Exposing Imperial Japan - Viewing the suffering of colonized people through the lens of the colonizer's propaganda

In 1942, pro-Imperial Japanese Korean parents boasted...

Young Korean men were ‘beaten into shape’...

Korean high school student uses anonymous tip...

Imperial Japan waged an aggressive Japanese language...

Korea in November 1945 was beset by...

Western firms including Shell, Mobil, HSBC, Otis...

Colonial regime forced Korean schools to drop...

A collection of 27 farewell letters to...

Onerous regulations prescribing long lists of permissible...

In 1944, the Japanese govt built internment...

This Korean father made sure his family...

Korean forced laborers worked the Gyeongsan cobalt...

Korean kindergartners holding rising sun flags shouting...

In April 1943, Seoul high school girls...

Nostalgia for Imperial Japan and its undercurrents...

Latest Posts

Daily Life

Koreans needed Imperial police-issued ‘travel purpose certificates’ to travel on buses and trains by April 1944, police cracked down on female passengers for illegal food vending and ‘unnecessary and non-urgent travel’

2024-10-18

43

In the midst of World War II, life in Korea under Imperial Japanese rule was marked by increasing restrictions and

Food Shortages

Korean rice farmers barely survived eating grass roots as they worked tirelessly to meet the rice quotas imposed by the Imperial Army in 1944, even sacrificing their own personal rice supplies to face starvation under pressure from the police inspector and the township chief

2024-09-16

71

This disturbing propaganda news story from 1944 is about a rice farming township (Seonso-myeon) in Suncheon County, South Pyeongan Province

Korean Workers

Imperial Japan’s railway system in Korea was falling apart by early August 1945 with severe overcrowding, parts and labor shortages, exhausted staff causing more accidents, train conductors gone rogue …

2024-09-07

89

This article offers a fascinating glimpse into the decrepit state of the streetcar system in Seoul at the beginning of

Colonial regime called for intensified Imperialist training to make Koreans more ‘Japanese’ to address low morale, high turnover rates, and black market activities among Korean forced laborers in 1944 Japan

Korean Workers

Colonial regime called for intensified Imperialist training to make Koreans more ‘Japanese’ to address low morale, high turnover rates, and black market activities among Korean forced laborers in 1944 Japan

2024-08-29

78

This 1944 wartime editorial, written by the staff of the Keijo Nippo newspaper, calls for Japanese-Korean unity as it addresses

Korean Workers

Korean forced laborers worked the Gyeongsan cobalt mine under Japanese control from 1940 to 1945, which later became the site of a massacre of political prisoners in 1950 at the onset of the Korean War

2024-08-08

134

This article from 1943 highlights Korean forced laborers in a Japanese-owned cobalt mine located in what is now Gyeongsan City.

Military

Pro-Japanese Korean colonel (신태영)’s full 1943 speech offering Koreans redemption from their “shame” inherited from ancestors who made them “like cats and dogs” that seek safety and parental attachments over national duty, giving them a chance to volunteer in the Imperial Army

2024-06-29

202

Throughout 1943 in colonial Korea, the main national newspaper of the country, Keijo Nippo (Gyeongseong Ilbo), was filled with war

Model Korean Family

“Koreans need to assimilate with the Japanese people as soon as possible … There is no other way. This is also the path to our boundless happiness as Koreans!” said Imperial Army veteran 신태영 in 1943 memoir, who later became Minister of National Defense of South Korea and is now buried at Seoul National Cemetery

2024-06-16

228

“As Koreans, we have been given the new mission of becoming subjects of Imperial Japan, uniting completely with the Yamato

Foreign Residents

Chinese children in 1944 Seoul featured singing to Imperial Army soldiers ‘in the beautiful bloom of Japanese-Chinese friendship’

2024-06-08

204

This is a historical article published in 1944 in the Keijo Nippo newspaper, which served as the national newspaper of

Military

Imperial Japan lavished praise on 박춘금 (朴春琴), first Korean member of the Japanese Diet, for sending his only son 박춘웅 (朴春雄) off to war, the son’s name reappears as an agent in a 1957 North Korean spy operation against Japan called the Shinkomaru Incident (新光丸事件)

2024-05-27

235

I came across another fascinating 1943 article from Keijo Nippo, a known propaganda tool for the Imperial Japanese regime during

Model Korean Family

Korean candidate defiantly ran for office in 1943 Seoul elections without official endorsement, only to be forced to drop out and thank Master Imaizumi for soothing his ‘dissatisfaction with the world’

2024-05-10

225

This article details the story of Mr. Kanemitsu (likely originally Mr. Kim) a member of the Seoul prefectural assembly during