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Exposing Imperial Japan

Exposing Imperial Japan

Viewing the suffering of colonized people through the lens of the colonizer's propaganda

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Imperial Army general describes crowded movie theaters...
In Japan-occupied Korea, Koreans often mixed their...
Dehumanization in Colonial Korea, 1943: Branding Koreans...
Bilingual Korean-Japanese propaganda posters started to be...
Kim Ku leads the way towards Korean...
Keijo Nippo (Gyeongseong Ilbo) was Korea’s largest...
Optimistic news coverage of Syngman Rhee meeting...
In November 1943, colonial authorities implemented a...
Simon Young Kim (김영근), a South Korean...
Imperial Japanese PSA ordering residents to avoid...
Japanese teacher in Japan-colonized Korea punished her...
President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Prime Minister...
Tourist groups visiting the historical sites of...
Korean father and sushi chef boasts that...
Imperial Japan’s manhunt for the “Communist Bandit...

Category: Education

Christianity

Imperial Japan purged Korean schools of ‘pro-American’ professors, abolished Christian prayers, and labeled the English language as the ‘product of the enemy’, expelled Western missionaries (Dec. 1942)

2024-03-15

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I wanted to share something quite illuminating and, frankly, disturbing from a historical perspective. It’s an excerpt from an article

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Education

Colonial regime forced Korean schools to drop English from the main curriculum to further wartime Imperial Japanese ‘character-building’ education (April 1943)

2024-02-19

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613

In April 1943, during the throes of the Pacific War, a notable article was published in Keijo Nippo, the leading

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Colonial regime made impassioned case for Japanese-Korean Unification in ranting mythological and historical narrative invoking the story of Yeonorang and Seonyeo, Shinto god Susanoo who settled in Silla, Prince Go Yak’gwang and Goguryeo refugees who settled in Musashi, Japan in 717 (April 1944)
Education

Colonial regime made impassioned case for Japanese-Korean Unification in ranting mythological and historical narrative invoking the story of Yeonorang and Seonyeo, Shinto god Susanoo who settled in Silla, Prince Go Yak’gwang and Goguryeo refugees who settled in Musashi, Japan in 717 (April 1944)

2024-01-31

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A supporter sent me a copy of an extremely interesting wartime propaganda book published in April 1944 by the Imperial

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Education

Dehumanization in Colonial Korea, 1943: Branding Koreans as ‘just objects’ for ‘not understanding the blessings of Imperial Japan’ and labeling them as ‘hypocrites who are outwardly obedient, but inwardly rebellious in their hearts’

2023-06-22

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I’m posting here today to share a rather unsettling article from colonial Korea in 1943. It is timely, as this

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Education

Tourist groups visiting the historical sites of Buyeo (부여, 夫餘) had to perform 3 hours community service (road repair, water pipes, tree planting) under Imperial Army command and indoctrinated in ‘Japanese-Korean Unification’ propaganda with mandatory Shinto worship, no individual tourists allowed (1943)

2023-04-09

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This article is the last one in a series of three educational articles published by the colonial regime to promote

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Japanese Language

Colonial officials claimed ‘Korean must naturally stop being spoken as a result of the spread of Japanese’ ‘no words in Korean can express the essence of the Japanese spirit in a straightforward way’ ‘Korean will one day be regarded as just another local dialect like the Kyushu dialect’ (June 1943)

2023-03-22

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In June 1943, Keijo Nippo ran a long series of roundtable discussion articles, where colonial interior ministry officials gathered to

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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

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

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Japanese Language

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

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Recent Posts

  • Imperial Japan shamed Koreans for going to theaters instead of preparing for invasion (March 1945)
  • Don’t wear rings or chima dresses! Don’t believe the Allied leaflets! Imperial Japan’s desperate attempts to control Koreans by late February 1945
  • “Even Dreams Must Be in Japanese”: Imperial Japan’s Chilling Wartime Propaganda for Korean Assimilation
  • Propaganda cartoons from 1943 depict cheerful Koreans enjoying Imperial Japanese rule as they are sternly warned about eavesdropping Western spies
  • Imperial Japanese cartoon from 1943 depicts Korean boy teaching his grandma how to issue commands to her dog in Japanese

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    • Imperial Japanese penal official said Korean 'ideological criminals' (independence activists) were 'not well made as human beings', but 'if only their thoughts could be corrected, then they will get better' so they can be 'used' for wartime labor, but 'this is not the case with ordinary criminals'
    • Nostalgia for Imperial Japan and its undercurrents in Kishi Nobusuke's legacy in postwar Japan, in Park Chung-hee and Chun Doo-hwan's legacy in South Korea, and why access to wartime newspapers of Japan-occupied Korea is important to combat historical misinformation by the far-right in both countries
    • Simon Young Kim (김영근), a South Korean violin virtuoso and disciple of famous violinist Jascha Heifetz, Simon was once my teacher and mentor, and his son was my best friend in elementary school
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