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MINISERIES ON MODERN KOREAN HISTORY (9)
Moo-Young Han, Editor-in-Chief
This miniseries is archived in the Korean-American Forum (KAF) section of the
SKAS website (www.skas.org).
Series 9. Wartime Subjugation (1931-1945)
The period of 14 years from 1931 to 1945 marks one of the most violent times of
war in Asia, especially in the three countries of Northeast Asia – Japan, Korea,
and China.
For 10 years from 1931 to 1941, Japan waged a full-scale invasion of China,
beginning with occupation of Manchuria and igniting the Second Sino-Japanese
War in 1937 by brutal all-out attack of the mainland proper of China, inflicting
unspeakable atrocities to the general population of China.
When Japan overplayed its hand by declaring war against the United States in
1941 – surprise attack on Pearl Harbor – the war in China merged with the
Pacific War of World War II that ended four years later in 1945 with Japan’s
unconditional surrender, bringing the final end to the militaristic imperial Japan.
During this wartime period, Korea suffered heavy toll. Korea was forced to
provide food and other agricultural supplies not only to the Japanese army but to
the general population of Japan. Much more devastating was that Korea
became the source of vast human resources: Korean men and boys were
forced to work at factories producing war supplies in many parts of Japanese
mainland while Korean women and girls were forced into sex slavery for the
Japanese soldiers – the so-called Comfort Women.
China on the other hand suffered some of most unspeakable war crimes
committed against its people, the infamous Rape of Nanking being the best
known example.
Japan has long salivated over the vast natural resources in the southeastern part
of Manchuria – iron ore, almost limitless reserves of coal and many strategic
metals - and starting in 1931 it not only occupied the strategic areas of
Manchuria but in fact established a totally puppet state of so-called Empire of
Manchukuo headed by Puyi, the last Qing emperor, as the nominal
Emperor (as depicted in the movie “The Last Emperor”) and in 1937 launched full
scale invasion of China triggering the Second Sino-Japanese War.
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The Second Sino-Japanese War
The Sino-Japanese War lasted 8 years from 1937 to 1945, the first 4 years as
the Second Sino-Japanese War and the second 4 years as a part of the Pacific
War of World War II.
The imperial Japanese army did not just engage in military battles but declared a
total war against the civilian population of China and inflicted unspeakable
atrocities against the Chinese people, a rampage of crimes against humanity.
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Just prior to the Japanese surprise attack on Pearl harbor that launched the
Pacific War, Japan had pretty much control not only all of Manchukuo but as well
the main population areas of mainland China along the coast.
Failed Japanization of Korea
During the last several years before the collapse of imperial Japan in 1945,
Japan engaged in the draconian campaign to erase Korean culture and Japanize
everything Korean to Japanese mold: 1) all Koreans are required to change their
family name to Japanese style family name and 2) Korean language was
forbidden to be spoken, only Japanese language.
A word of explanation about changing the last names from Korean to Japanese.
Virtually all Korean family names, except a couple of rare exceptions, are of a
single Chinese character, Kim, Lee, Park, Han, Choi and so on. Almost all
Japanese family names consist of at least two, sometimes three and on very rare
cases one, Chinese characters.
So what most of Koreans did was simply add a second Chinese character to their
single character Korean family names. Kim would change to Kim-River or KimField, for example. As for the forbidding of Korean language, it was completely
effective especially for young school children. The Editor-in-Chief himself
learned how to speak Korean only after the end of World War II in 1945!
The attempted Japanization, however, completely failed. Korean language never
died and Koreans simply restored back to their Korean last name. No trace of
Japan’s attempt can be found in Korea today.