Category: Korean Workers

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

110

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

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

107

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

153

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

Model Korean Family

Model Korean mother left baby and bedridden husband behind at home to work as a clerk for Imperial Japanese Army, praised by boss for happily working overtime, early morning to late at night for 1/3 the usual pay without complaining, even when so exhausted she couldn’t see straight (Feb. 1944)

2024-02-10

310

This article features Mrs. Ahn, a Seoul native, who in the midst of war, leaves behind her baby and bedridden

Korean Workers

Korean staff at Keijo Nippo took over news operations from their former Japanese bosses in Nov 1945 and then sent this message to Korean readers announcing continued publication in Japanese for the time being until Korean typefaces are ready for use

2023-09-25

256

For my second post that I am making during my stay in Korea, I thought it would only be fitting

Korean Workers

Imperial Japan had postwar plans to quadruple Japanese settlers in Korea to dominate the most technologically intensive industries, and suppress Korean access to higher education to quell ‘dissatisfaction’ (June 1943)

2023-07-01

299

I recently came across two intriguing news articles from the Japanese colonial period of Korean history that shed light on

School

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

391

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

Korean Workers

Korean farming family weaving straw bags known as ‘gamani’ (가마니) in Korean or ‘kamasu’ in Japanese, traditionally used to transport manure, coal, salt, grain, etc. (Haeju, February 1943)

2023-02-14

436

In this story, the reporters covered an impoverished farming family in Haeju (in present-day North Korea) which was using traditional

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

384

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

School

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

513

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