Japanese Imperialism

Japan-Korea Annexation Treaty, signed 1910 

(https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:General_power_of_attorney _to_Lee_Wan Yong_signed_and_sealed_by_Sunjong.jpg)

Japan was interested in colonizing Korea long before 1910, taking inspiration from Britain's successful colonization of Egypt (Lone 172). While at first seeking to build up a Japan-Korean relationship that would offer mutual benefits to the two nations, Japan saw Korea as a "continental foothold" to their vision of starting a new East-Asian order (Lone 172). While the annexation took place in 1910, Japanese control seeped into Korea before official annexation, with Japanese officials taking control of government offices by 1908 and disbanding the Korean military by 1907 (Lone 151). This made formal annexation much easier for Japan, with the Korean government and military already subdued and unable to resist colonization. From 1910 to 1945, Japan’s influence over Korea was extensive, affecting daily life from education to language. Further, the Japanese created a clear ethnic hierarchy that distinguished the Japanese people from Koreans.

Japanese men turning a Korean royal cemetery into a golf course

(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Korea_under_Japanese_rule#/media/File:Hyochangwon_as_Korea's_first_golf_course.jpg)

Migration Policy

"It is vital that we promote to the full group migration and that every country and prefecture gets its farmers to band together to emigrate" - Katsura Tarō, Prime Minister of Japan

As Korea became a Japanese colony, one of Japan’s priorities was to create effective migration channels so farmers from Japan could invest and cultivate land in Korea (which would in turn economically benefit Japan). Further, this strategy would effectively move all of the “excess population” of Japanese individuals into the “natural outlet” of Korea (Lone 149). While migration was beneficial to Japan, as it not only led to increased agricultural cultivation but also more Japanese citizens in Korea that would support the Japanese empire in the colony, this sparked immense protests from Koreans who saw this as a threat to their lands. 

Korean students in a Japanese language class, 1942

(https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/27/magazine/korea-japanese-occupation-surrender-ww2.html)

Language and Education Policy

"Education was seen as an instrument of fundamental social, political, economic and cultural change" - Kate McDonald (139)

In Korea, one of the many policies that was continually pushed onto Korean citizens were related to the Japanese language and education system. The Japanese language was considered the "spiritual blood of the Japanese people" and this led to lingustic nationalism that forced Korean citizens to learn and speak Japanese (McDonald 136).

While Japanese was already "recognized as the national language of Korea", the Japanese government believed it essential to teach Japanese as the "first language" that children were expected to learn in school in order to fully transform and assimilate them to Japanese culture (Kim 28). In order to achieve this, Japan completely reformed the existing education system, starting from creating stricter requirements for teachers. One essential prerequisite for teachers was the ability to "read, write, and speak Japanese", with priority given to Japanese teachers (Kim, Hunt, 411). In schools, it was expected that everyone spoke Japanese, with severe punishments for "slipping into their native tongue" such as "dialect tags" (hōgen fuda) in order to effectively create a unified tongue across Japanese territory (McDonald 142).