tpjv86b – Page 11 – Exposing Imperial Japan

Author: tpjv86b

Christianity

Despite Pastor Underwood’s heroic refusal to worship the Emperor, Korean churches were eventually forced to worship at Shinto Shrines and announce “we shall forsake the evil thoughts from our past dependence on the West, and strive for purification… towards a Japanese-style Christianity”

2022-12-25

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These articles are from December 1942, and they particularly stand out for their especially anti-Christian and anti-American messaging. They are

Daily Life

Hollywood movies and Western cosmetic brands were so popular in pre-WWII Korea that the colonial regime feared that young Koreans were being ‘intoxicated with frivolous Americanism’ by the ‘Jewish devil’ to ‘hold hands in a Western-style manner’ and to ‘advocate the supremacy of romantic love’

2022-12-22

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This article from December 1942, which particularly stands out for its especially anti-Semitic and anti-American messaging, was written to commemorate

Education

Colonial authorities abruptly abolished Korean translations of the neighborhood meetings of Patriotic Groups in May 1942 as part of a ‘radical treatment’ to make Koreans speak Japanese, equating the inability to speak Japanese to a serious medical illness

2022-12-18

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This May 1942 article announces that Korean translations of the regular meetings of the Patriotic Groups are hereby abolished. The

Police

Korean economic crimes suspects interrogated by Seoul economic police; the police chief boasts of having eyes and ears everywhere on the ground, and contrasts the polite, law-abiding ‘good Korean retailers’ with the rude, greedy, dishonest ‘bad Korean retailers’ in 1942 interview

2022-12-10

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This photo shows the inside of an interrogation room of the economic police in the Dongdaemon precinct of Seoul. It

Moment of Silence

Koreans in Seoul streetcar observing mandatory daily Moment of Silence at noon in 1943 to honor Imperial soldiers; caption reads “they offer infinite gratitude for the blood-soaked toil of the generals who are fighting valiantly to destroy the U.S. and Britain on the pathetically brutal front lines”

2022-12-06

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This photo captures a scene inside a Seoul streetcar in 1943 as the passengers respond to the sound of sirens

Medical

Korean children underwent mass medical inspections in 1943 competition to identify and celebrate the healthiest top ‘superior children’ who would ‘become respectable Japanese people who will carry the next generation on their shoulders’

2022-12-03

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Another peculiar institution of Imperial Japan was the ‘Superior Children’ competition, where a panel of medical doctors would perform extensive

Japanese Language

Korean writers in the ‘Korean Literary Association’ became puppet voices for Imperial Japan, praising the 1942 switch from Korean to Japanese language in Korean literature and declaring, ‘Korea has come to share the mission of transmitting the spirit and culture of Japan to all regions of Asia’

2022-11-29

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Thus far, we’ve seen how Koreans of various walks of life, including comfort women and ‘model Korean families’ who mainly

Korean Workers

Young female employees lining up to receive mandatory ‘payroll savings booklets’ to automatically deduct their wages to contribute to the Imperial Japanese war effort (Seoul, 1943)

2022-11-27

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The following is a photo of some young female employees at a company in Seoul lining up to receive some

Daily Life

Not content with merely banning U.S. and British jazz music, colonial authorities forced cafes, bars, and restaurants to throw out all phonograph records, and replaced the in-store background music with Imperial Japanese military songs and news propaganda blaring on the radio (Jongno, Seoul, 1943)

2022-11-23

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This is a story about a restaurant association in Jongno-gu, Seoul which not only banned American and British jazz music

Police

This Japanese teacher devoted a decade of his life going door to door preaching “You Koreans and we Japanese are brothers, so dedicating yourselves to the Imperial nation is the only way!” the Koreans initially hated him, but eventually came to welcome him with respect, allegedly (Shimonoseki, 1943)

2022-11-21

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The following propaganda article profiles one Japanese teacher in Shimonoseki who took it upon himself to organize Korean residents into