I am also taking a course on Japanese Colonialism this semester that talks about Japanese colonial control over Korea from 1910 to the end of the second world war, and I want to talk about the influence of Japan over Korea in this culture post.
When I was watching the movie Parasite, I noticed a small detail at the beginning of the movie that also showed the history of Japanese colonization in Korea. At the very start of the movie, the housekeeper of the Park’s family said that the mansion that they lived in was previously owned by a Japanese architect who sold the house after they moved back to Japan. The Japanese government’s immigration policy to Korea initially only involved farmers and business owners as they portrayed Korea as an empty fertile land full of opportunities, and in reality only a small handful of poor Japanese farmers and business owners went to Korea. After the signing the Treaty of Shimonoseki of 1895, China recognized the independence of Korea, where Korea was previously a tribute state to China. The independence allowed Japan to exercise control and establish administrati
The Oriental Development Company established by the Empire of Japan in 1908, was a national enterprise built as a colonial exploitation policy towards the Korean Empire and other countries in East Asia, similar to the British East India Company. The company was created under both the laws of Korea and Japan to legitimize its rules. Unlike the British East India company, the ODC was not the main legislative body of Korea, but had heavy influence over its policies. Law 63 of 1895 provided law making powers to the Governor General of Japanese colonies which acted as the main body of administration in Korea. This has caused great harm to the Korean society with dictatorial ruling and economic exploitations. Korea also suffered greatly during the Second World War as many Korean men were forced to work as slaves and hard labor and also fight for Japan in mainland China. Women were shipped to China under military sexual slavery, which better known as ‘Comfort Women’. This issue is still significant today as many ‘comfort women’ have began passing away due to old age and the Korean and Chinese society are still trying to seek compensation from Japan for the damages of the second world war.
One of the biggest cultural influence on Korea during the period of occupation is the language. The Japanese colonial government established thousands of schools in Korea, which have had a major impact on the education and culture. Some policies have even changed the religious beliefs on Koreans. The impact on the Korean language was even more significant. During the period between 1910 to 1945, the amount of Japanese loan words in Korean grew tremendously, and many people of that generation were forced to learn Japanese under colonial policies. In the late 1980s to the early 2000s, Japan became the second biggest economic center of the world, which had a huge cultural effect on Korea. The most prominent Kpop of the world now, was initially heavily influenced by Japanese pop music.
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