Korea under Japanese rule

Korea under Japanese rule 일제시대
1910–1945
Flag Coat of arms
Korea in the Japanese Empire, 1939
Status	Annexed dependency of Empire of Japan
Capital	Gyeongseong (경성; 京城; Japanese: Keijō
Government	Constitutional monarchy
Government-General of Korea
• 1920s–beginning of 1930s	The cultural policy
• 1940–1945	Sōshi-kaimei
Historical era	Japanese Empire
• Eulsa Treaty	18 November 1905
• Annexation by Japan	22 August 1910
• March 1st Movement	1 March 1919
• Battle of Qingshanli	11 September 1920
• Sakuradamon Incident	9 January 1932
• Shanghai bombing attack	29 April 1932
• End of World War II	15 August 1945
• Victory over Japan Day	2 September 1945
Currency	Korean yen
Preceded by Succeeded by Korean Empire Democratic People's Republic of Korea Republic of Korea

Period of Japanese Rule
Korean name
Hangul	[일제 강점기 or 일제시대] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)
Hanja	[日帝强占期 or 日帝時代] Error: {{Lang}}: text has italic markup (help)
Transcriptions Revised Romanization Ilje Gangjeomgi or Iljesidae McCune–Reischauer Ilche Kangjŏmgi or Ilchesidae
Japanese name
Kanji	日本統治下の朝鮮
Hiragana	にほんとうちかのちょうせん
Transcriptions Romanization Nihon Tōchika no Chōsen

Korea was under Japanese rule as part of Japan's 35-year imperialist expansion (22 August 1910 to 15 August 1945). Formally, Japanese rule ended on 2 September 1945 upon the Japanese defeat in World War II that year.

Korea was occupied and declared a Japanese protectorate in the 1905 Eulsa Treaty, and officially annexed in 1910 through the annexation treaty. Japan's involvement in the region began with the 1876 Treaty of Ganghwa during the Joseon Dynasty and increased with the subsequent assassination of Empress Myeongseong (also known as "Queen Min") in 1895. The 1905 and 1910 treaties were eventually declared "null and void" by both Japan and South Korea in 1965.

In Korea, the period is usually described as a time of "Japanese forced occupation" (Hangul: 일제 강점기; Ilje gangjeomgi, Hanja: 日帝强占期). Other terms include "Japanese Imperial Period" (Hangul: 일제시대, Ilje sidae, Hanja: 日帝時代) or "Wae (Japanese) administration" (Hangul: 왜정, Wae jeong, Hanja: 倭政). In Japan, a more common term is "Japanese rule of Chosun" (日本統治時代の朝鮮, Nippon Tōchi-jidai no Chōsen).

Background

In the late 19th and early 20th century, various Western countries actively competed for influence, trade, goods, and territory in East Asia; Japan sought to join these modern colonial powers. The newly modernised Meiji government of Japan turned to Korea, then in the sphere of influence of China's Qing Dynasty. The Japanese government initially sought to separate Korea from Qing and make Korea a Japanese satellite in order to further the country's security and national interests.

In January 1876, following the Meiji Restoration, Japan employed gunboat diplomacy to pressure Korea to sign the Treaty of Ganghwa, an unequal treaty, which opened three Korean ports to Japanese trade and granted extraterritorial rights to Japanese citizens. The rights granted to Japan under the treaty were similar to those granted western powers in Japan following the visit of Commodore Perry.

Debate to conquer Korea in Japan

Main articles: Seikanron and Sonnō jōi

The debate referred to as Seikanron ('Debate to conquer Korea') was a major political conflagration which occurred in Japan in 1873. Saigō Takamori and his supporters insisted that Japan should confront Korea due to Korea's refusal to recognize the legitimacy of the Emperor Meiji as head of state of the Empire of Japan, and insulting treatment meted out to Japanese envoys attempting to establish trade and diplomatic relations. The war-party also saw the issue in Korea to be an ideal opportunity to find meaningful employment for the thousands of out-of-work samurai, who had lost most of their income and social standing in the new Meiji social and economic order. These samurai posed a threat to the government, and (as a samurai himself) Saigō sympathized with their situation. According to orthodoxy, "Saigo himself volunteered to go to Korea as a special envoy, inviting an assassination attempt that would provide justification, if any were needed, for a punitive expedition."

The arguments against invading Korea were outlined in Okubo Toshimichi's "7 Point Document," dated October 1873, in which he argued that action against Korea was premature because Japan was in the stages of modernizing and an invasion would be far too costly for Japan to sustain. Okubo's views were supported by the anti-war faction which mostly consisted of those returning from the Iwakura Mission. Iwakura had the emperor reverse the decision to send Saigo as an envoy to Korea, thus putting an end to the debate.

Treaty of Ganghwa

Main article: Treaty of Ganghwa

Imo Incident, 1882

Main article: Imo Incident

In 1882, followers of Heungseon Daewongun, the de facto ruler of Korea who had been forced into retirement by the supporters of Empress Myeongseong, staged a coup against the Empress and her alleged Japanese allies. Daewongun's forces, or "old military," killed Japanese officers in charge of training the new Korean Army and attacked the Japanese legation. Japanese diplomats, policemen, students and some of Min clan members were also killed during the incident. Daewongun was restored to power, only to be forcibly taken to China by Chinese troops dispatched to Seoul to prevent further disorder. In August 1882, stipulated the Korean government would send a mission to Japan and agree to the stationing of Japanese troops to guard the legation in Seoul.

Gapsin Coup, 1884

Main article: Gapsin Coup

See also: Korean independence movement

The struggle between Daewongun's followers and those of Empress Myeongseong was further complicated by competition from an independent Korean faction and a conservative Korean one. While the former sought Japan's support, the latter sought China's. On December 4, 1884, a Korean independence group, assisted by the Japanese, attempted a coup and established a pro-Japanese government under the reigning king, dedicated to the independence of Korea from Chinese suzerainty. However, this proved short-lived, as conservative Korean officials requested the help of Chinese forces stationed in Korea. The coup was put down by Chinese troops, and a Korean mob killed both Japanese officers and Japanese residents in retaliation. Some leaders of the independence faction, including Kim Okgyun, fled to Japan, while others were executed.

Donghak Revolution and protests for democracy, 1894-

Main article: Donghak Peasant Revolution

The outbreak of the Donghak Peasant Revolution in 1894 changed Japanese policy toward Korea. Korea had negotiated with Russia to counterbalance Japan's growing influence. So Chae-pil and Protestant missionaries introduced Western political thought to Korea. Protesters took to the streets, demanding democratic reforms and an end to Japanese and Russian influence in Korean affairs. The Korean government asked for Chinese assistance in ending the revolt, and Meiji leaders decided upon military intervention to challenge China. When China sent troops into Korea, Japan responded by sending its own troops. Japan won the First Sino-Japanese War, 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," thus ending Korea's protectorate relationship with the Chinese Qing dynasty, leading to the proclamation of the Korean Empire in 1897.

Assassination of Empress Myeongseong, 1895

The Japanese minister to Korea, Miura Goro orchestrated a plot against 43-year-old Empress Myeongseong ("Queen Min"), and on 8 October 1895, she was assassinated by Japanese agents. In 2001, Russian reports on the assassin were found in the archives of the Foreign Ministry of the Russian Federation. The documents included the testimony of King Gojong, several witnesses of the assassination, and Karl Ivanovich Weber's report to Lobanov-Rostovsky, the Foreign Minister of Russia. Weber was the chargé d'affaires at the Russian legation in Seoul at that time. According to a Russian eyewitness, Seredin-Sabatin (Середин-Cабатин) an employee of the Korean king, a group of Japanese agents and members of the Hullyeondae army entered the royal palace, killed Empress Myeongseong, and desecrated her body in the north wing of the palace.

When he heard the news, King Daewongun's father returned to the royal palace the same day. On 11 February 1896, King Gojong and the crown prince moved from the Gyeongbokgung palace to the Russian legation in Seoul, from where they governed for about one year, an event known as the Korean royal refuge at the Russian legation.

On the road to annexation

The rivalry between Russia and Japan exploded into the Russo-Japanese War of 1904–1905, which Japan won. Under the treaty signed in September 1905, the Treaty of Portsmouth, Russia acknowledged Japan's "paramount political, military, and economic interest" in Korea.

A separate agreement was signed in secret between the United States and Japan at this time, which subsequently aroused anti-American sentiment among Koreans decades later. The Taft-Katsura Agreement between the U.S. and Japan recognized U.S. interests in the Philippines and Japanese interests in Korea. Given the diplomatic conventions of the times, however, the agreement was a much weaker endorsement of the Japanese presence in Korea than either the Russo-Japanese peace treaty or a separate Anglo-Japanese accord.

Two months later, Korea was obliged to become a Japanese protectorate. A large number of Koreans, thereafter, organized themselves in education and reform movements, but by then Japanese dominance in Korea was a reality.

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

In response, the Japanese government took stronger measures. On 19 July Emperor Gojong was forced to relinquish his imperial authority and appoint the Crown Prince as the regent. 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, founded in 1392.

Annexation of Korea

Japan-Korea Annexation Treaty

Main article: Japan-Korea Annexation Treaty

General power of attorney to Lee Wan-Yong signed and forced sealed by the last emperor, Sunjong of Korean Empire (李坧) on August 22, 1910 (隆熙4年).

In May 1910, the Minister of the Army of Japan, Terauchi Masatake, was given a mission to finalize Japanese control over Korea after previous treaties (Japan-Korea Protocol of 1904 and Japan-Korea Annexation Treaty of 1907) had made Korea a protectorate of Japan and had established Japanese hegemony over Korean domestic politics. On 22 August 1910, Japan effectively annexed Korea with the Japan-Korea Annexation Treaty signed by Lee Wan-Yong, Prime Minister of Korea, and Terauchi Masatake, who became the first Japanese Governor-General of Korea. Later research has invalided most of these treaties. For example,

The scholars succeeded in revealing that Japan coerced Korea to sign two treaties that led to the colonization of the latter, pointing out that they were illegal. By using threats and intimidation, the island nation concluded the Japan-Korea Protocol in 1905 and the Japan-Korea Annexation Treaty in 1910.

The text became effective the same day and was published one week later. 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.

Both the protectorate and the annexation treaties were declared void in the 1965 Basic Treaty between Japan and Korea. The government of South Korea has been one-sidedly claiming that is because both were: 1) obtained under threat of force, and 2) the Korean Emperor, whose royal assent was required to validate and finalize any legislation or diplomatic agreement under Korean law of the period, refused to sign the document.

Liberation movement

Main article: Korean independence movement

Upon Emperor Gojong's death, anti-Japanese rallies took place nationwide, most notably the March 1st Movement of 1919. A declaration of independence was read in Seoul. It is estimated that 2 million people took part in these rallies. The Japanese violently suppressed the protests: According to Korean records, 46,948 were arrested, 7,509 killed and 15,961 wounded; according to Japanese figures, 8,437 were arrested, 553 killed and 1,409 wounded. According to the Encyclopedia Britannica, about 7,000 people were killed by the Japanese police and soldiers during the 12 months of demonstrations.

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

Photo for memorial of establishing Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea, 1919

Objection to Japanese rule over Korea continued, however, and the March 1st Movement was a catalyst for the establishment of the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea by Korean émigrés in Shanghai on 13 April 1919. The modern South Korean government considers this Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea the de jure representation of the Korean people throughout the period of Japanese rule.

The Japanese occupation of Korea after annexation was largely uncontested militarily by the smaller, poorly-armed, and poorly-trained Korean army. However, many former soldiers and other volunteers left the Korean peninsula for Manchuria and Primorsky Krai in Russia. Koreans in Manchuria formed resistance groups known as Dongnipgun (Liberation Army), which traveled across the Korean-Chinese border, using guerrilla warfare tactics against Japanese forces. The Japanese invasion of Manchuria in 1932 and subsequent Pacification of Manchukuo deprived many of these groups of their bases of operation and supplies. Many were forced to either flee to China, or to join the Communist-backed forces in eastern Russia.

Within Korea itself, anti-Japanese rallies continued on occasion. Most notably, the Gwangju Students Anti-Japanese Movement on 3 November 1929 led to the strengthening of Japanese military rule in 1931, after which freedom of the press and freedom of expression were curbed. Many witnesses, including Catholic priests, reported that Japanese authorities dealt with insurgency severely. When villagers were suspected of hiding rebels, entire village populations are said to have been herded into public buildings (especially churches) and massacred when the buildings were set on fire. In the village of Jeam-ni, Hwaseong, for example, a group of 29 people were gathered inside a church which was then set afire. Such events deepened the hostility of many Korean civilians towards the Japanese government.

World War II

On 9 December 1941, shortly after the attack on Pearl Harbor, the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea, under the presidency of Kim Gu, declared war on Japan and Nazi Germany. The Provisional Government banded together various Korean resistance guerilla groups such as the Korean Liberation Army, which was involved in combat on behalf of the Allies in various campaigns in China and parts of South East Asia. Tens of thousands of Koreans volunteered for the National Revolutionary Army and the People's Liberation Army. The communist-backed Korean Volunteer Army (KVA), was established in Yenan, China, outside of the the Provisional Government's control, from a core of 1,000 deserters from the Imperial Japanese Army. After the Manchurian Strategic Offensive Operation, the KVA entered Manchuria, where it recruited from the ethnic Korean population and eventually became the Korean People's Army of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea.

Togo Shigenori (Park Shigenori) was the most prominent ethnic Korean serving Imperial Japan, as a Minister of Foreign Affairs and as a Minister of Greater East Asia during World War II. Korean general Hong Sa-ik (Kou Shiyoku) served as an Imperial Japanese Army General.

Following the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, and the Soviet invasion of Korea, Japan surrendered to the Allied forces on 15 August 1945, ending 36 years of Japanese occupation. American forces under General John R. Hodge arrived at the southern part of Korea on September 8. Colonel Dean Rusk proposed splitting Korea at the 38th parallel at an emergency meeting to determine postwar spheres of influence.

The representatives of the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea were not allowed to participate in the San Francisco Peace Conference as their government lacked widespread international diplomatic recognition, nor was the Provisional Government a signatory to the Treaty of San Francisco.

Economy and exploitation

Opening of railway from Seoul to Busan

The Korean economy went through significant change during the Japanese occupation. There is, however, no academic consensus on the influence of the Japanese rule on the technological development of Korea. Some scholars argue that economic developments occurred during the period, while the others claim that Japanese rule worsened the economic condition of Korea. During the late Joseon period, Korea was largely an isolationist pre-industrial society, where foreign trade was prohibited and attempts at economic modernization were stifled by an extremely conservative Court and landed aristocracy. There were some modernization efforts, however, and by the late 19th century, Seoul became the first city in East Asia to have electricity, trolley cars, water, telephone and telegraph systems all at the same time. But Korea remained a largely backward agricultural economy at the turn of the century. "Japan's initial colonial policy was to increase agricultural production in Korea to meet Japan's growing need for rice. Japan had also begun to build large-scale industries in Korea in the 1930s as part of the empire-wide program of economic self-sufficiency and war preparation."

According to scholar Donald S. Macdonald, "for centuries most Koreans lived as subsistence farmers of rice and other grains and satisfied most of their basic needs through their own labor or through barter. The manufactures of traditional Korea--principally cloth, cooking and eating utensils, furniture, jewelry, and paper--were produced by artisans in a few population centers."

During the early period of Japanese rule, the Japanese government attempted to completely integrate the Korean economy with Japan, and thus introduced many modern economic and social institutions, and invested heavily in infrastructure, including schools, railroads and utilities. Most of these physical facilities remained in Korea after the Liberation. The Japanese government played an even more active role in developing Korea than it had played in developing the Japanese economy in the late nineteenth century. Many programs drafted in Korea in the 1920s and 1930s originated in policies drafted in Japan during the Meiji period (1868-1912). The Japanese government helped to mobilize resources for development and provided entrepreneurial leadership for these new enterprises. Colonial economic growth was initiated through powerful government efforts to expand the economic infrastructure, to increase investment in human capital through health and education, and to raise productivity.

However, under Japanese rule, many Korean resources were utilized for Japanese use. Economist Suh Sang-Chul points out that the nature of industrialization during the period was as an "imposed enclave," so the impact of colonialism was trivial. Another scholar, Song Byung-Nak states that the economic condition of average Koreans was aggravated during the period despite the "growth." Most Koreans at the time could access only a primary school education under restriction by the Japanese, and this prevented the growth of an indigenous entrepreneurial class. A 1939 statistic shows that among the total capital recorded by factories, about 94 percent was Japanese-owned. While Koreans owned about 61 percent of small-scale firms that had 5 to 49 employees, about 92 percent of large-scale enterprises with more than 200 employees was Japanese-owned.

Virtually all industries were owned either by Japan-based corporations or by Japanese corporations in Korea. As of 1942, indigenous capital constituted only 1.5 percent of the total capital invested in Korean industries. Korean entrepreneurs were charged interest rates 25 percent higher than their Japanese counterparts, so it was difficult for large Korean enterprises to emerge. More and more farmland was taken over by the Japanese, and an increasing proportion of Korean farmers either became sharecroppers or migrated to Japan or Manchuria as laborers. As greater quantities of Korean rice were exported to Japan, per capita consumption of rice among the Koreans declined; between 1932 and 1936, per capita consumption of rice declined to half the level consumed between 1912 and 1916. Although the government imported coarse grains from Manchuria to augment the Korean food supply, per capita consumption of food grains in 1944 was 35 percent below that of 1912 to 1916.

The Japanese government created a system of colonial mercantilism, requiring construction of significant transportation infrastructure on the Korean Peninsula for the purpose of extracting and exploiting resources such as raw materials (timber), foodstuff (mostly rice and fish), and mineral resources (coal and iron ore). The Japanese developed port facilities and an extensive railway system which included a main truck railway from the southern port city of Pusan through the capital of Seoul and north to the Chinese border. This infrastructure was intended not only to facilitate a colonial mercantilist economy, but was also viewed as a strategic necessity for the Japanese military to control Korea and to move large numbers of troops and materials to the Chinese border at short notice.

From the late 1920s and into the 1930s, particularly during the tenure of Japanese Governor-General Kazushige Ugaki, concentrated efforts were made to build up the industrial base in Korea. This was especially true in the areas of heavy industry, such as chemical plants and steel mills, and munitions production. The Japanese military felt it would be beneficial to have production closer to the source of raw materials and closer to potential front lines for a future war with China.

However, by the early 1930s, Japanese investment was curtailed by the worldwide economic depression, competition for investment opportunities from the potentially more lucrative Manchukuo, and by Japan's own limited economic capacity. However, as Imperial Japan began feeling the strains of World War II, Japan "siphoned off more and more of Korea's resources, including its people, to feed its war machine."

Japanese migration and land confiscation

Terauchi Masatake, the first Japanese Governor-General of Korea, reestablished the preexisting Korean land-ownership system.

Prior to the annexation of Korea, from around the time of the First Sino-Japanese War, Japanese merchants began settling in towns and cities around Korea seeking economic opportunity. to establish themselves in Korea to help consolidate and expand Japanese influence there and thus encouraged further migration. By 1910, the number of Japanese settlers in Korea reached over 170,000, creating the largest overseas Japanese community in the world at the time.

Many Japanese settlers were interested in acquiring agricultural land in Korea even before Japanese landownership was officially legalized in 1906. Governor-General Terauchi Masatake facilitated settlement through "land reform," which proved extremely unpopular with most of the Korean population. The Korean land-ownership system was a complex system of absentee landlords, partial owner-tenants, and cultivators with traditional (but no legal proof of) ownership. Terauchi's new Land Survey Bureau conducted cadastral surveys that reestablished ownership by basis of written proof (deeds, titles, and similar documents). Ownership was denied to those who could not provide such written documentation: these turned out to be mostly lower-class and partial owners who had only traditional verbal "cultivator rights." Although the plan succeeded in modernizing land ownership/taxation structures, it added tremendously to the bitterness and hostility of the time by enabling a huge amount of Korean land to be seized by the government and sold at subsidized costs to Japanese willing to settle in Korea as part of a larger effort at colonization.

Japanese landlords included both individuals and corporations, such as the Oriental Development Company. Many former Korean landowners as well as agricultural workers became tenant farmers, having lost their entitlements almost overnight.

Oriental Development Company HQ in Seoul, undertook a program aimed at resettling Japanese farmers in Korea.

It is estimated that by 1910 perhaps 7 to 8 percent of all arable land was under Japanese control. This ratio increased steadily; during the years 1916, 1920, and 1932, the ratio of Japanese land ownership increased from 36.8 to 39.8 to 52.7 percent. Conversely, the ratio of Korean ownership decreased from 63.2 to 60.2 to 47.3 percent. The level of tenancy was very similar to that of farmers in Japan itself; however, in Korea, the landowners were mostly Japanese, while the tenants were all Koreans. As was often the case in Japan itself, tenants were forced to pay over half their crop as rent, forcing many to send wives and daughters into factories or prostitution to afford to pay taxes.

Lee Yong Hoon, a controversial professor at Seoul National University, and a leading critic of the "New Right" Foundation (뉴라이트재단), which is often called as "New Chinilpa," states that less than 10% of arable land actually came under Japanese control and rice was normally traded, not robbed. He also insists that Koreans' knowledge about the era under Japanese rule is mostly made up by later educators. Many of Lee's arguments however have been discredited in recent years.

Korea suffered from famine due to its economy's overtaxation and lagged behind Japan in the rise of agricultural cooperatives and advances in cash crop and mechanized agriculture.

By the 1930s, the growth of the urban economy and the exodus of farmers to the cities had gradually weakened the hold of the landlords. With the growth of the wartime economy, the government recognized landlordism as an impediment to increased agricultural productivity, and took steps to increase control over the rural sector through the formation of the Central Agricultural Association, a compulsory organization under the wartime command economy.

National Mobilization Law

Kuniaki Koiso, Japanese Governor-General of Korea, implemented draft of Koreans for wartime labor.

From 1939, labor shortages as a result of over-drafting of Japanese males for the military World War II led to organized official recruitment of Koreans to work in mainland Japan, initially through civilian agents, and later directly, often involving elements of coercion. As the labor shortage increased, by 1942, the Japanese authorities extended the provisions of the National Mobilization Law to include the conscription of Korean workers for factories and mines on the Korean peninsula, Manchukuo and the involuntary relocation of workers to Japan itself as needed.

Of the 5,400,000 Koreans conscripted, about 670,000 were taken to mainland Japan (including Karafuto Prefecture, present-day Sakhalin, now part of Russia) for civilian labor. Those who were brought to Japan were often forced to work under appalling conditions. About 60,000 are estimated to have died between 1939 and 1945 from harsh treatment, inhumane working conditions and Allied bombings. The total deaths of Korean forced laborers in Korea and Manchuria is estimated to be between 270,000 and 810,000. The 43,000 ethnic Koreans in Karafuto, which had been occupied by the Soviet Union just prior to Japan's surrender, were refused repatriation to either mainland Japan or the Korean peninsula, and were thus trapped in Sakhalin, stateless; they became the ancestors of the Sakhalin Koreans.

Most Korean atomic-bomb victims in Japan were also drafted for work at military industrial factories in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. According to the Peace Project Network, "there were a total of 70,000 Korean victims in both cities". In the name of humanitarian assistance, Japan paid South Korea 4 billion yen and built a welfare center for those suffering from the effects of the atomic bomb. 40,000 were killed and 30,000 were exposed to the A-bomb radiation.

In 1938, an estimated 800,000 ethnic Koreans were living in Japan as immigrants. The combination of immigrants and forced laborers during World War II brought the total to over 2 million by the end of the war, according to estimates by the American occupation authorities. In 1946, some 1,340,000 ethnic Koreans were repatriated to Korea, with 650,000 choosing to remain in Japan, where they now form the Zainichi Korean community. A 1982 survey by the Korean Youth Association showed that conscripted laborers accounts for 13 percent of first-generation Zainichi Koreans.

Politics and culture

Residents of the Korean peninsula, whether ethnic Korean or Japanese, did not have the right to vote or to hold office in Japan's House of Representatives. The election law was amended in 1945 to allot 18 seats of the House of Representatives for the Korean peninsula, which did not go into effect because of the end of the war later the same year. Koreans in Japan were, however, eventually given the right to vote and to hold office. Pak Chun-geum (박춘금, 朴春琴) was the first ethnic Korean to be elected into the House of Representatives in 1932, re-elected in 1938, and continued to serve throughout the World War II. Several members of the Korean Royalty and aristocracy were appointed to the House of Peers including Pak Yeong-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, Korean Palace Guard officers, Korean Army officers, Korean employee of Japanese, Korean Mandarinates (including Military Minister of Korea), the Korean royalty was incorporated into the Japanese royalty. The Emperor of Japan Viscount Terauchi Masatake, Resident-General, and His Majesty the Emperor of Korea Yi Wan-Yong, Prime Minister, who upon mutual conference and deliberation had agreed to the Japan-Korea Annexation Treaty, made an effort to intermarry the royalty of the two houses in an attempt to validate the annexation of Korea. Yi Eun, then the Imperial Crown Prince of Korea, married Masako of Nashimotonomiya. Pro-Japanese Koreans (or Chinilpa) who supported or helped the annexation were also given peerage titles under the Japanese kazoku system. Lee Wan-Yong, the last prime minister of the Korean Empire, was given the title of hakushaku (Count) (which was later raised to koshaku, or Duke). In total, 76 Koreans were given peerage titles. After Korean independence, all titles were invalidated, and recipients formally charged with treason.

Cultural genocide

The Japanese colonization of Korea has been mentioned as the case in point of "cultural genocide" by graduate student Yuko Matsumura of the Comparative Genocide Studies group at the University of Tokyo. The colonial government put into practice the suppression of Korean culture and language in an "attempt 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 Japanese sponsored several Korean language newspapers to counter the strong anti-Japanese message of the chief Korean publication Hwangson Sinmun (1898-1910). These papers included The Chosun Ilbo (1904) and in fact kept issuing the Korean language newspaper Maeil Sinbo (매일신보; 每日新報) until the Japanese surrender in 1945.

Japanese colonial authorities took many photographs of scenes of abject poverty in Korea, but did not bother to take a single photograph of the main palace Gyeongbokgung. In order to justify their need to take over their neighbors, "the Japanese convinced themselves that, despite being of the same race," says Michael Breen, "the Koreans were actually hardly human."

Other means of cultural suppression included “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 alterations to the Chinese characters to delete or change part of their meaning. Sungnyemun, a virtual symbol of Korea, was altered by the addition of large, Shinto-style golden horns near the roofs (later removed by the South Korean government after independence). The primary building of Gyeongbokgung was demolished and the Japanese General Government Building was built in its exact location. The Japanese colonial authorities destroyed 85 percent of all the buildings in Gyeongbokgung. The Korean History Compilation Committee confiscated and burned Korean history books. Many ancient Korean texts that were discovered mentioning Korean military and cultural exploits or Japan's behavior as the Wokou were deleted methodically; in general, the awareness of Korean history among Koreans declined during this period; meaning that while the old generation of Koreans could not forget their history, the new generation grew up with little or no awareness of their own heritage.Japan altered the history to rationalize the occupation of Korea to the international community by depicting the Koreans as backward and in need of modernization. This was possible due to the fact that Korea had sealed itself off for centuries to outside contact. The same exact justifications were used by the European Imperial powers in their colonizations. The Korean History Compilation Committee was an extension of this.[5]

Japanese Government conducted excavations of archeological sites and preservation of their artifacts.

The large resentment of the harsh treatment of Koreans eventually led to a revival of 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-Seung (이희승) and Choe Hyeon-bae (최현배) in the 1930s, as well as underground publications of books about historical Korean figures. Historians, such as Shin Chae-ho, were active in trying to present a Koreanized version of ancient history using textual material.

Name changes

Main article: Sōshi-kaimei

At the same time, there were attempts to better segregate individuals of Korean and Japanese ancestry. In 1911 a proclamation, “Case Concerning the Changing of Korean Names” (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. By 1939, however, the focus had shifted towards colonial assimilation, and Imperial Decree 19 on Korean Civil Affairs (조선민사령; “勅令第19号「朝鮮民事改正令」”) went into effect, whereby ethnic Koreans were permitted to surrender their Korean family name and adopt Japanese surnames. Although officially voluntary, many argue official compulsion and harassment existed against individuals who would not create a new Japanese-style name. Many disagree whether this was the result of individual practises by low-level officials, the policy of some regional government organisations, or the overall intention of the colonial government. Others argue that Koreans felt compelled to adopt Japanese family names in order to avoid discrimination by Japanese. A country study conducted by the Library of Congress states that “the Korean culture was quashed, and Koreans were required to speak Japanese and take Japanese names.” This name change policy, called Changssi-gaemyeong (창씨개명; 創氏改名), was part of Japan's assimilation efforts. The policy was extremely unpopular, with only some 9.6 percent of Koreans changing their last names to a Japanese one during the colonial occupation. a number of prominent ethnic Koreans working for the Japanese government, including General Hong Sa-ik, insisted on keeping their Korean names. Another ethnic Korean, Park Chun-Gum (박춘금, 朴春琴), was elected as a member of the Lower House from the Tokyo Third District in the general election in 1932 and served two terms without changing his Korean name, but has been registered as chinilpa by the current Republic of Korea government.

After the liberation of Korea from Japanese rule, the "Name Restoration Order" was issued on 23 October 1946 by the U.S. Army Military Government in Korea south of the 38th parallel, enabling Koreans to restore their names if they wished to. However, many Zainichi Koreans chose to retain their Japanese names, either to avoid discrimination, or later, to meet the requirements for naturalization as Japanese citizens.

Education in Korea under Japanese rule

Keijō Imperial University, Seoul

In Joseon Dynasty Korea, education was limited to private academies for the aristocracy. Following the annexation of Korea, the Japanese administration introduced universal education patterned after the Japanese school system, with a pyramidal hierarchy of elementary, middle and high schools, culminating at the Keijō Imperial University in Seoul. As in Japan itself, education was viewed primarily as an instrument of "the Formation of the Imperial Citizen" (황민화; 皇民化) with a heavy emphasis on moral and political indoctrination. Although the Japanese colonial government did provide educational material for Korean culture and language to some degree, such as a textbook of Hangul and grammar to mix Hangul with Chinese characters (in the version designed by Kakugorō Inoue), classes focused mostly on teaching the history of the Japanese Empire as well as glorification of the Imperial House of Japan. The history of Korea was not part of the curriculum. As in Japan itself, students were made to worship at the school's Shintō shrine regardless of their religious beliefs, and bow before portraits of the Emperor, and copy the Imperial Rescript on Education. As the Japanese administrative policy shifted more strongly towards assimilation from the 1930s (同化政策; dōka seisaku), all classes were taught in Japanese with Korean language becoming an elective. Later this policy was replaced by a “Penalty Point” system whereby students were academically penalized for the use of the Korean language during school hours. Eventually the use of Korean language was “forbidden in all schools and business”. During colonial times, elementary schools were known as “Citizen Schools” (국민학교; 國民學校; gungmin hakgyo) as in Japan, as a means of forming proper “Imperial Citizens” (皇國民; Hwanggungmin) since early childhood. Elementary schools in South Korea today are known by the name chodeung hakgyo (초등학교; 初等學校) (literally “Elementary School”) as the term “gungmin hakgyo” has recently become a politically incorrect term.

Although the Japanese education system in Korea was detrimental towards the colony's cultural identity, it helped lay the foundation of future economic growth by improving Korea's human capital. By 1940, 38 percent of school-age Koreans were attending elementary school. Children of elite families were able to advance to higher education, while others were able to attend technical schools, allowing for "the emergence of a small but important class of well-educated white collar and technical workers... who possessed skills required to run a modern industrial economy." The Japanese education system, then, ultimately produced hundreds of thousands of educated South Koreans who later became "the core of the postwar political and economic elite."

Relocation of cultural artifacts

The Japanese rule of Korea resulted in the relocation of many cultural artifacts to Japan. The issue over where these articles should be located began during the U.S. occupation of Japan. It is known that at least 100,000 of Korean artifacts were removed during Japanese rule. In 2002, the controversy was reignited when two Koreans removed two statues from a west Japanese temple.

Koreans in the Japanese military

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

Starting in 1938, Koreans both enlisted and were conscripted into the Japanese military and the first "Korean Voluntary" Unit was formed. Among notable Korean personnel in the Imperial Army was Crown Prince Euimin, who attained the rank of lieutenant general. Of those who survived, some 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, Chung Il-kwon (정일권,丁一權), prime minister from 1964 to 1970, and Paik Sun-yup, South Korea's youngest general, famous for his defense of the Pusan Perimeter during the Korean War. The first ten of the Chiefs of Army Staff of South Korea graduated the Imperial Japanese Army Academy and no one from the Korean Liberation Army.

Recruitment began as early as 1938, when the Japanese Kwantung Army in Manchuria began accepting pro-Japanese Korean volunteers into the army of Manchukuo, and formed the Gando Special Force. Koreans in this unit specialized in counter-insurgency operations against communist guerillas in the region of Jiandao. The size of the unit grew considerably at an annual rate of 700 men, and included such notable Koreans as General Paik Sun-yup. Historian Philip Jowett noted that during the Japanese occupation of Manchuria, the Gando Special Force had "earned a reputation for brutality and was reported to have laid waste to large areas which came under its rule."

During World War II, American soldiers frequently encountered Korean soldiers within the ranks of the Japanese army. Most notably was in the Battle of Tarawa, which was considered during that time to be one of the bloodiest battles in U.S. military history. A fifth of the Japanese garrison during this battle consisted of Korean laborers who were trained in combat roles. Like their Japanese counterparts, they put up a ferocious defense and fought to the death.

Starting in 1944, 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. Koreans provided workforces to mines and construction sites around the island nation. The discovery proved that the number of conscripted Koreans reached its peak in the year in preparation for the war in the Japanese mainland. [6] 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.

After the war, 148 Koreans were convicted of Class B and C war crimes, 23 of whom were sentenced to death (compared to 920 Japanese who were sentenced to death), including Korean prison guards who were particularly notorious for their brutality during the war. Justice Bert Röling, who represented the Netherlands at the Tokyo War Crimes Tribunal, noted that "many of the commanders and guards in POW camps were Koreans - the Japanese apparently did not trust them as soldiers - and it is said that they were sometimes far more cruel than the Japanese." In his memoirs, Colonel Eugene C. Jacobs also wrote that during the Bataan Death March, "the Korean guards were the most abusive. The Japs didn't trust them in battle, so used them as service troops; the Koreans were anxious to get blood on their bayonets; and then they thought they were veterans." Korean guards were even sent to the remote jungles of Burma, where Lt. Col. William A. (Bill) Henderson wrote from his own experience that some of the guards overlooking the construction of the Burma Railway "were moronic and at times almost bestial in their treatment of prisoners. This applied particularly to Korean private soldiers, conscripted only for guard and sentry duties in many parts of the Japanese empire. Regrettably, they were appointed as guards for the prisoners throughout the camps of Burma and Siam." The highest-ranking Korean to be prosecuted after the war is Lieutenant General Hong Sa-ik, who was in command of all the Japanese prisoner-of-war camps in the Philippines.

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. The collaborators not only benefited by exploiting their country men, but the children of these collaborators benefited further by acquiring higher eduations with the exploitation money they had amassed.

The 'Truth Commission on Forced Mobilization under the Japanese Imperialism Republic of Korea' investigated the received reports for damage from 86 people among the 148 Koreans who were accused of being the level B and C war criminals while serving as prisoner inspectors for the Japanese military during the WW2. The commission announced that they acknowledge 83 people among them as the victim. The commission said that although the people reluctantly served as the inspector to avoid the forceful draft, they took the charge of the mistreatment by the Japanese against the war prisoners. Therefore, they had to take the double sufferings in charge for the criminal penalties as the war criminal after the forceful draft. In addition, Lee Se-il, the leader of the investigation said that after the examination on the military prosecution report on 15 Korean prisoner inspectors, obtained from The National Archives of the United Kingdom, the commission confirmed the fact that they were convicted without explicit evidences.

Japanese war crimes

During Japanese occupation of Korea, many Koreans became victims of Japanese war crimes. Korean villages found hiding resistance fighters were dealt with harshly, often with summary execution, rape, forced labour, preventable famine, and looting.

Per Chosun Ilbo, to this day, valuable Korean artifacts can often be found in Japanese museums or in private collections. According to an investigation by the South Korea government, there are 75,311 cultural assets that were taken from Korea. Japan has 34,369 and the United States has 17,803. Korea frequently demands the return of these artifacts, but the United States and Japan do not comply.

Koreans, along with many other Asians, were experimented on in Unit 731, a secret military medical experimentation unit. The victims who died in the camp included at least 25 victims from the former Soviet Union, Mongolia and Korea. The forced labor toll for Korea comes to 450,000 in Japan proper.

During World War II, women who served in the Japanese military brothels were called Comfort women. Historians estimate the number of comfort women between 10,000 and 200,000, which included Japanese women. According to testimonies, cases included that of Japanese officials and local collaborators kidnapping or recruiting under guise of factory employment poor, rural women from Korea (and other nations) for sexual slavery serving the Japanese military.

As investigations continue, more evidence continues to surface. There is evidence the Japanese government intentionally destroyed 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. One such woman 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.

Colonial Korea was subject to the same Leprosy Prevention Laws of 1907 and 1931 as the Japanese home islands. These laws directly and indirectly permitted the segregation of patients in sanitariums, where forced abortions and sterilization were common. The laws also authorized punishment of patients "disturbing the peace," as most Japanese leprologists believed that vulnerability to the disease was inheritable. In Korea, many patients were also subjected to hard labor.

Atomic bomb casualties

Main article: Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Many Koreans were drafted for work at military industrial factories in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. According to the secretary-general of a group named Peace Project Network, "there were a total of 70,000 Korean victims in both cities". Japan paid South Korea 4 billion yen and built a welfare center in the name of humanitarian assistance not as a "compensation" to the victims. 40,000 were killed and 30,000 were exposed to nuclear radiation.

Controversial statements regarding Japanese rule in Korea

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 intense debate. Nonetheless, controversial pro-Japanese statements of the occupation of Korea have been made by Korean academics:

• Professor Rhee Young Hoon (이영훈) of Seoul National University made controversial remarks at a seminar hosted by the Asia-Pacific Research Center at Stanford. He stated that despite human rights problems, the Korean economy had grown greatly under the Japanese rule and the base of modern capitalism introduced by the Japanese to Korea later became a part of the foundation of the modern Korean economy.
• 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.
• Professor Emeritus Han Seung-Jo (한승조) of Korea University wrote, "The colonial rule of Korea by Japan was actually a stroke of good fortune, and instead of hating them for it, they should be thanked. There is no reason to rebuke, denounce or make criminals of the pro-Japanese activities of 35 years of cooperation without opposition." He also said in a later interview, "At the time, if Japan hadn't taken over Chosun, Russia would have, and if that had happened the Korean people would have been scattered under Joseph Stalin's racial dispersion policy." Furthermore, he states, "I see the colonial rule by Japan as having been not a bad thing, but instead an opportunity for the strengthening of the Korean people's awareness."
• Ji Man-Won (지만원), a retired South Korean military officer and author caused controversy in Korea and internationally with his view. Ji has praised Japan for "modernizing" Korea, and has claimed "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

Early views of Japanese colonialism before the start of World War II were mixed. 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."

However, not all outside accounts before the start of the war were as unfavorable towards the Japanese occupation. T. Philip Terry wrote 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."

These early interpretations were the result of Japans propaganda machine at work trying to protray Korea as a younger less civilized nation and it was noticed by some historians. One british newspaper in 1909 wrote:

"It pointed out that in an age when Korea had established its first Kingdom but Japan had yet to come up with a national name and an era when there was a flourishing culture on the peninsula but Japan did not even have a writing system, there was no possibility that Japan could have dominated any part of Korea. That such a history supported Japanese political goal was a point not lost on the Japanese editors"

Later evaluation of these propaganda for annexation have lead to the BYU research team stating:

"One of the greatest concerns of Korean scholars is the remnant of Japanese distortions of Korean history and culture at the time of the Japanese colonization of Korea",

Odd problems such as Gyeongbokgung palace being dismantled by the Japanese making it seem as if Korea did not have a sophisticated central government with a grand palace, in addition to odd pictures of Seoul, which was a walled city at the time, facing out to the wall and not in toward the city were noticed by Chosun Ilbo and the National Museum of Korea. The Korean Museum pointed out that the photo with Japanese and Korean diplomates were off-center and angled making the Japanese imperial family member the center of the photo and the same height as the Korean counter part who was taller. The museum could only speculate since no one will know why most of the photos taken on different days by different photographers were all off-center and angled in such a way. The Korea Times wrote an article about one photo which showed a Korean servant with a Japanese military officer wearing western clothes. The Korea Times wondered why the photos only had Korean homeless or servants contrasted with Japanese noble or Japanese officers and why all the photos were facing away from Seoul toward the gate. The Newspaper wrote that would be like going to Washington DC and not taking a single picture of the White house or the US national monuments and only taking pictures across the street were the homeless and drug dealers were then stating to other nations that this is the Capital of the USA. This would technically be true but an odd presentation.

Modern interpretations and arguments

Main article: Economy of South Korea

Korea experienced modernization in post-World War II 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 2.5 million people were killed. More than 80 percent of the national infrastructure was destroyed, including industrial and public facilities, and transportation works. The devastation included three-quarters of the government offices and one-half of residential areas. 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. 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 percent 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.
3. Most Korean companies, especially the large chaebol at the heart of the South Korean economic oligarchy, were founded well after the end of the Japanese occupation. Such chaebols include, but are not limited to, Samsung Electronics, Hyundai Group, LG Group, and KIA group, known as the "Big Four" in South Korea.

Japan's coverup efforts

Many argue that sensitive information about Japan's occupation of Korea is difficult to obtain, and 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 experimentation carried out by the Imperial Japanese Army where people often became 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 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, is downplayed 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, many 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 independence movement
• Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea
• Japanese war crimes
• Japanese-Korean disputes
• Chosen Army of Japan
• Chinilpa

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
• Hildi Kang (2001), Under the Black Umbrella: Voices from Colonial Korea, 1910-1945, Cornell University Press, ISBN 0-8014-7270-9

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