From 1910 to 1945, Korea was ruled by the Empire of Japan as a colony under the name Chōsen (), the Japanese reading of "Joseon".
Japan first took Korea into its sphere of influence during the late 1800s. Both Korea (Joseon) and Japan had been under policies of isolationism, with Joseon being a tributary state of Qing China. However, in 1854, Japan was forcibly opened by the United States. It then rapidly modernized under the Meiji Restoration, while Joseon continued to resist foreign attempts to open it up. Japan eventually succeeded in forcefully opening Joseon with the unequal<!-- This word comes from unequal treaty, which is a term frequently used to describe this treaty --> Japan–Korea Treaty of 1876. Afterwards, Japan embarked on a decades-long process of defeating its local rivals, securing alliances with Western powers, and asserting its influence in Korea. Japan assassinated the defiant Korean queen and intervened in the Donghak Peasant Revolution. After Japan defeated China in the 1894–1895 First Sino–Japanese War, Joseon became nominally independent and declared the short-lived Korean Empire. Japan defeated Russia in the 1904–1905 Russo-Japanese War, making it the sole regional power.
Japan acted quickly to fully absorb Korea. It first made Korea a protectorate under the Japan–Korea Treaty of 1905, and ruled the country indirectly through the Japanese resident-general of Korea. After forcing Emperor Gojong to abdicate in 1907, Japan formally annexed Korea with the Japan–Korea Treaty of 1910. For decades it administered the territory by its appointed governor-general of Chōsen, who was based in Keijō (Seoul). Japan made sweeping changes in Korea. Under the pretext of the racial theory known as Nissen dōsoron, it began a process of Japanization, eventually functionally banning the use of Korean names and the Korean language altogether. Its forces transported tens of thousands of cultural artifacts to Japan. Hundreds of historic buildings, such as the Gyeongbokgung and Deoksugung palaces, were either partially or completely demolished.
Japan built infrastructure and industry to develop the colony. It directed the construction of railways, ports, and roads, although in numerous cases, workers were subjected to extremely poor working circumstances and discriminatory pay. While Korea's economy grew under Japan, scholars argue that many of the infrastructure projects were designed to extract resources from the peninsula, and not to benefit its people. In addition, Koreans faced heavy taxation, with rates in some cases exceeding 50%.
These conditions led to the birth of the Korean independence movement, which acted both politically and militantly, sometimes within the Japanese Empire, but mostly from outside of it. Koreans were subjected to a number of mass murders, including the Gando Massacre, Kantō Massacre, Jeamni massacre, and Shinano River incident. Beginning in 1939 and during World War II, Japan mobilized around 5.4 million Koreans to support its war effort. Many were moved forcefully from their homes, and set to work in generally extremely poor working conditions. Many women and girls were forced into sexual slavery as "comfort women" to Japanese soldiers. In addition to these atrocities, millions of Koreans fell victim to various Japanese war crimes throughout the colonial period, including forced labor, human experimentation, and systemic starvation. Ultimately, the nature of Japanese imperial rule and its widespread war crimes led to immense suffering and loss of life, leaving a deep and lasting scar on the nation's history. After the surrender of Japan at the end of the war, Korea was liberated from Japanese colonial rule, but was immediately divided into occupation zones under the rule of the Soviet Union and of the United States.
The legacy of Japanese colonization has been hotly contested, and it continues to be extremely controversial. There is a significant range of opinions in both South Korea and Japan, and historical topics regularly cause diplomatic issues. Within South Korea, a particular focus is the role of the numerous ethnic Korean collaborators with Japan. They have been variously punished or left alone. This controversy is exemplified in the legacy of Park Chung Hee, South Korea's most influential and controversial president. He collaborated with the Japanese military and continued to praise it even after the colonial period. Until 1964, South Korea and Japan had no functional diplomatic relations, until they signed the Treaty on Basic Relations. It declared "already null and void" all treaties made between the Empires of Japan and Korea on or before 22 August 1910. Despite this, relations between Japan and South Korea have oscillated between warmer and cooler periods, often due to conflicts over the historiography of this era.
Terminology
During the period of Japanese colonial rule, Korea was officially known as ,
In South Korea, the period is usually described as the "Imperial Japanese compulsive occupation period" (). Other terms, although often considered obsolete, include "Japanese Imperial Period" (), "The dark Japanese Imperial Period" (), and "Wae (Japanese) administration period" ().
In Japan, the term has been used.
Background
Political turmoil in Korea
Japan–Korea Treaty of 1876
400px|thumb|Japanese marines landing from the Unyo at [[Yeongjong Island which is near Ganghwa]]
On 27 February 1876, the Japan–Korea Treaty of 1876 was signed. It was designed to open up Korea to Japanese trade, and the rights granted to Japan under the treaty were similar to those granted Western powers in Japan following the visit of Commodore Perry in 1854.
Imo Incident
The regent Daewongun, who remained opposed to any concessions to Japan or the West, helped organize the Mutiny of 1882, an anti-Japanese outbreak against Queen Min and her allies. Motivated by resentment of the preferential treatment given to newly trained troops, the Daewongun's forces, or "old military", killed a Japanese training cadre, and attacked the Japanese legation. policemen, students, and some Min clan members were also killed during the incident. The Daewongun was briefly restored to power, only to be forcibly taken to China by Chinese troops dispatched to Seoul to prevent further disorder. According to a Russian eyewitness, Seredin-Sabatin, an employee of the king, a group of Japanese agents entered Gyeongbokgung, killed Queen Min, and desecrated her body in the north wing of the palace.
The Heungseon Daewongun returned to the royal palace the same day.
Democracy protests and the proclamation of the Korean Empire
In 1896, various Korean activists formed the Independence Club. They advocated a number of societal reforms, including democracy and a constitutional monarchy, and pushed for closer ties to Western countries in order to counterbalance Japanese influence. It went on to be influential in Korean politics for the short time that it operated, to the chagrin of Gojong. Gojong eventually forcefully disbanded the organization in 1898.
In October 1897, Gojong returned to the palace Deoksugung, and proclaimed the founding of the Korean Empire at the royal altar Hwangudan. This symbolicly asserted Korea's independence from China, especially as Gojong demolished a reception hall that was once used to entertain Chinese ambassadors in order to build the altar.
Prelude to annexation
thumb|180px|Flag of the Japanese Resident General of Korea (1905–1910)
Having established economic and military dominance in Korea in October 1904, Japan reported that it had developed 25 reforms which it intended to introduce into Korea by gradual degrees. Among these was the intended acceptance by the Korean Financial Department of a Japanese Superintendent, the replacement of Korean Foreign Ministers and consuls by Japanese and the "union of military arms" in which the military of Korea would be modeled after the Japanese military. These reforms were forestalled by the prosecution of the Russo-Japanese War from 8 February 1904, to 5 September 1905, which Japan won, thus eliminating Japan's last rival to influence in Korea.
Frustrated by this, King Gojong invited Alice Roosevelt Longworth, who was on a tour of Asian countries with William Howard Taft, to the Imperial Palace on 20 September 1905, to seek political support from the United States despite her diplomatic rudeness. However, it was after exchanging opinions through the Taft–Katsura agreement on 27 July 1905, that America and Japan would not interfere with each other on colonial issues.
Under the Treaty of Portsmouth, signed in September 1905, Russia acknowledged Japan's "paramount political, military, and economic interest" in Korea. A large number of Koreans organized themselves in education and reform movements, but Japanese dominance in Korea had become a reality. In response, the Japanese government took stronger measures. On 19 July 1907, Emperor Gojong was forced to relinquish his imperial authority and appoint the Crown Prince as 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 nor Sunjong were present at the 'accession' ceremony. Sunjong was to be the last ruler of the Joseon dynasty, founded in 1392.
On 24 July 1907, a treaty was signed under the leadership of Lee Wan-yong and former Japanese Prime Minister Ito Hirobumi to transfer all rights of Korea to Japan. This led to a large-scale righteous army movement among Koreans, and disbanded troops joined the resistance forces. Japan's response to this was a scorched earth tactic using division-sized troops, which resulted in the movement of armed resistance organizations in Korea to Manchuria and Imperial Russia. Amid this confusion, on 26 October 1909, Ahn Jung-geun, a former volunteer soldier and a Korean nationalist, assassinated Hirobumi in Harbin.
Meanwhile, pro-Japanese populist groups such as the Iljinhoe assisted Japan as they were fascinated by Japan's pan-Asianism, hoping that Korea would have self-autonomy. They served as representative consultant for Ryohei Uchida, and were used for propaganda with the support of the Japanese government. On 3 December 1909, he and Lee Wan-yong issued a statement demanding a political alliance with Japan.
However, it took the form of Japan's annexation of Korean territory and these groups was disbanded by Terauchi Masatake on 26 September 1910.
Militant resistance
thumb|200px|Battle of Namdaemun in 1907 – [[Le Petit Journal (newspaper)|Le Petit Journal]]
During the prelude to the 1910 annexation, a number of irregular civilian militias known as "righteous armies" arose. They consisted of tens of thousands of peasants engaged in anti-Japanese armed rebellion. After the Korean army was disbanded in 1907, former soldiers joined the armies and fought the Japanese army at Namdaemun. They were defeated, and largely fled into Manchuria, where they joined the guerrilla resistance movement that persisted until Korea's 1945 liberation.
Military police
As Korean resistance against Japanese rule intensified, Japanese replaced the Korean police system with their military police, the Kempeitai. Akashi Motojiro was appointed the commander of Japanese military police forces. The Japanese eventually replaced Imperial Korean police forces in June 1910, and they combined police forces and military police, firmly establishing the rule of military police. After the annexation, Akashi started to serve as the Chief of Police. These military police officers started to have great authority over Koreans. Not only Japanese but also Koreans served as police officers.
Japan–Korea annexation treaty (1910)
200px|thumb|General power of attorney to [[Lee Wan-yong sealed and signed, by the last emperor, Sunjong on 22 August 1910 ()]]
In May 1910, the Minister of War of Japan, Terauchi Masatake, was given a mission to finalize Japanese control over Korea after the previous treaties (the Japan–Korea Treaty of February 1904 and the Japan–Korea 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 Treaty of 1910 signed by Ye Wanyong, Prime Minister of Korea, and Terauchi Masatake, who became the first Governor-General of Chōsen.
The treaty 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 already void in the 1965 Treaty on Basic Relations between Japan and the Republic of Korea.
This period is also known as Military Police Reign Era (1910–19) in which police had the authority to rule the entire country. Japan was in control of the media, law, as well as government by physical power and regulations.
In March 2010, 109 Korean intellectuals and 105 Japanese intellectuals met on the 100th anniversary of Japan–Korea Treaty of 1910 where they jointly declared this annexation treaty null and void. They declared these statements separately in their capital cities (Seoul and Tōkyō) with a simultaneous press conference. They announced the "Japanese empire pressured the outcry of the Korean Empire and people and forced by Japan–Korea Treaty of 1910 and full text of a treaty was false and text of the agreement was also false". They also declared the "Process and formality of "Japan–Korea Treaty of 1910" had huge deficiencies and therefore the treaty was null and void. This implied the March First Movement was not an illegal movement.
Early years and expansion (1910–1941)
Japanese migration and land ownership
From around the time of the First Sino-Japanese War of 1894–1895, Japanese merchants started settling in towns and cities in Korea seeking economic opportunity. By 1908 the number of Japanese settlers in Korea was somewhere below the figure of 500,000, comprising one of the nikkei communities in the world at the time.
150px|thumb|[[Terauchi Masatake, the first Governor-General]]
260px|thumb|Headquarters of the [[Oriental Development Company in Keijō]]
Many Japanese settlers showed interest in acquiring agricultural land in Korea even before Japanese land-ownership was officially legalized in 1906. Governor-General Terauchi Masatake facilitated settlement through land reform. The Korean land-ownership system featured absentee landlords, only partial owner-tenants and cultivators with traditional (but no legal proof of) ownership. By 1920, 90 percent of Korean land had proper ownership of Koreans. Terauchi's new Land Survey Bureau conducted cadastral surveys that established ownership on the basis of written proof (deeds, titles, and similar documents). The system denied ownership to those who could not provide such written documentation; these turned out to be mostly high-class and impartial owners who had only traditional verbal cultivator-rights. Japanese landlords included both individuals and corporations (such as the Oriental Development Company). Because of these developments, Japanese landownership soared, as did the amount of land taken over by private Japanese companies.
Many former Korean landowners, as well as agricultural workers, became tenant farmers, having lost their entitlements almost overnight because they could not pay for the land reclamation and irrigation improvements forced on them. Compounding the economic stresses imposed on the Korean peasantry, the authorities forced Korean peasants to do long days of compulsory labor to build irrigation works; Japanese imperial officials made peasants pay for these projects in the form of heavy taxes, impoverishing many of them and causing even more of them lose their land. Although many other subsequent developments placed ever greater strain on Korea's peasants, Japan's rice shortage in 1918 was the greatest catalyst for hardship. During that shortage, Japan looked to Korea for increased rice cultivation; as Korean peasants started producing more for Japan, however, the amount they took to eat dropped precipitously, causing much resentment among them.
By 1910 an estimated 7 to 8% of all arable land in Korea had come under Japanese control. This ratio increased steadily; as of the years 1916, 1920, and 1932, the ratio of Japanese land ownership increased from 36.8 to 39.8 to 52.7%. The level of tenancy was similar to that of farmers in Japan itself; however, in Korea, the landowners were mostly Japanese, while the tenants were all Koreans. As often occurred in Japan itself, tenants had to pay over half their crop in rent.
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 throughout the Second World War, the government recognized landlordism as an impediment to increased agricultural productivity, and took steps to increase control over the rural sector through the formation in Japan in 1943 of the , a compulsory organization under the wartime command economy.
The Japanese government had hoped emigration to its colonies would mitigate the population boom in the naichi(内地), but had largely failed to accomplish this by 1936. According to figures from 1934, Japanese in Chōsen numbered approximately 561,000 out of a total population of over 21 million, less than 3%. By 1939 the Japanese population increased to 651,000, mostly from Japan's western prefectures. During the same period, the population in Chōsen grew faster than that in the naichi. Koreans also migrated to the naichi in large numbers, especially after 1930; by 1939 there were over 981,000 Koreans living in Japan. Challenges which deterred Japanese from migrating into Chōsen included lack of arable land and population density comparable to that of Japan.]]
Japan sent anthropologists to Korea who took photos of the traditional state of Korean villages, serving as evidence that Korea was "backwards" and needed to be modernized.
In 1925, the Japanese government established the Korean History Compilation Committee, and it was administered by the Governor-General and engaged in collecting Korean historical materials and compiling Korean history. According to the Doosan Encyclopedia, some mythology was incorporated. The committee supported the theory of a Japanese colony on the Korean Peninsula called Mimana,
Japan executed the first modern archaeological excavations in Korea. The Japanese administration also relocated some artifacts; for instance, a stone monument (棕蟬縣神祠碑), which was originally located in the Liaodong Peninsula, then under Japanese control, was taken out of its context and moved to Pyongyang. As of April 2020, 81,889 Korean cultural artifacts are in Japan. According to the Overseas Korean Cultural Heritage Foundation, not all the artifacts were moved illegally. Adding to the challenge of repatriating illegally exported Korean cultural properties is the lack of experts in Korean art at overseas museums and institutions, alterations made to artifacts that obscure their origin, and that moving Korean artifacts within what was previously internationally recognized Japanese territory was lawful at the time. The South Korean government has been continuing its efforts to repatriate Korean artifacts from museums and private collections overseas. Hundreds of historic buildings in Deoksugung were also destroyed to make way for the . The displays in the museum reportedly intentionally contrasted traditional Korean art with examples of modern Japanese art, in order to portray Japan as progressive and legitimize Japanese rule.
The Governor-General instituted a law in 1933 in order to preserve Korea's most important historical artifacts. The system established by this law, retained as the present-day National Treasures of South Korea and National Treasures of North Korea, was intended to preserve Korean historical artifacts, including those not yet unearthed. Japan's 1871 Edict for the Preservation of Antiquities and Old Items could not be automatically applied to Korea due to Japanese law, which required an imperial ordinance to apply the edict in Korea. The 1933 law to protect Korean cultural heritages was based on the Japanese 1871 edict.
Anti-Chinese riots of 1931
thumb|Chinese anti-Japanese poster published after reprisals by Koreans
Due to a waterway construction permit, in the small town of Wanpaoshan in Manchuria near Changchun, "violent clashes" broke out between the local Chinese and Korean immigrants on 2 July 1931. The Chosun Ilbo, a major Korean newspaper, misreported that many Koreans had died in the clashes, sparking a Chinese exclusion movement in urban areas of the Korean Peninsula. The worst of the rioting occurred in Pyongyang on 5 July. Approximately 127 Chinese people were killed, 393 wounded, and a considerable number of properties were destroyed by Korean residents.
Order to change names
In 1911, the proclamation "Matter Concerning the Changing of Korean Names" (') was issued, barring ethnic Koreans from taking Japanese names and retroactively reverting the names of Koreans who had already registered under Japanese names back to the original Korean ones. By 1939, however, this position was reversed and Japan's focus had shifted towards cultural assimilation of the Korean people; Imperial Decree 19 and 20 on Korean Civil Affairs (Sōshi-kaimei) went into effect, whereby ethnic Koreans were forced to surrender their traditional use of clan-based Korean family name system, in favor of a new surname to be used in the family register. The surname could be of their own choosing, including their native clan name, but in practice many Koreans received a Japanese surname. There is controversy over whether or not the adoption of a Japanese surname was effectively mandatory, or merely strongly encouraged.
{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible mw-collapsed"
|+ Number of renaming applications in 1940
! Month !! household !! % </tr>
| Feb. || 15,746 || 0.4% </tr>
| Mar. || 61,579 || 1.5% </tr>
| Apr. || 157,074 || 3.9% </tr>
| May. || 500,840 || 12.5% </tr>
| Jun. || 1,081,564 || 27.0% </tr>
| Jul. || 2,153,393 || 53.7% </tr>
| Aug. || 3,220,693 || 80.3%
|}
World War II
National Mobilization Law
Forcing of labor and migration
219x219px|thumb|Japan-Korea Cooperative Unity, World Leader. – The notion of racial and imperial unity of Korea and Japan gained widespread following among the literate minority of the middle and upper classes.160px|thumb|[[Kuniaki Koiso, Governor-General of Chōsen from 1942 to 1944, implemented a draft of Koreans for wartime labor.]]
From 1939, labor shortages as a result of conscription of Japanese men for the military efforts of 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 in Korea, Manchukuo, and the involuntary relocation of workers to Japan itself as needed.
The combination of immigrants and forced laborers during World War II brought the total to over 2 million Koreans in Japan by the end of the war, according to estimates by the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers.
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 conditions that have been described as appalling and dangerous. Although Koreans were reportedly treated better than laborers from other countries, large numbers still died. In Japan, 60,000 of the 670,000 mobilized laborers died. In Korea and Manchuria, estimates of deaths range between 270,000 and 810,000.
Korean laborers were also found as far as the Tarawa Atoll, where during the Battle of Tarawa only 129 of the 1200 laborers survived. According to testimonies in Japanese records, Korean laborers on the Mili Atoll were given "whale meat" to consume, which was actually human flesh from other dead Koreans. They rebelled after learning the truth, and were killed by the dozens in the aftermath. Korean laborers also worked in Korea itself, notably in Jeju where in the later stages of the Pacific War, Korean laborers expanded airfields and built facilities at Altteureu Airfield in order to block a US invasion of the Japanese mainland and in 1945 laborers on Songaksan (where several airstrips were located) were ordered to smooth down the slope in order to prevent American tanks being able to go up.
Most Korean atomic-bomb victims in Japan had been drafted for work at military industrial factories in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In the name of humanitarian assistance, Japan paid South Korea four billion yen (approx. thirty five million dollars) and built a welfare center for those suffering from the effects of the atomic bomb.
Korean service in the Japanese military
{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="float:left;"
|+ Korean military participation until 1943
! Year !! Applicants !! Applicants<br />accepted !!Acceptance<br />rate [%]</tr>
| 1938 || 2,946 || 406 || 13.8 </tr>
| 1939 || 12,348 || 613 || 5.0 </tr>
| 1940 || 84,443 || 3,060 || 3.6 </tr>
| 1941 || 144,743 || 3,208 || 2.2 </tr>
| 1942 || 254,273 || 4,077 || 1.6 </tr>
| 1943 || 303,294 || 6,300 || 2.1 </tr>
|}
thumb|right|Korean royalty of the [[House of Yi (front row, right to left): Yi Wu, Yi Geon and Yi Un as officers of the Imperial Japanese Army, together with members of the Japanese imperial family at the Yasukuni Shrine, 1938]]
Japan did not draft ethnic Koreans into its military until 1944 when the tide of World War II turned against it. Until 1944, enlistment in the Imperial Japanese Army by ethnic Koreans was voluntary, and highly competitive. From a 14% acceptance rate in 1938, it dropped to a 2% acceptance rate in 1943 while the raw number of applicants increased from 3000 per annum to 300,000 in just five years during World War II. Recent scholarly research indicates that the Japanese authorities employed substantial coercive and administrative pressure during the recruitment of Koreans into military service in the late colonial era. According to historian Pyo Young-Soo, while the authorities formally characterized the process as "voluntary enlistment," archival documentation reveals systemic use of coercive mechanisms, such as issuing enlistment orders and invoking regulatory authority to secure compliance.
{| class="wikitable sortable mw-collapsible mw-collapsed" style="float:right;"
|+ Motivation of Korean Applicants in 1941
! age !! Applicants !! Compulsion !! Etc. !! Total</tr>
| 17 || 5,673 || 9,355 || 1,915 || 16,943 </tr>
| 18 || 6,943 || 11,089 || 2,012 || 20,044 </tr>
| 19 || 7,771 || 12,117 || 2,318 || 22,206 </tr>
| 20 || 7,591 || 11,844 || 2,125 || 21,560 </tr>
| 21 || 6,486 || 10,704 || 1,742 || 18,932 </tr>
| 22 || 5,357 || 8,722 || 1,610 || 15,689 </tr>
| 23 || 3,965 || 6,682 || 1,132 || 11,779 </tr>
| 24 || 2,694 || 4,347 || 1,146 || 8,187 </tr>
| 25+ || 3,704 || 4,812 || 1,190 || 9,706 </tr>
| Total || 50,184 || 79,672 ||15,190 || 145,046 </tr>
| % || 34.6% || 55.0% || 10.4% || 100% </tr>
|}
thumb|160px|[[Park Chung Hee, future leader of South Korea, as a soldier of the Manchukuo Imperial Army]]
Other Korean officers who served Japan moved on to successful careers in post-colonial South Korea. Examples include Park Chung Hee, who became president of South Korea; Chung Il-kwon, prime minister from 1964 to 1970; Paik Sun-yup, South Korea's youngest general who was famous for his command of the 1st Infantry Division during the defense of the Pusan Perimeter, and Kim Suk-won, a colonel of the Imperial Japanese Army who subsequently became a general of the South Korean army. The first ten of the Chiefs of Army Staff of South Korea graduated from the Imperial Japanese Army Academy and none from the Korean Liberation Army.
Officer cadets had been joining the Japanese Army since before the annexation by attending the Imperial Japanese Army Academy. Enlisted soldier 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, who served in the Korean War. Historian Philip Jowett noted that during the Japanese occupation of Manchuria, the Gando Special Force "earned a reputation for brutality and was reported to have laid waste to large areas which came under its rule".
Starting in 1944, Japan started the conscription of Koreans into the armed forces. All Korean men 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 workers to mines and construction sites around Japan. The number of conscripted Koreans reached its peak in 1944 in preparation for war. From 1944, about 200,000 Korean men were inducted into the army.
During World War II, American soldiers frequently encountered Korean soldiers within the ranks of the Imperial 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, where on the last night of the battle a combined 300 Japanese soldiers and Korean laborers did a last ditch charge. Like their Japanese counterparts, many of them were killed.
The Japanese, however, did not always believe they could rely on Korean laborers to fight alongside them. In Prisoners of the Japanese, author Gaven Daws wrote, "[O]n Tinian there were five thousand Korean laborers and so as not to have hostiles at their back when the Americans invaded, the Japanese killed them."
After the war, 148 Koreans were convicted of Class B and C Japanese 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. The figure is relatively high considering that ethnic Koreans made up a small percentage of the Japanese military. Judge Bert Röling, who represented the Netherlands at the International Military Tribunal for the Far East, 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 wrote that during the Bataan Death March, "the Korean guards were the most abusive. The Japanese 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 sent to the remote jungles of Burma, where Lt. Col. William A. (Bill) Henderson wrote from his own experience that some of the guards overseeing 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 was Lieutenant General Hong Sa-ik, who was in command of all the Japanese prisoner-of-war camps in the Philippines.
Comfort women
thumb|Korean comfort women on Okinawa being interviewed by U.S. marines after liberation
During World War II many ethnic Korean girls and women (mostly aged 12–17) were forced by the Japanese military to become sex slaves on the pretext of being hired for jobs such as a seamstresses or factory workers and were forced to provide sexual service for Japanese soldiers by agencies or their families against their wishes. These women were euphemistically called "comfort women".
According to an interrogation report by U.S. Army in 1944, comfort women were in good physical health. They were able to have a checkup once a week and to receive treatment lest they spread disease to the Japanese soldiers but not for their own health. However a 1996 United Nations Report detailed that "large numbers of women were forced to submit to prolonged prostitution under conditions which were frequently indescribably traumatic". Documents that survived the war revealed "beyond doubt the extent to which the Japanese forces took direct responsibility for the comfort stations" and that the published practices were "in stark contrast with the brutality and cruelty of the practice". Chizuko Ueno at Kyoto University cautions against the claim that women were not forced as the fact that "no positive sources exist supporting claims that comfort women were forced labor" must be treated with doubt, since "it is well known that the great majority of potentially damaging official documents were destroyed in anticipation of the Allied occupation".
The Asian Women's Fund claimed that during World War II the Imperial Japanese Army recruited anywhere from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of women from occupied territories to be used as sex slaves. Yoshimi Yoshiaki asserted that possibly hundreds of thousands of girls and women, mainly from China and the Korean Peninsula but also Southeast Asian countries occupied by the Imperial Japanese Army, as well as Australia and the Netherlands, were forced to serve as comfort women. According to testimonies, young women were abducted from their homes in countries under Imperial Japanese rule. In many cases women were lured with promises of work in factories or restaurants. In some cases propaganda advocated equity and the sponsorship of women in higher education. Other enticements were false advertising for nursing jobs at outposts or Japanese army bases; once recruited, they were incarcerated in comfort stations both inside their nations and abroad.
From the early nineties onward, former Korean comfort women have continued to protest against the Japanese government for apparent historical negationism of crimes committed by the Imperial Japanese Army and have sought compensation for their sufferings during the war. There has also been international support for compensation, such as from the European Union, the Netherlands, Canada and the Philippines. The United States passed House of Representatives House Resolution 121 on 30 July 2007, asking the Japanese government to redress the situation and to incorporate comfort women into school curriculum. Hirofumi Hayashi at the University of Manchester argues that the resolution has helped to counter the "arguments of ultrarightists flooding the mainstream mass media" and warned against the rationalization of the comfort women system.
Religion and ideology
Protestant Christian missionary efforts in Asia were quite successful in Korea. American Presbyterians and Methodists arrived in the 1880s and were well received. They served as medical and educational missionaries, establishing schools and hospitals in numerous cities. In the years when Korea was under Japanese control, some Koreans adopted Christianity as an expression of nationalism in opposition to the Japan's efforts to promote the Japanese language and the Shinto religion.
In 1914 of 16 million Koreans, there were 86,000 Protestants and 79,000 Catholics. By 1934 the numbers were 168,000 and 147,000, respectively. Presbyterian missionaries were especially successful. Harmonizing with traditional practices became an issue. The Protestants developed a substitute for Confucian ancestral rites by merging Confucian-based and Christian death and funerary rituals.
Korean independence movement
Guerrilla resistance in Manchuria and Russia
Since the early 1900s, numerous Koreans based in Manchuria and Primorsky Krai in Russia waged a guerrilla war against the Japanese occupation. Beom-do Hong's unit ambushed and annihilated the Imperial Japanese Army that was advancing in Battle of Bongodong (Fengwudong) in June 1920. The combined forces of the independence army commanded by Kim Chwajin and Hong, while repeatedly retreating operationally, ambushed and killed about 1,500 Imperial Japanese soldiers in Battle of Cheongsanri (Qīngshānlǐ). In retaliation to the heavy losses at the Battle of Cheongsanri, the Imperial Japanese Army committed the Gando Massacre, massacring between 5,000 and tens of thousands of Korean civilians in Gando. 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 elsewhere in China, or to join the Red Army-backed forces in eastern Russia. One of the guerrilla leaders in this region was the future dictator of North Korea, Kim Il Sung. These experiences served as a basis for Kim's legitimacy after the liberation of Korea.
March First Movement
thumb|Korean Christians were [[Crucifixion|crucified in the aftermath of the March 1st Movement protests (1919)]]
In January 1919, Emperor Gojong died suddenly, which led to widespread . Anti-Japanese sentiment flared amongst Koreans. In Tokyo, Korean students issued a February 8 Declaration of Independence that declared Korea independent from Japan. Inspired by this, Koreans in Seoul issued their own declaration of independence, which was prominently read aloud in Tapgol Park. This gave rise to the nationwide March 1 Movement peaceful protests; it is estimated that 2 million people took part in these rallies. However, they were violently suppressed by Japan; according to Korean records, over a year of demonstrations, 46,948 were arrested, 7,509 killed and 15,961 wounded.
Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea
thumb|Early members of the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea (1919)
After the repression of the March 1st Movement protests, Koreans fled the peninsula. A number of them congregated in Shanghai a month after the protests and founded a government-in-exile: the Korean Provisional Government (KPG). The government was highly diverse, with both left- and right-leaning members, and engaged in a range of political and militant efforts that advocated for Korea's independence. In 1931, member Kim Ku founded the Korean Patriotic Organization (KPO), a militant arm of the KPG. The KPO planned a number of attacks on Japanese government and colonial officials, including a 1932 assassination attempt on Emperor Hirohito and a bombing at a military rally in Shanghai.
After the Shanghai bombing, they were forced to flee the city, and eventually settled in Chongqing,
Resistance within Korea
Within Korea itself, anti-Japanese rallies continued on multiple occasions. In 1926, the June Tenth Movement broke out in Keijō (Seoul) during the funeral of King Sunjong of Korea. Most notably, the Gwangju(Kōshū) Students Independence 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 Teigan, Suigen District, Keiki Prefecture (now Jeam-ri, Hwaseong, Gyeonggi Province) for example, a group of 29 people were gathered inside a church which was then set afire.(Jeamni massacre)
On 10 December 1941, the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea, under the presidency of Kim Ku, declared war on Japan and Germany.
Independence and division of Korea
Following the dropping of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Soviet invasion of Manchuria, and the impending overrun of the Korean Peninsula by U.S. and Soviet forces, Japan surrendered to the Allied forces on 15 August 1945, ending 35 years of Japanese colonial rule, though Japanese troops remained in Southern Korea for several more weeks until fully withdrawing by mid-September.
American forces under General John R. Hodge arrived at the southern part of the Korean Peninsula on 8 September 1945, while the Soviet Army and some Korean Communists had stationed themselves in the northern part of the Korean Peninsula. U.S. Colonel Dean Rusk proposed to Chischakov, the Soviet military administrator of northern Korea, that Korea should be split at the 38th parallel. This proposal was made at an emergency meeting to determine postwar spheres of influence, which led to the division of Korea.
After the liberation of Korea from Japanese rule, the "Name Restoration Order" was issued on 23 October 1946 by the United States Army Military Government in Korea south of the 38th parallel, enabling Koreans to restore their names if they wished. Many Koreans in Japan chose to retain their Japanese names, either to avoid discrimination, or later, to meet the requirements for naturalization as Japanese citizens.
Administrative divisions
thumb|Provinces of Korea during Japanese rule
There were 13 provinces in Korea during Japanese rule: Keiki Province, Kōgen Province, Chūseihoku Province, Chūseinan Province, Zenrahoku Province, Zenranan Province, Keishōhoku Province, Keishōnan Province, Heian'nan Province, Heianhoku Province, Kōkai Province, Kankyōnan Province, and Kankyōhoku Province. The administrative capital Keijō was in Keiki Province.
Economy
thumb|Groundbreaking ceremony for the [[Keijō–Fuzan railway]]
thumb|Production in Korea under Japanese rule
thumb|Industrialization of Korea under Japanese rule
thumb|Population of Korea under Japanese rule
thumb|Km of railway in Korea under Japanese rule
thumb|Telephone subscribers in Korea under Japanese rule
Japan encouraged an inflow of Japanese capital to Korea's less developed economy. A large majority of major firms in Korea became Japanese owned and operated as a result, with key positions reserved for Japanese. Princeton's Atul Kohli concluded that the economic development model the Japanese instituted played the crucial role in Korean economic development, a model that was maintained by the Koreans in the post-World War II era.
Randall S. Jones wrote that "economic development during the colonial period can be said to have laid the foundation for future growth in several respects".
A 2017 study found that the gradual removal of trade barriers (almost fully completed by 1923) after Japan's annexation of Korea "increased population growth rates more in the regions close to the former border between Japan and Korea than in the other regions. Furthermore, after integration, the regions close to Korea that specialized in the fabric industry, whose products were the primary goods exported from Japan to Korea, experienced more population growth than other regions close to Korea did."
There were some modernization efforts by the late 19th century prior to annexation. 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 around the start of the 20th century. In terms of exports, "Japanese industry as a whole gained little ... and this is certainly true for the most important manufacturing sector, cotton textiles. This export trade had little impact, positive or negative, on the welfare of Japanese consumer." Likewise in terms of the profitability of Japanese investors: colonial Korea made no significant impact.
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."