Exposing Imperial Japan – Page 12 – Viewing the suffering of colonized people through the lens of the colonizer's propaganda

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Imperial Way

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

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

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Imperial Japan built Shinto shrines all over Korea in every eup and myeon, enlisting Patriotic Groups to “cultivate the worship of gods and faith in the Emperor” among Koreans and realize “the fusion of the Japanese-Korean family based on divine will”

2022-10-06

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It is April 1944, over two years into total war against the United States and Britain, and it is not

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Imperial Japanese security chief broadcast a speech to all patriotic groups in Korea, sternly warning Koreans against spreading fake news, including a bizarre rumor about a newly born baby cow with a human head which prophesied that Japan would win the war by September 1944, and then promptly died

2022-10-02

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This article is a speech that the Imperial Japanese colonial security chief broadcast in 1944 to all the patriotic groups

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This 24-year-old Korean woman leveraged her connections with her powerful grandfather, Yi Hae-chang (이해창/李海昌) from the Korean collaborator elite, to land a comfortable job as patriotic group leader for the privileged Tae family clan (Sajik-dong, Seoul, 1944)

2022-09-26

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This brief 1944 article is about a well-connected 24-year-old Korean woman named Yi Hui-jun (이희준/李禧準) who leveraged her connections with

Daily Life

‘Yōko versus Hoshiko’, a 1944 morality play pitting ‘good Korean woman’ Yōko, who is kind and considerate, against ‘bad Korean woman’ Hoshiko, the selfish, corrupt patriotic group leader harboring liberal and hedonistic British/American thoughts who ‘needs to be shot’ for betraying Imperial Japan

2022-09-21

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This is my translation and transcription of six fictional stories from Keijo Nippo, a propaganda newspaper and mouthpiece of the

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Korean father carrying remains of his Imperial Army son in 1944 was upset his hometown ignored him and didn’t line up to salute his son like they did in Japan; colonial officials were ordered to show bereaved families proper respect or else the Koreans might start asking, ‘What did my son die for?’

2022-09-14

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This is a typical piece of what I might call a ‘stunned Korean’ propaganda story – a Korean travels to

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Ordinary rural Koreans including men, women, elderly, little girls were forcibly worked to collect organic debris, animal manure, human feces/urine and make organic fertilizer to increase agricultural production for Imperial Japan’s war effort (April 1944)

2022-09-10

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The following three articles are from April 1944, when Imperial Japan was into its third year of fighting an all-out

Model Korean Family

12-year-old Korean girl in Tokyo allegedly chanted ‘Banzai to the Emperor’ 3 times with her last dying breaths before dying of diphtheria in April 1942, her father suddenly died soon afterwards of a broken heart, and Governor-General Koiso of colonial Korea gave condolence money to her surviving mother and sister the following year

2022-09-05

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(Translation) Gyeongseong Ilbo (Keijo Nippo) February 14, 1943The Model Korean Maiden“Banzai to the Emperor” at the Moment of DeathThe Warmth

Food Shortages

Vegetable rationing in 1943 Seoul was measly (~200 grams a day per person), monotonous (mostly bok choy and daikon radish), and controlled by Patriotic Groups, the local arm of the ruling party of Japan-colonized Korea – severe shortages of carrots, taro roots, yams, all sold on the black market

2022-08-29

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This article talks about vegetable shortages in Korea in December 1943, two years into an all-out war against the US.

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Imperial Japanese police in Seoul raided amusement centers, cafes, parks late at night and rounded up ordinary residents labeled ‘rebellious intellectuals’ and ‘insolent fellows’, announcing ‘every single idle person must be exterminated … to bring down the hammer on the neon bugs’ (August 1943)

2022-08-23

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If you suddenly found yourself in Seoul in 1943 and couldn’t stand your oppressive surroundings, you would have probably been