change, called Changssi-gaemyong (창씨개명 創氏改名), was a part of Japan's assimilation policies that, according to the University of Tokyo, "not only robbed the victims of their identity, but also served to destroy the traditional Korean family system."

Imperial Education

Following the annexation of the Korea, education became primarily an instrument of "Imperial Citizen Forming" ("황민화" "皇民化") by the Empire of Japan as part of their dōka seisaku (同化政策; Assimilation Policy). Although the Japanese colonial government did provide perviously absent education material, such as a textbook of Hangul and grammar to mix Hangul with the Chinese character (designed by Inoue Kakugorou), classes focused mostly on teaching the history of the Japanese Empire as well as glorification of the "Heavenly Emperor". Korean students were made to worship at Japanese Shinto shrines, swear an oath of loyalty to the Japanese Emperor, and show their support for Japan's "Greater Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere" policy. Teachers at elementary, middle, and high schools typically dressed in military uniforms and carried military-style swords to enforce the intimidation of students. All classes were taught in Japanese with Korean Language originally being a student elective. Later this policy was scrapped and replaced by a "Penalty Point" system whereby students were academically penalized for the use of the Korean language during schooltime. Eventually the use of Korean language was forbidden in all "schools and business." During colonial times Elementary Schools were known as gookmin-hakkyo (국민학교 - 國民學校) or "Citizen Schools" as a means of forming proper "Imperial Citizens" "皇國民" since early childhood. Elementary Schools in South Korea today are known by the name chodeung-hakkyo (초등학교 - 初等學敎) (literally: "Elementary School") as the term "gookmin-hakkyo" has become a politically incorrect and sensitive term.

Imperial Japanese Army Incidents

Starting in 1938, Koreans were both forced and recruited into the Japanese military and the first "Korean Voluntary" Unit was formed. Among notable Korean personnel in the Imperial Army was Hong Sa-ik, a lieutenant general who was later hanged for war crimes. Those who survived later gained administrative posts in the government of South Korea; well-known examples include Park Chung Hee, who years later became president of South Korea, Jeong Ilgwon (정일권,丁一權), prime minister during 1964–1970, and Paik Sun Yup, South Korea's youngest general, famous for his defense of the Pusan Perimeter during the Korean War. The first 10 of the Chiefs of Army Staff of South Korea graduated the Imperial Japanese Army Academy and no one from the Korean Liberation Army.

Starting in 1941, Japan started conscription of Koreans into the armed forces. All Korean males were drafted to either join the Imperial Japanese Army, as of April 1944, or work in the military industrial sector, as of September 1944. Before 1944, 18,000 Koreans passed the examination for induction into the army. The application ratio was allegedly 48.3 to 1 in 1943. From 1944, about 200,000 Korean males were inducted into the army. The number of Korean military personnel was 242,341, and 22,182 of them died during World War II. At the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal 148 Koreans were convicted of Class B and C war crimes, 23 of whom were sentenced to death. In 2002, South Korea started an investigation of Japanese collaborators. Part of the investigation was completed in 2006 and a list of names of individuals who profited from exploitation of fellow Koreans were posted. Many collaborators were able to afford higher education with the money they had made; this allowed them to take up influential positions and afford to contribute to the well-being of their children who thus also profited from Japan's exploitations.

Korean military participation until 1943

Year	Applicants	# accepted
1938	2,946	406
1939	12,348	613
1940	84,443	3,060
1941	144,743	3,208
1942	254,273	4,077
1943	303,294	6,300

Comfort Women, Victims of Nuclear Attacks, and Japanese War Crimes

During World War II, Japanese officials and local collaborators kidnapped and recruited under guise of factory employment poor, rural women from Korea (and other nations) for sexual slavery for Japanese military. These women became known as comfort women. Historians estimate their numbers at around 200,000.

As investigations continue, more evidence continues to resurface. There has been evidence of the Japanese government intentionally destroying official records regarding Comfort Women. Nonetheless, Japanese inventory logs and employee sheets on the battlefield show traces of documentation for government sponsored sexual slavery. In one instance, names of known Comfort Women were traced to Japanese employment records. She was falsely classified as a nurse along with at least a dozen other verified comfort women who were not nurses or secretaries. Currently, the South Korean government is looking into the hundreds of other names on these lists.

In the case of Korean A-bomb victims in Japan during the Second World War, many Koreans were drafted, enslaved or kidnapped for work at military industrial factories in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. There were a total of 70,000 Korean casualties in both cities; 40,000 were killed and 30,000 were exposed to the A-bomb radiation.

During Japanese Occupation of Korea many Koreans became victims of Japanese war crimes such as Christians being crucified, Korean villages found hiding resistance fighters were dealt with harshly often times with summary execution, rape, murder, at times burying elderly people alive, other crimes were human experimentation, mass murder, forced labour, preventable famine and looting.

"To this day, valuable Korean artifacts can often be found in Japanese museums or among private collectors. According to the investigation of the South Korea government, There are 75,311 cultural assets that were taken from Korea. Japan has 34,369; the United States has 17,803. Today, Korea frequently demands the return of these artifacts to which Japan does not comply." Koreans along with many other Asians were experimented on in secret military medical experimentation units such as Unit 731, Unit 516, and many more. An estimated 270,000-810,000 Koreans died in seven years from forced labor alone.

Controversy over the Nature of the Japanese Rule

The nature, legitimacy, and legacy of the Japanese annexation of Korea, especially its disputed role in contributing to the modernization of the Korean peninsula, is a topic of heated debate. In both Koreas, Japanese rule in the early twentieth century is widely taught as a ruthless attempt to exploit the Korean people, comparable to the ruthless exploitation of the Poles during the Nazi German occupation.{fact} This perception of Japanese rule is reflected today in the long-standing anti-Japanese sentiment Within South Korea, Japanese historical revisionism is viewed along the same lines as holocaust revisionism in modern Europe.. Yet, some scholars view the Japanese role in modernization of Korea in a somewhat positive light, examples;

• Professor Rhee Young Hoon (이영훈) of Seoul National University (서울대) argued at a seminar hosted by the Asia-Pacific Research Center at Stanford that despite human rights problems, the Korean economy had grown greatly under the Japanese rule and that the base of modern capitalism introduced by the Japanese to Korea later became a part of the foundation of the modern Korean economy. Within mainstream South Korean academia, however, Rhee is generally discredited.

• Professor Emeritus Ahn Byung Jik (안병직) of Seoul National University rejects the prevailing view that the late Joseon Dynasty had a germination of capitalism and could have grown into a modern society on its own, and argues that the Japanese rule helped the economic development of Korea.

• Ji Man-Won, an retired South Korean military officer and author caused controversy in Korea and further abroad with his view. Ji has praised Japan for "modernizing" Korea, and has said "only around 20 percent of the Korean women who sexually served the Japanese military personnel were forced, while the remaining 80 percent volunteered in order to make money".

1910 Interpretations and Arguments

Views of Japanese colonialism before the start of World War II were markedly different than those of today, and to a large extent were positive. T. Philip Terry predicted the following in his 1914 guidebook Terry's Japanese Empire, Including Korea and Formosa:

That intelligent Koreans will later be as grateful to Japan as the Japanese now are to the United States, there is but little doubt. With customary astuteness and good will, Japan has adopted the admirable British idea in colonization of giving every man, British or alien, friend or foe, the same chance...Japan is to-day repaying Korea for centuries of unjust invasion, by the introduction of civilization and enlightenment.

Not all outside accounts before the start of the war were as favorable however: F.A. McKenzie in his book Korea's Fight for Freedom wrote the following in 1920:

When Japan, in face of her repeated pledges, annexed Korea, her statesmen adopted an avowed policy of assimilation. They attempted to turn the people of Korea into Japanese--an inferior brand of Japanese, a serf race, speaking the language and following the customs of their overlords, and serving them...."The Koreans are a degenerate people, not fit for self-government," says the man whose mind has been poisoned by subtle Japanese propaganda. Korea has only been a very few years in contact with Western civilization, but it has already indicated that this charge is a lie. Its old Government was corrupt, and deserved to fall. But its people, wherever they have had a chance, have demonstrated their capacity. In Manchuria hundreds of thousands of them, mostly fled from Japanese oppression, are industrious and prosperous farmers. In the Hawaiian Islands, there are five thousand Koreans, mainly labourers, and their families, working on the sugar plantations.

Modern Interpretations and Arguments

The general view in South Korea today is that modernization in the Korean Peninsula began in the post-1945 period under the stewardship of the United States and the income from a highly export-oriented industrialization for several reasons:

• 1. The Korean War (1950-1953), which followed the Japanese occupation, destroyed most of the peninsula (In total about 2,500,000 people were killed. More than 80% of the national infrastructure including industrial and public facilities and transportation works, as well as three-quarters of the government offices, and one-half of residential areas were destroyed. See Article: Korean War). The Korean peninsula after the Korean War had an overall economy "comparable with levels in the poorer countries of Africa" (see CIA World Factbook).

• 2. North Korea is not, by modern standards, an industrialized nation and suffers from widespread poverty, famine and power outages.

• 3. South Korea's economy grew mostly during the 1960s and 70's under the dictatorship era of General Park and the economic reforms under the Third and Fourth Republics. "From 1960/62 to 1973/75 the share of agriculture in GDP fell from 45 percent to 25 percent, while the share of manufacturing rose from 9 percent to 27 percent" The total GDP also grew in excess of 500% for this relatively short period. It was during this time of rapid economic growth that foreign observers first applied the term Economic Miracle of the Han River and that Korea earned itself the distinctive title of Economic Tiger.

• 4. Most Korean companies, especially the large Chaebol which form the powercore of the South Korean economic oligarchy, were founded well after the end of the Japanese occupation. These include, but are not limited to: Samsung Electronics, Hyundai Group, LG Group, and SK Telecom (known as the "Big Four" in South Korea).

Japan's coverup efforts

- Sensitive information regarding the Japanese occupation of Korea is often difficult to obtain. Many argue that this is due to the fact that the Government of Japan has gone out of its way to cover up many incidents that would otherwise lead to severe international criticism. On their part, Koreans have often expressed their abhorrence of Human experimentations carried out by the Imperial Japanese Army where people often became fodder as human test subjects in such macabre experiments as liquid nitrogen tests or biological weapons development programs (See articles: Unit 731 and Shiro Ishii). Though some vivid and disturbing testimonies have survived, they are largely denied by the Japanese Government even to this day. - - A recent example of this behavior included the complete denial by the Japanese Government of the burial of non-Japanese test-subject bodies several dozen feet below buildings in Japanese urban areas (such as the bodies found under the Toyama No. 5 apartment blocks) in order to cover up these experiments. Flatly denied, even after the bodies are discovered as new developments are constantly being erected in Japan. The unmarked mass graves on the "west side of Tokyo is deeply troubling" The testimony of Toyo Ishii, a nurse involved in the coverup, are down played or ignored."After more than 60 years of silence the 84-year-old nurse's story is the latest twist in the legacy of Japan's rampage." In addition, as cited above, much of the statistics are skewed due to the fact that they included Japanese migrants in Korea, making the poverty analysis of true Koreans indiscernible. Also, as referenced above the inventory logs and employee sheets were falsified by the Japanese in order to cover up the comfort women issue. These coverups and falsification of data have made accurate assessment of Japan's impact on Korea very difficult.

See also

• Korean-Japanese disputes
• Japanese war crimes
• Anti-Japanese sentiment

External links

• Isabella Lucy Bird (1898), Korea and Her Neighbours: A Narrative of Travel, with an Account of the Recent Vicissitudes and Present Position of the Country
• Horace Newton Allen (1908), Things Korean: A Collection of Sketches and Anecdotes, Missionary and Diplomatic
• Country Studies on Korea
• Hildi Kang (2001), Under the Black Umbrella: Voices from Colonial Korea, 1910-1945, Cornell University Press, ISBN 0-8014-7270-9