http://www.columbia.edu/itc/eacp/japanworks/ KOREA 1910-1945: COLONIALISM, LIBERATION, AND CIVIL WAR
Japanese Colonial Rule (1910-1945)
*Japanese colonial rule (1910-1945) was a deeply ambivalent experience for Koreans.
On the one hand, Japanese colonialism was often quite harsh. For the first ten years
Japan ruled directly through the military, and any Korean dissent was ruthlessly crushed.
After a nationwide protest against Japanese colonialism that began on March 1, 1919,
Japanese rule relaxed somewhat, allowing a limited degree of freedom of expression for Koreans.
*On the other hand, this 35-year period was the time when many feature of modernity
appeared in Korea, including rapid urban growth, commerce, industry, and forms of modern
mass culture such as radio and cinema. Unlike most European colonizers, who tended to use
colonies for the extraction of natural resources and agricultural goods, Japan encouraged
industrial development in its Korean colony, especially in the northern part of the peninsula
where most of the mineral resources and hydroelectric power potential were located.
*By the time of the Japanese surrender in August 1945, Korea was the second-most
industrialized nation in Asia after Japan itself.
*But the wartime mobilization of 1937-45 had reintroduced harsh measures to Japanese
colonial rule, as Koreans were forced to work in Japanese factories and were sent as soldiers
to the front. Tens of thousands of young Korean women were drafted as ÅgComfort WomenÅh - in effect,
sexual slaves - for Japanese soldiers.
*In 1939, Koreans were even pressured by the colonial authorities to change their names
to Japanese names, and more than 80 percent of the Koreans complied with the name-change