Colonial Period (1910 – 1945)

Keywords: March First Movement

Kim Ku Han Yong-un

The Protectorate Treaty of 1905– Japanese statesman, Ito Hirobumi entered the palace

with an escort of Japanese troops => threatened Kojong and ministers => demanded that they accept the draft treaty Japan prepared => opposition were dragged from the chamber => sealed without Kojong’s consent

– Five officials agreed including Yi Wanyong (Ŭlsa Five Thieves)

– Gave full authority over all aspects of Korea’s relations with foreign countries to the Japanese foreign office => provided for the appointment of a Japanese “resident-general”

– Kojong’s opposition to the Treaty => published in Korea Daily News in 1907

Annexation (August 22, 1910)- Prime Minister Yi Wanyong’s role- Ilchinhoe (Advance in Unity Society) : Pro-annexation group - Formal end of Chosŏn (1392-1910)- Abdication by King Sunjong on August 29

• Terauchi Masatake, Military bureaucrat (Governor-General)

• How to rule Korea effectively?

• Nationalist Movements?• Japanese/Korean segregation?• Land, human resources, mine…?• Allowing newspapers or not?

The First Phase: 1910 – 1919Dark period, amhŭkki (1910-19)• Terauchi Masatake (Governor-General,

1910-1916)• Discrimination: education, jobs• Land survey

– Land grab vs. Bureaucratization of land ownership

• Large influx of Japanese people to Korea

The First Phase: 1910 – 1919– Direct control over Korea => direct appointee of the emperor

=> could operate with considerable autonomy– Asserting that there was natural affinity between the Korean

and Japanese people => justifying the Japanese seizure of Korea in the name of progress, protection, and brotherly ties.

– Suspended publications of all Korean newspapers, disbanded political organizations, prohibited public gatherings

– Encouraged Japanese emigration and intensified economic ties to the colony

– Dual system of laws: Koreans => Japanese law and colonial decree and promulgations; Japanese => Japanese law

– Exclusion from meaningful participation in colonial governance => weak legal position of Koreans

Alienated educated Koreans and drove them into the anti-Japanese, nationalist movement

Assimilation => persuasion and negotiations failed to secure Japanese interests => compulsion

Power to Japanese colonial police => wear swords as symbols of authority (government officials and

teachers)– Controlling agency: politics, educations, religion, morals, health and

public welfare, and tax collections, slaughtering animals => major focus of Korean resentment

Carefully watched intellectuals, religious, and nationalist politicians => 50,000 arrested in 1912

Yu Kwansun

Colonial Legacy: Language

“In the Kominka campaign, the first step in acquiring and embodying the Japanese spirit is to acquire the Japanese language.”

The New People’s Association (Sinminhoe) : formed in 1907 (nationalist) by An Ch’angho=> it advocated a program of cultural activities,

education, and native economic development rather than direct resistance to Japanese rule

Keyword Presentation

An Ch’ang-ho

Education system• To socialize Koreans to be good citizens of the

Japanese Empire => Japanese customs, culture and language => legitimate Japanese Rule => Korean was taught as second language, Japanization of Korean history and culture => limiting access to college and university education => bright Koreans to Japan => exposed to radical political literature unavailable in Korea and rubbed shoulders with activist students from other countries

• Company Law (1911)

– Required Government-General approval for the formation of private and public corporations

=> Japanese company advantage

– Daiichi Ginko (Japanese bank): in 1904 currency reform

• Major capital resources

The Korean Nationalist Movement in Exile

Growing number of organizations emerged abroad => Manchuria and Russia, US (SF and LA)

The Government of the Korean Restoration Army in Manchuria

Exiled activists attempted gain assistance for the Korean independence movement through diplomatic channels by lobbying foreign government

Korean National Association (Taehan kungminhoe) formed in Hawaii (1909) by Syngman Rhee

New Women (sin yŏsŏng)- Western education- Western attire- Modern careers

- Yun Simdŏk (singer)- Ch’oe Sŭnghŭi (dancer)- Na Hyesŏk (artist, writer)

Yun Simdŏk (singer)

Ch’oe Sŭnghŭi (dancer)

Na Hyesŏk (artist, writer)

Sin Yŏsŏng magazine (1923-1934)

Colonial Period II

• How did the March First Movement precipitate a change in colonial policy?

The March First Movement– In 1919– Woodrow Wilson declared (at the Versailles Peace Conference)

• post-war peace conference (1918)• The principle of humanism• Respect for the self-determination of peoples• International cooperation

– Korean nationalists in exile saw Wilson’s principles as proof of major power interest in the plight of oppressed nations => delegation to the peace conference => denied

– After the death of the former emperor Kojong (1/22) => rumors of Japanese involvement =>inflamed anti-Japanese sentiments

– 33 religious leaders and intellectuals (national representatives) declared independence => Korea’s liberty and equality within the world of nations

– Nation-wide peaceful movement– Failed– Unity of Koreans => mass nationalist movement– The Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea formed in 1919 in

Shanghai

The Cultural Policy Reforms (1919-1931)

– Saito Makoto (Governor-General)– In the political sphere

• Recruit more Koreans in the civil service• Appoint Koreans to judgeships• Provide more local autonomy

– Education system• Promising equality of opportunity• Expansion of common schools

– Publications• Permit Korean language newspapers and magazines => censorship applied

– Removed restrictions on organizations and allowed more freedom of association => youth, religious, educational, academic, social, and labor/peasants

– Change in the Company Law: companies needed to register their existence, not receive permission => Korean capitalists => development of national capital => Kim Sŏngsu’s Kyŏngsŏng Spinning and Weaving Company (1919)

• Radio broadcasting started in 1927• Urbanization

– Two faces of the city• Center of education, Japanese culture, western culture• Cheap labors factory workers• New vs. Old

– Kyŏngsŏng Broadcasting Company in 1926– Radio broadcasting started in 1927– telephone registered in Seoul => 82% Japanese– 100 % of Japanese residences used electricity– 10% of Korean residences used electricity

• Resistance– Cultural nationalist (moderate nationalists)

• Gradual approach to solving problems of independence • Raise the level of national consciousness• Literacy

– Education– The cultivation of future national leaders

• Economic development

– Singanhoe (New Korea Society, 1927-1931): provided common base for moderates, radicals and

communists• 386 branches, 76,939 members in 1930• Coordinated youth groups, labor and peasant

groups, and intellectual societies => vehicle for coordinated nationalist activity• Factions in the organization: radicals vs.

communists• Communists dominated local branches => radicals voted for disbanding in 1931

Phase III: Japan in War (1931-1945)

– Manchu Incident in 1931– Formed the puppet state of Manchuku =>

natural resources– War with China in 1937– The Pacific War in 1941 War with US 1941 with bombing of Pearl Harbor

- 1936 Berlin Olympics: Son Kijŏng won gold medal in marathon

Forced assimilation, mobilization – Under the slogans of “Japan and Korea as one body” (Naisen

ittai) and “Harmony between Japan and Korea” (Nissen yuwa)

– Rescript on Education• Extended hours in Japanese languages, ethics and history• Introducing the Pledge for Imperial Subjects• Combining Korean and Japanese normal school =>

Japanese only in school– Shinto ceremony– The Name Order => change names in Japanese style– Pro-Japanese organization operated boldly– More Korean workers in the government: rise in low position,

drop in high position => turning Korean against Korean

Name Order of 1939

• Keep Korean sŏng but add Japanese ssi• Easy to identify Korean person from

Japanese person• Married woman takes husband’s ssi

Forced Assimilation and Mobilization (1937-45)

War mobilization• War effort• Military conscription• Military sexual slavery

Forced assimilation, Mobilization

Mobilization of labor to insure production for the war effort• Worked in the mines and factories of Japan and

Manchuria• Schools became prime target of the war mobilization

– Ceremonies for departing troops– Labor service in construction or in the fields– Half-time workers

• Korean men in military services

Park Chung Hee

• Takagi Masao• 1917-1979• Manchukuo Imperial Army Academy• Army Staff College in Japan• Lieutenant in Manchukuo Imperial Army

Comfort women

• Military sexual slavery– 60,000-200,000 women– Ages 11-24 (mostly 14-19)– Brothel conditions, disease

• Comfort corps as euphemism

“Comfort Women”

No Tôksul 노덕술 , “The King of Torture”

Studies in Contrast

Military sexual slavery after 1945– What happened to them in 1945?– Japanese government role– Batavia War Crimes Tribunal– Silencing, blame, shame– Denials and ambiguous apologies (PM

Miyazawa in 1992)– Issue of 1965 ROK-Japan Normalization

Treaty– Asian Women’s Fund (1995)– Put focus on women, not nation or males

Keijo: The Colonial Capital

• Several million Koreans had been uprooted from their homes and sent to work abroad

• Korean languages publications all disappeared

• Korean cultural activity banned

• War ended in August 1945

End of War

• war shortages• eminent defeat for Japan• atomic bombs on Hiroshima (8/6/1945)

and Nagasaki (8/9/1945)• Japanese surrender 8/15/1945• “Liberation” but not freedom

Colonial Legacy Political and Ideological Terrain

• Cultural Policy: “Divide and Conquer”– national liberation vs. cultural nationalism

• China: alliance with KMT vs. membership in CCP• Manchuria: guerrilla warfare• U.S.: Wilson and national self-determination• Soviet Union: Lenin and emancipation of the proletariat

Syngman RHEE 이승만 KIM Ku 김구 KIM Mu Chông 김무정 KIM Il Sung 김일성

Becoming loyal subjects of the emperor (1943)

Kwangbok Restoration Army

Northeast Anti-Japanese United Army(guerilla fighters with CCP)

Kim Il Sung