Exposing Imperial Japan

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Koreans generally used to make their own miso and soy sauce at home with raw soybeans, but with those rations gone, they were blamed for allegedly ‘encroaching upon’ and hoarding the miso and soy sauce that the ethnic Japanese normally consumed, contributing to shortages (Gyeonggi-do, 1943)

2023-03-02

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This is an interesting article about the dire shortages of miso and soy sauce in Seoul, where authorities apparently struggled

Daily Life

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

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

Police

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

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

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

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

Internment Camp

In February 1943, a massive network of Imperial Way Training Institutes was launched in Korea to initially train 500,000 Korean ‘leaders’ in ‘character building’ based on the ‘pure Japanese spirit and worldview’, but not in Japan proper because of the ‘high national character’ of the Japanese people

2023-02-09

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In February 1943, Governor-General Koiso issued an executive order creating a vast nationwide network of ‘Imperial Way Training Institutes’ that

Press

Keijo Nippo (Gyeongseong Ilbo) was Korea’s largest newspaper at its peak, boasting the best exclusive news access provided by the colonial regime, the best American printing equipment, correspondents stationed all over the world, printing from Sept. 1906 to Dec. 1945 under 3 different governments

2023-02-05

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In December 1938, Keijo Nippo newspaper published a self-promoting advertisement on a full-page spread boasting about how it is the

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

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

School

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

Entertainment

Imperial Army general describes crowded movie theaters and cafes in Myeong-dong where Japanese and Korean ‘young people in flashy overcoats would flow into coffee shops, chatting with their friends using exaggerated American gestures’ in his January 1943 essays about daily life in Seoul

2023-01-23

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I found these four ‘slice-of-life’ personal essays written by an Imperial Army general in the Imperial Army press department describing

Entertainment

In January 1943, Hollywood films were banned in Korea, but 2 French films and 6 German films were showing in Seoul movie theaters: only ‘working women’ could watch Wunschkonzert, a Nazi propaganda drama, and only ‘industrial warriors’ could watch Kora Terry, a German spy thriller

2023-01-20

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In January 1943, exactly eighty years ago, Imperial Japan was at war, but some Seoul residents still had time to