Colonial Rule

For 35 years Korea was a Japanese colony. This chapter follows the Government-General, the land and economy as the sources describe them, the name policy of 1939 to 1940, the March First Movement of 1919, the exile government, armed and individual resistance, and liberation in 1945. It is an outline built from partly read articles, and the gaps are large; I list them at the end.

The Government-General

The article does not divide the period the way many textbooks do. Its own headings are "Military Police Reign Era (1910–19)", in which police "had the authority to rule the entire country", "Early years and expansion (1910–1941)" and "World War II". The common split into military rule, "cultural policy" and wartime assimilation is the tool's general knowledge and I do not rely on it. The March First article's lead says the movement "contributed to limited 'cultural rule' freedoms", but I did not read the section that explains this.

• Rulers. The infobox lists Terauchi Masatake as the first Governor-General (1910 to 1916) and Abe Nobuyuki as the last (1944 to 1945), based in Keijō (Seoul).
• Annexation date. The body says Japan "effectively annexed" Korea on 22 August 1910, with the treaty effective that day and published a week later; the infobox gives 29 August. The article does not explain the gap. The validity dispute is in Korean History 7.
• Surrender. The same article gives the surrender of Japan as 2 September 1945 and the disestablishment of the Government-General as 8 September 1945.

Land, Money and Settlers

The article says Terauchi's Land Survey Bureau set ownership by written proof, which "denied ownership to many who had only verbal cultivator-rights" (the claim that these were mostly high-class owners is tagged [citation needed]). It gives Japanese-controlled arable land as "an estimated 7 to 8%" by 1910, then 36.8%, 39.8% and 52.7% in 1916, 1920 and 1932. It also says that "By 1920, 90 percent of Korean land had proper ownership of Koreans"; the article does not say how this fits with 39.8% Japanese-controlled land in the same year, and the two may use different bases. Tenants paid "over half their crop in rent", and heavy taxes "in some cases exceeding 50%" are attributed to unnamed "scholars".

• Settlers. "Somewhere below the figure of 500,000" Japanese by 1908; about 561,000 in 1934 (under 3% of a population "of over 21 million"); about 651,000 in 1939, with over 981,000 Koreans living in Japan that year.
• A dispute without names. The article reports that "Korea's economy grew under Japan", but that "scholars argue" the infrastructure was built to extract resources, not to benefit Koreans, and describes Japanese and South Korean views of the legacy only as "a significant range of opinions". It names no scholars, so I cannot attribute either side.
• Language and mobilisation. The lead says Japan, under the pretext of Nissen dōsoron, began Japanisation and eventually "functionally banning the use of Korean names" and the Korean language "altogether"; that from 1939 it "mobilized around 5.4 million Koreans", many forcefully; and that many women and girls were forced into sexual slavery as "comfort women". These are lead sentences; I read no figures or sections that explain them, so the chapter cannot add detail.

The Name Policy, 1939 to 1940

The Sōshi-kaimei article describes two ordinances under Governor-General Minami Jirō: Ordinance No. 19 (1939) on creating a family name (shi), and Ordinance No. 20 (1940) allowing a change of given name (kaimei), the latter with a fee. A new shi was added while the clan name (sei) stayed in the register, so a Korean had three names; wives took their husband's shi, unlike the traditional practice of keeping their sei. Individually chosen shi could be notified only between 11 February and 10 August 1940; those who did not had one assigned by law from the household head's sei. The policy reversed Order No. 124 (11 November 1911), which barred names that might be mistaken for native Japanese.

• The "voluntary" framing. Notification began on a voluntary basis in February 1940, but at the April meeting of prefectural governors officials urged "special consideration", with registration of all households targeted for 20 July. The article reports that statements opposing the policy were censored, and that reported consequences for refusers included dismissal, salary cuts, school suspension or expulsion, refused medical treatment and exclusion from welfare, which it calls typical.
• Rates. Households notifying a shi: 3.9% in April 1940, rising to 80.3% by 10 August; Koreans in Korea who changed their given name: 9.6%; Koreans in mainland Japan who created a shi by individual selection: 14.2%.

The March First Movement

Gojong died on 21 January 1919; Japan said natural causes and Koreans widely suspected poisoning, which the article says affected the movement's timing. It also cites Wilson's Fourteen Points and says scholars debate whether Wilson's advocacy covered Japan, and that Korean representatives were refused permission to attend the Paris Peace Conference. Thirty-three signers signed the Declaration of Independence from 25 to 27 February, and about 21,000 copies were printed. On 1 March 29 of the 33 gathered at Taehwagwan, were reported by the restaurant owner An Sun-hwan and were arrested by about 80 military police; 4,000 to 5,000 people gathered at Tapgol Park. Protests spread to all 13 provinces by 19 March and reached Jeju on 21 March, and all but seven of 218 administrative districts hosted protests.

• Response. The article says Japan was surprised by the scale and rushed in police, military police, firemen and railway guards, and reports shootings and bayonet charges on unarmed protesters. At Jeamni on 15 April, it says 20 to 30 civilians were lured into a church, shot, and the church burned. It also reports the Suwon and Anseong raids (276 homes burned, 29 killed, about 2,000 arrested) and the Sucheon-ri massacre on 6 April, and describes Japanese suppression of reporting and a disinformation campaign (denying the protests, calling them Bolshevik uprisings and claiming Koreans needed Japanese rule).
• Effects. From the lead only: the movement did not bring prompt liberation but "invigorated the Korean independence movement" and led to the Provisional Government; it damaged Japan's image. The lead also says it inspired China's May Fourth Movement and India's satyagraha protests. I did not read the sections that explain these.

The Provisional Government

The Provisional Government article gives its founding as 11 April 1919 in Shanghai: the Provisional Assembly first met on 10 April and set up the government the next day, and it merged with the Vladivostok and Seoul bodies on 11 September 1919. The infobox lists Shanghai (1919 to 1932), then Hangzhou, Jiaxing, Nanjing, Changsha, Guangzhou, Qijiang and Chongqing (1940 to 1945). Syngman Rhee was first president from 11 September 1919 until his impeachment on 21 March 1925; Park Eun-sik followed; Kim Gu (Kim Ku in the article) led from 1940 to August 1945 as chairman of the State Council.

• Recognition. The article says no country formally recognised it, then says it "gained formal recognition" from Sun Yat-sen's Guangzhou government in 1921 and cites "diplomatic approvals" from Poland, the USSR, the US and the UK; a French ambassador gave only "unofficial approval" in April 1945.
• War declaration. The article gives 9 December 1941 against "the Axis powers, Japan and Germany"; I did not verify it.
• Constitution. The 1987 constitution recognises that the Republic of Korea "succeeds the legal traditions" of the Provisional Government, and the article cites Brian Reynolds Myers as calling this "revisionism". It does not discuss the 1948 constitution in the portion read.

The article contradicts itself in places: the Transition section says Rhee was "succeeded by Kim Ku" while its officeholder lists show Park Eun-sik in 1925; the lead dates Japan's surrender to 15 August 1945 and the World War II section to 2 September 1945; the first session had "Twenty-nine" activists in one place and "30" in another; and the infobox dates the Cairo declaration to 27 November 1943, which the tool noted differs from the usual 1 December (unverified). Several claims carry "unreliable source?" or "better source needed" tags.

Resistance Inside and Outside Korea

• Before 1919. The article gives the Independence Club (April 1896) as an earlier effort, and says the movement officially began in 1919 and ended with the surrender in 1945. Ahn Jung-geun assassinated Itō Hirobumi at Harbin on 26 October 1909 (Korea under Japanese rule article).
• Armed struggle. From 1919 and the 1920s, independence army units crossed the border. Hong Beom-do's unit ambushed the Japanese at Fengwudong in June 1920; at Qingshanli the forces of Kim Jwa-jin and Hong "reportedly killed about 1,500 Japanese soldiers". The article puts Japan's retaliation, the Gando massacre, at "between 5,000 and tens of thousands" of civilians, and says about 20,000 righteous-army volunteers died, citing Lew (2000); its two sections give the righteous-army dates as 1905 to 1912 and 1907 to 1918.
• Individual attacks. Kim Sang-ok (1923, Namdaemun police station); Lee Bong-chang (1932, a grenade thrown at Emperor Hirohito's carriage that missed); Yun Bong-gil (1932, a bomb in Shanghai that killed several high-ranking officials). The article says Lee was a member of the Korean Patriotic Organization and Yun came from the same group; it does not say Kim Gu led it.
• Strikes. The article gives 159,061 wage disputes and 1,018 tenant disputes involving 68,686 farmers from 1911 to 1937.
• Left and right. A left-wing Korean National Front Federation formed in Wuhan in 1937, with a Korean Volunteer Corps commanded by the Chinese Military Affairs Commission; the Provisional Government was aligned with Chiang Kai-shek's government, and Kim Gu accepted the Three Principles of the People in return for financial aid. The article says South Korea was criticised in 2011 for not recognising socialist independence fighters, who anti-communist policies excluded from the official merit registry.
• Not covered. The June 10 (1926) and Gwangju (1929) student movements are only listed by name and year, so I add nothing on them. The Korean Liberation Army is mentioned only generally in the portion read.

Liberation

The Liberation Day article dates the announcement that Japan would surrender to 15 August 1945; it says the United States commemorates the day in September, when the Japanese formally signed, but gives no date for the signing. On 15 August 1945, it says, Lyuh Woon-hyung and a representative of the Governor-General agreed on releasing prisoners and transferring administration to Korean authorities. The US and Soviet Union agreed a three-year trusteeship; US troops landed in mid-September and occupied the south, declaring the provisional government invalid, and Japanese troops had left the south by 6 November 1945. The South calls the day Gwangbokjeol, using "restoration" rather than "independence" to stress that Korea "had been independent for millennia", and the article notes it coincides with the anniversary of the establishment of the South Korean government in 1948. Of the North's use I have only a line: the article says weddings are typical on the holiday and that military parades were held in jubilee years.

The article carries some doubtful claims: that 1910 was the first foreign control "in history", which is stated without qualification; that the day is "the only political holiday that is celebrated in both Koreas", resting on sources that include a dead link; and a garbled sentence about a provisional government on 1 September. I do not rely on them. What happened next, the division, is Korean History 9.

What to Take from This

My own reading, unverified: the sources describe the period mostly through figures that have owners, the Land Survey percentages, the 80.3%, the 1919 deaths and arrests, and almost none of them agree with one another. That is the most reliable thing to take from the chapter. The pattern is mine; the articles say only that some figures are uncertain.

What the Sources Left Open

• The annexation date (22 or 29 August 1910).
• How 39.8% Japanese-controlled land and 90% Korean ownership in 1920 fit together.
• Which scholars hold the "extraction" and "growth" views.
• How voluntary the name changes were, and who intended what.
• The 1919 totals: participants, deaths, arrests.
• The Provisional Government's recognition status and its leaders' order.
• Education and language policy in detail, the wartime mobilisation figures, forced labour, "comfort women", and the June 10 and Gwangju movements: not read.

Exercises

Next: Korean History 9 follows the division, the Korean War and, in one factual note, North Korea.