Exposing Imperial Japan

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Education

In 1944, Imperial Japan launched an “all-out campaign” to erase Hangul from public life, mobilizing teachers and Korean youth to destroy Korean signs, books, and even phonograph records

2025-10-09

218

This 1944 news announcement represents one of the darkest moments in the history of the Korean language. In April and

Imperial Way

Imperial officials fanned out across rural Korea visiting townships one by one to indoctrinate villagers in Imperialist ideology in ‘Grassroots Penetration’ Campaign (March 1944)

2025-10-05

225

For this post, I am examining two wartime propaganda articles to explore the hierarchical administrative structure that Imperial Japan used

Agriculture

Koiso’s 1943 ‘Great Leader’ Strongman Tours: Surprise village inspections to intimidate local leaders and impose Japanese language and culture all over the Korean countryside

2025-09-29

279

Ever since Imperial Japan annexed Korea in 1910, subduing the countryside proved to be one of the most difficult tasks.

Daily Life

March 1945: Taxis in Seoul nearly vanish, rickshaws exploit passengers, yet Japanese and Korean collaborator elite still get chauffeured drunk to bars and brothels

2025-09-15

265

In the last months of World War II before Imperial Japan’s surrender, the public transportation infrastructure in Seoul was in

Food

April 1945 Seoul dining: the public endured price-gouging and scraps, while privileged Japanese and Korean collaborator elites drank and feasted behind closed doors

2025-09-06

281

As Imperial Japan’s war effort was collapsing in spring 1945, life in colonial Seoul grew increasingly desperate. Ordinary Koreans were

Military

In May 1945, Imperial newspapers in Korea described a hypothetical atomic bomb using nuclear chain reactions that could destroy an entire fleet with a “single matchbox-sized device”

2025-08-19

291

I have been going through Imperial Japanese newspaper articles from over 80 years ago that the National Archives of Korea

Military

21-year-old Kamikaze pilot Han Jeong-sil (한정실, 韓鼎實) delivering his last testament for radio broadcast before flying to die off Okinawa on June 6, 1945

2025-07-29

377

In June 1945, as Imperial Japan was losing a brutal war against the United States, Korean support for the empire

Business

Imperial Japanese and Korean collaborator elite partied in brothels and luxury restaurants while ordinary Koreans starved in wartime Seoul, early 1945

2025-07-08

405

Below is a translation of an Imperial Japanese news article from the Keijō Nippo (京城日報), dated March 5, 1945, reporting

Entertainment

The film that tried to make Koreans see Imperial Japan as their “Omoni” (Mother): Inside the 1945 propaganda movie “Love and Vows” (愛と誓ひ, 사랑과맹세)

2025-06-24

423

This is my review and analysis of a deeply unsettling Imperial Japanese propaganda film, Love and Vows (愛と誓ひ), which was

Military

In 1945, Imperial Japan trained almost every able-bodied Korean man, woman, and child to stab Americans to death with bamboo spears in suicide combat militias under direct Imperial Army command

2025-06-15

445

mobilizing Koreans in Let’s look at three articles from Keijo Nippo (the official Japanese colonial newspaper in Korea) published in

Exposing Imperial Japan

Latest Posts

In 1944, Imperial Japan launched an “all-out campaign” to erase Hangul from public life, mobilizing teachers and Korean youth to destroy Korean signs, books, and even phonograph records

Imperial officials fanned out across rural Korea visiting townships one by one to indoctrinate villagers in Imperialist ideology in ‘Grassroots Penetration’ Campaign (March 1944)

Koiso’s 1943 ‘Great Leader’ Strongman Tours: Surprise village inspections to intimidate local leaders and impose Japanese language and culture all over the Korean countryside

March 1945: Taxis in Seoul nearly vanish, rickshaws exploit passengers, yet Japanese and Korean collaborator elite still get chauffeured drunk to bars and brothels

April 1945 Seoul dining: the public endured price-gouging and scraps, while privileged Japanese and Korean collaborator elites drank and feasted behind closed doors

In May 1945, Imperial newspapers in Korea described a hypothetical atomic bomb using nuclear chain reactions that could destroy an entire fleet with a “single matchbox-sized device”

21-year-old Kamikaze pilot Han Jeong-sil (한정실, 韓鼎實) delivering his last testament for radio broadcast before flying to die off Okinawa on June 6, 1945

Imperial Japanese and Korean collaborator elite partied in brothels and luxury restaurants while ordinary Koreans starved in wartime Seoul, early 1945

The film that tried to make Koreans see Imperial Japan as their “Omoni” (Mother): Inside the 1945 propaganda movie “Love and Vows” (愛と誓ひ, 사랑과맹세)

In 1945, Imperial Japan trained almost every able-bodied Korean man, woman, and child to stab Americans to death with bamboo spears in suicide combat militias under direct Imperial Army command

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