Korean comfort women interviewed after whirlwind 1943...

This is the only known bilingual Japanese-Korean...

Japanese Keijo Nippo reporters interviewed Korean abductee...

February/March 1943 foreign movies in Seoul theaters:...

Imperial Japan waged an aggressive Japanese language...

Propaganda ‘feel good story’ praises Korean grandfather...

In April 1919, two Imperial Japanese soldiers...

Korean kindergartners holding rising sun flags shouting...

Not content with merely banning U.S. and...

Mixed marriages in 1939 Korea: a Korean...

In Japan-occupied Korea, Koreans often mixed their...

In 1943, ethnic Korean school principal says...

Koreans first read of the US/Soviet Division...

Propaganda editorials about Shinto shrines built in...

1943 Editorial: the Imperial Way embraces the...

Category: Daily Life

Daily Life

August 28, 1945: Colonial regime announces a peaceful transition of power to the new incoming Korean government, reopens comfort women services, department stores, cafés in Seoul as popular uprising subsides, plans orderly repatriation of Japanese residents

2023-12-06

6

This is another fascinating historical article that I stumbled upon during my visit to the National Library of Korea a

Daily Life

Korea in November 1945 was beset by rampant inflation, which the Koreans editors of newly liberated Keijo Nippo blamed on ‘Korean traitors’ and departing Japanese who liquidated their property and spent cash ‘indulging in lavish eating and wastefulness’

2023-10-11

39

In my recent trip to Seoul, I visited the National Library of Korea and took many photos of pages from

Daily Life

Imperial Japanese colonial regime instilled intense fear and paranoia among Koreans by forcing them to listen to this 20-minute radio broadcast mobilizing the entire nation in counter-espionage to snitch on each other even for complaining about food shortages (July 1943)

2023-08-07

95

It’s been just over 80 years since a terrifying radio broadcast was delivered to the entirety of the Korean nation

Daily Life

Bilingual Korean-Japanese propaganda posters started to be used in Korea starting October 1944

2023-07-31

67

For the past two years, I’ve been studying the pages of Keijo Nippo (Gyeonseong Ilbo), the official propaganda mouthpiece newspaper

Daily Life

Severe 1940s wartime housing crisis in urban areas of Japan-colonized Korea: housing shortfalls worsening each year, exacerbated by rent control, 2-3 families sharing one house, young people unable to marry or start families due to housing shortage

2023-05-25

149

This article from 1943 covers the severe wartime housing crisis in Korea which was particularly acute in urban areas and

Internment Camp

A Japanese author took a Busan-Seoul train in 1943 and saw some stylishly dressed young Koreans with a guitar and ‘American vibe’ speaking mostly in Korean mixed with English ‘okay’s, and was shocked that none onboard cared to observe the noon Moment of Silence to honor fallen Imperial soldiers

2023-03-18

208

In this article, a famous Japanese author and novelist named Maruoka Akira (1907-1968) takes a trip to Korea in early

Model Korean Family

This Korean family donated their metallic tableware in February 1943 to help Imperial Japan’s war effort, including their brass Sinseollo (신선로, 神仙爐), a prized cooking vessel that was passed down the generations from their ancestors in the Korean royal court

2023-02-27

222

This article shows a Korean man and his maidservant donating 32 brass items for Imperial Japan’s war effort, including a

Daily Life

Colonial police warned residents about police impersonators who detained passersby in the streets and stole cash and belongings, or flashed fake business cards to shoplift and dine for free; thefts and rapes were rampant in the complete darkness during wartime light dimming exercises (Seoul, 1943)

2023-02-23

154

One bizarre thing that I noticed in this newspaper is the recurrence of stories about police impersonators who detain passersby

Daily Life

Mixed marriages in 1939 Korea: a Korean teenage girl left home and married the brother of her Japanese best friend, a Korean husband and Japanese wife met at a Tokyo music school and overcame ‘persecution’ from friends and family to become ‘pioneers of Japanese-Korean Unification’

2023-02-02

119

The following two articles from 1939 profiled two mixed Japanese-Korean families: the first one had a Japanese husband and a

Education

Korean kindergartners holding rising sun flags shouting ‘Banzai!’, schoolchildren worshiping at Shinto Shrines vowing to ‘defeat the U.S. and Britain’, high school girls ice skating on Chundangji Pond in Changgyeonggung Palace grounds – a series photos of student life in Seoul, late January 1943

2023-01-26

98

The third and final school semester (January to March) began in Seoul in late January 1943, and the Keijo Nippo