Exposing Imperial Japan

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Christianity

Three American missionaries defied Imperial Japan’s order to worship at a Shinto shrine in Pyongyang in 1935: George McCune and Velma Snook refused to back down, while Howard Lee eventually gave in to the regime’s demands

2026-08-27

In November 1935, three American missionaries defied Imperial Japan’s order to worship at a Shinto Shrine in Pyongyang. George McCune

Moment of Silence

Seoul residents bowing their heads in compulsory Moment of Silence for fallen Imperial Japanese soldiers (news photos from 1943 and 1944)

2026-08-20

These two photos from 1943 and 1944 capture scenes inside Seoul streetcars during the Japanese colonial period, as passengers bow

Business

In just three hours, Japanese colonial authorities rounded up 466 Seoul residents for black-market trading, sentenced them on the spot, and sent them by streetcar to Seodaemun Prison (July 1945)

2026-08-09

This article illustrates an example of the brutal “summary trials” carried out in connection with mass police sweeps against black-market

Korean Workers

“Even prison will not save you”: unmarried young Korean women feared sexual enslavement in Imperial Japan’s wartime labor conscription, but officials said evaders would be imprisoned and then conscripted anyway (September 1944)

2026-07-18

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By early 1944, months before Japan formally promulgated the Women’s Labor Volunteer Corps Ordinance in August 1944, reports from colonial

Comfort Women

In 1944, Imperial Japan formally conscripted almost all unmarried Korean women ages 12-40 into a forced labor system that had already been used for years to traffic laborers into sex slavery according to testimonies of former comfort women

2026-07-02

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On August 23, 1944, Imperial Japan promulgated the Women’s Labor Volunteer Corps Ordinance. This ordinance gave the state a formal

Police

Imperial Japan hunted shortwave listeners in colonial Korea: 246 people investigated and 50 radios seized by Inspector Saiga Shichirō, a notorious torturer accused of fabricating cases and sending detainees to their deaths (1942–44)

2026-06-15

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During World War II, Imperial Japan banned the use of shortwave radios, which tech savvy Koreans were apparently using to

Foreign Visitors

Nazi German delegation concluded Korea visit with tour of army boot camp and final luncheon before departing for Manchuria (May 12, 1939)

2026-06-11

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The thirteen members of the German newspaper delegation, who had arrived in Seoul on the Akatsuki at 1:35 p.m. on

Foreign Visitors

May 1939: Nazi German Newspaper Delegation Visits Imperial Army Headquarters in Colonial Seoul

2026-05-31

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On this day, General Nakamura, accompanied by Chief of Staff Kitano, Director of the Press Department Katsuo, and other staff

Press

Nazi leader Richard Foerster passionately preached Hitler’s teachings to Korean schoolchildren and gifted them signed photos of Hitler as they gave him a “Heil Hitler” salute on a train to Seoul (May 11, 1939)

2026-05-13

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In May 1939, Imperial authorities selected 29 of the best and brightest elementary schoolchildren from across Korea and “rewarded” them