Read on Twitter
For the 75th anniversary of the Liberation Day, I'll answer any question you might have about Korea's colonial times and beyond. Please reply with your question here, and I'll get to it throughout the day.
In English, the best material might be Park Kyung-ri's epic novel, Land. https://www.amazon.com/Land-v-2-Kyung-Ni-Pak/dp/1906876045/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&qid=1597516658&refinements=p_27%3AProfessor+Agnita+Tennant&s=books&sr=1-2&text=Professor+Agnita+Tennant This massive, five-volume novel that tracks the fate of the Choi family from late 19th C thru the end of WWII is considered the greatest chronicle of the colonial era. https://twitter.com/GurmeetsK/status/1294703321794719745
There might be but I don't know of one. Taiwan and Korea are not exactly comparable, because at the time of colonization, Taiwan was a country of its own whereas Korea was a standalone country for a thousand+ years. https://twitter.com/coltonames206/status/1294703897945280513
Another way Japan's colonization of Korea was unique is they have had a separate existence for several millennia. East Asia is not Europe, where the same piece of land changed hands every hundred years or so. Until 1910, no part of Korea was Japan, and no part of Japan was Korea.
This made Imperial Japan's colonialism take on a different character from European colonialism. It was much, much, much more offensive for Koreans to be conquered by a neighboring country they have known for a thousand years.
Sure - the common apologia is that Japan modernized Korea through colonization by building factories, railways, etc. Three responses:
1. This apologia assumes that Korea would not have modernized as an independent country. Not so. https://twitter.com/imabutz/status/1294706472400629760
1. This apologia assumes that Korea would not have modernized as an independent country. Not so. https://twitter.com/imabutz/status/1294706472400629760
Joseon Dynasty was keenly interested in modernization as well. Korea introduced many of the modern trappings, e.g. electricity, around the same time as Japan did.
2. Japan's "modernization" was focused on using Korea as a springboard for their invasion into China.
2. Japan's "modernization" was focused on using Korea as a springboard for their invasion into China.
This means whatever fruits of modernization that Imperial Japan did introduce to Korea did not actually reach Koreans. This is shown by the fact that for 36 years, nutrition for Koreans declined such that their average height became smaller.
3. Related to (2), much of Japan's "modernization" effort was in the north, as it was closer to Manchuria. After the division, South Korea had almost none of Imperial Japan's industrial infrastructure. If imperial inheritance was so great, North Korea should be better off.
If I might give some allowance to "colonial modernization" idea, it is this: being colonized into an empire spanning much of Asia plugged Korea into a bigger market than it ever experienced. This meant Korea's entrepreneurs got a taste of how to conduct international trade.
Even accepting that Imperial Japan didn't do much modernization for Korea, Korean businessmen - many of them in Seoul - gained experience in sophisticated business transaction, which carried over after the liberation.
It's directly traceable. This book http://www.kyobobook.co.kr/product/detailViewKor.laf?ejkGb=KOR&mallGb=KOR&barcode=9788997735099 "Kishi Nobusuke and Park Chung-hee" makes a compelling case of how Park Chung-hee's experience as a Manchukuo officer for Imperial Japan was formative in his developmental state strategy. https://twitter.com/ondakondratiev/status/1294707342278307842
US kept nearly all of them, some of which in a literal sense: US took over Imperial Japan's buildings if only because they were the only modern structures. USFK base in Yongsan, for example, used to be the Imperial Japanese Army base. https://twitter.com/opinion_left/status/1294710362206539779
More on Imperial Japan's buildings. Many of them were built to be as offensive as possible. The Governor-General's Headquarters, for example, was built specifically to completely overshadow the Gyeongbokgung palace. Last pic shows the palace after the HQ was demolished in 1996.
Changgyeonggung, the king's father's palace, was turned into a zoo, also as an insult to the Joseon Dynasty kings. Today the palace is restored and serves as a museum.
I think this might be the million dollar question of the 21st century. At some point, the former colonies will become wealthy and powerful also. Can you imagine how much the historical bill will be for, oh, Nigeria or Kenya? https://twitter.com/AnonKmed/status/1294714788770017283
Of course, it is possible to doubt this might happen. Korea's colonization experience is somewhat unique in that it was relatively short. It was also a single country for a 1000 years. In other places, colonization went for a century and didn't involve a single cohesive country.
It's fairly strong. What's egregious about Japan's trade war in July 2019 (which set off the boycott) was this generation of Koreans had the potential to be the friendliest generation to Japan of all time and Abe Shinzo pissed on it, alienating yet another generation. https://twitter.com/X34712853/status/1294719785947869188
I would also quote PM Kan Naoto, who IMO offered the most heartfelt statement in 2010 for Imperial Japan's history: “Those who render pain tend to forget it while those who suffered cannot forget it easily.” https://japan.kantei.go.jp/kan/statement/201008/10danwa_e.html
Japanese right wing love to claim no apology will be good enough for Koreans. For the record, I should note that PM Kan's remarks from 2010 was extremely well received in Korea. I recall being deeply moved by it. But the conservative resurgence in Japan ruined this moment.
Infamously, as PM Kan Naoto was reading his apology statement in 2010, veteran conservative politician Abe Shinzo screamed at Kan, "IDIOT!", on live television. https://www.scmp.com/comment/insight-opinion/asia/article/2157956/comfort-women-and-japans-war-history-abes-historical Abe became the PM in 2012, and is the longest serving PM of modern Japan.
What's often missed is ROK-JPN relationship was actually on the upswing all the way until around 2010, when a sharp uptick of "Make Japan Great Again" style conservatism ushered in the Abe admin, which proceeded to piss on all the progress the two countries made.
I'm going to recommend Land twice because it's that great. https://www.amazon.com/Land-v-2-Kyung-Ni-Pak/dp/1906876045/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=agnita+tennant+land&qid=1597521706&s=books&sr=1-1 (It's in English!)
If five-volume epic is a bit too much, @minjinlee11 's Pachinko is also very good. https://twitter.com/cuhlaireahn/status/1294725423855816704
If five-volume epic is a bit too much, @minjinlee11 's Pachinko is also very good. https://twitter.com/cuhlaireahn/status/1294725423855816704
So this is actually a very interesting question. Imperial Japan justified its conquest by claiming that it was "protecting" Asia from the invasion of white Europeans - which in theory meant the Asian races were equal. https://twitter.com/123456789blaaa/status/1294706836734726150
Imperial Japan even had slogans to this effect, such as 五族協和 - "Cooperation and Harmony of the Five Peoples" i.e. Japanese, Koreans, Chinese, Manchus and Mongols. But of course, the reality was quite different. Koreans were clearly second class citizens.
This is where things get nuanced. Imperial Japan did make some efforts to integrate Koreans into the empire, e.g. by giving scholarships to Koreans to study at imperial colleges. A little more than 1,000 Koreans studied in Japan's colleges. Some of them even held govt positions.
By the 1930s, Korean intellectuals had a raging debate: keep fighting for independence by way of violence if necessary, or co-opt into the empire and demand equality for Koreans as the empire's slogan said? Thankfully, Korea was liberated before that debate had to be settled.
On this topic, this recent book http://www.yes24.com/Product/Goods/75185080 "Chosenjin of the Imperial College" is hugely illuminating. It tracks the path of nearly all of the Korean graduates of Japan's imperial colleges and examines who they were and how they shaped postwar Korea, north and south.
What's interesting to me is that North Korea and South Korea drew opposite lessons from their fight for independence, reflecting the different paths taken by Syngman Rhee and Kim Il Sung. https://twitter.com/CurrieLincoln/status/1294741195780960256
Kim Il Sung was a guerrilla fighter. He did receive help from China and Russia to some degree, but his victories were largely his own. Syngman Rhee on the other hand was a diplomat and operator. His stuff was about wheeling and dealing, crafting coalitions that carried his will.
Kim Il Sung's North Korea went for juche, or self-sufficiency. Syngman Rhee's South Korea hewed closely to the US-led international order, even when US was willing to drop South Korea and leave. (This fact is very underrated.)
They might, but you can just as easily think of the opposite scenario. Japan could have its "come to kami" moment, do a kneefall in Seoul and Pyongyang, pay reparations, and flip North Korea to create a EU equivalent in East Asia by taking Germany's seat. https://twitter.com/xtooline/status/1294789684028039168
Honestly, it's so intuitive and such a right thing to do that I can't believe Japan didn't do this already. Atoning for imperialism is the right thing to do, and in exchange you get to be the leader of the newly born and more legitimate, ahem, co-prosperity sphere in Asia.
The fact that Japan declines to go down such an obviously beneficial path only leads me to think that Japan is the one that cannot get over WWII - otherwise, why continue doing harm to your national interest by continuing to tie your national pride to the empire?
Very common. My grandfather always spoke Japanese when he had a few glasses. https://twitter.com/dadakim/status/1294794108968435712
I can't say because I don't have great visibility into Japan's public on the ground level. But I do sense that the young generation of Japan has a fundamentally different sense about Korea, just as much as young generation of Korea does about Japan. https://twitter.com/superchica_one/status/1294787256813858816
The older generation of Koreans fear and admire Japan. Middle-aged Koreans resent Japan. But the current generation? They feel nothing for Japan. It's just another country. From what I hear, the situation is similar in Japan for the young generation.
Active suppression and erasure of Korean culture happened largely in the third phase of the occupation (1930s to 45), where Imperial Japan was pretending even harder that Korea and Japan were "one body." https://twitter.com/MrWPArnold/status/1294791661302583297
It survives to a great degree. S Korea's military dictatorship is in some sense a redux of fascist Japan's militarism. Also, many "devices of modernity", like modern code of laws, are inherited straight from the colonial times if only for convenience. https://twitter.com/ThomasDStark/status/1294790795590074368
For example, the manner in which corporations are organized, contracts are written, legal pleadings are written - all pretty close to Japan's system. Seoul's subway system resembles closely to Tokyo's, especially at the earlier constructed lines.
Recall Korea went thru the Korean War just 5 years after the liberation, so US in large part rebuilt S Korea after the two wars. https://twitter.com/MickiMaynard/status/1294800262364909570?s=19
If we limit the assessment to her book, no. She raises a fair point that Korea's own sexism and then-existing sex trade facilitated Imperial Japan's systemized rape. Unfortunately, it's clear that she wants to say more than that. There, she's wrong. https://twitter.com/f___up/status/1294803181587767297?s=19
Based on what Park Yu-ha says outside of her book, it's clear that she takes the standard Japanese right wing path: everything that was wrong with Imperial Japan's colonialism is self-inflicted by Koreans themselves. It's like Holocaust deniers focusing intensely on Judenrat.
The Japanese certainly thought so. PM Yoshida Shigeru said the Korean War was "God's gift to Japan." Even as recently as 2005, Aso Taro (today a Deputy PM) said the Korean War was "fortunate, truly fortunate" for Japan. https://twitter.com/jlichyen/status/1294806076072706048?s=19
