Category: School

Military

A tour of Sinuiju Yamato Imperial Boarding School in 1942, where Korean nationalism was considered a moral defect to be ‘purified’ away so that Korean ‘thought criminals’ become ‘completely Japanese’

2023-11-07

618

In June 1942, a magazine called “Chōsen” (Korea) published an article that offers a stark window into a grim chapter

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

521

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

Daily Life

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

397

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

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

465

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

Korean Workers

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

666

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

Daily Life

Korean schoolgirls standing in front of Seoul Whashin Department Store in 1943 as Korean women make some stitches in Shinto cloth amulets to be gifted to Imperial Japanese soldiers

2022-11-14

437

In Imperial Japan, schoolgirls would stand around public places like department stores and hold white strips of cloth, and then

Imperial Way

A back-to-school article telling Korean parents what their children would expect on their first day at Imperial Japanese elementary school: Shinto prayers to the Emperor, a free piece of bread for lunch, students were encouraged to earn their own money to buy some school supplies (April 1944, Seoul)

2022-10-25

423

Imagine you are parent in 1944 Seoul and it is April, the beginning of the new school year. You are

School

Young Korean teachers teach children the ‘will to fight and destroy the U.S. and Britain’ and the Imperial Way of Labor where ‘every stalk of grass and every tree’ is connected to the Japanese nation and everything in the villages is ‘all solely dedicated to the Emperor’ (Sosa, 1943)

2022-10-10

426

This is a ‘feel-good, heartwarming’ story of a novice teacher who gradually gets used to teaching her fourth grade students

Foreign Residents

Small community of ~100 Russian Tatars in Seoul featured in 1942-1944 propaganda articles: a young 19-year-old Tatar girl is praised for filling out immigration forms for her neighbors, a Tatar woman is commended for scolding her friends with red fingernails for wearing ‘British-American’ cosmetics

2022-06-15

473

This is my translation and transcription of four news articles from Keijo Nippo, a propaganda newspaper and mouthpiece of the

Uncategorized

Propaganda articles say Koreans men are cowards because of ‘literary effeminacy’ and too much filial piety toward Korean parents who ‘just play around and live off their children’s income’ after age 50, and resolves to ‘reshape’ Korean Confucianism by ‘beating it’ into a Japanese form (1943)

2022-06-09

467

This is my translation and transcription of two news articles from Keijo Nippo, a propaganda newspaper and mouthpiece of the