Exposing Imperial Japan

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Daily Life

American soldiers meeting local women and shopping for flowers and dolls in Seoul and Incheon, providing trucks to Patriotic Groups to clean the streets (September 21-22, 1945)

2023-12-16

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These photos are from pages of the Keijo Nippo newspaper that I stumbled upon during my visit to the National

Post-Liberation

U.S. soldiers guard the Gyeongseong Ilbo (Keijo Nippo) newspaper office on September 11, 1945, three days after the start of the U.S. military occupation of southern Korea

2023-12-11

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This photo is from a page in the Keijo Nippo newspaper that I stumbled upon during my visit to the

Daily Life

August 28, 1945: Colonial regime announces a peaceful transition of power to the new incoming Korean government, reopens comfort women services, department stores, cafés in Seoul as popular uprising subsides, plans orderly repatriation of Japanese residents

2023-12-06

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This is another fascinating historical article that I stumbled upon during my visit to the National Library of Korea a

Post-Liberation

Koreans first read of the US/Soviet Division of Korea on Aug. 25th, 1945 in this historic Keijo Nippo news article explicitly announcing for the first time that ‘Korea is to be made free and independent’

2023-12-03

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This is another fascinating historical article that I stumbled upon during my visit to the National Library of Korea a

Military

Imperial Japanese Army finally acknowledges Korea’s imminent independence just over a week after liberation (Aug. 23, 1945) with a jumbled announcement full of desperate denials, threats, and unconvincing reassurances to fend off Korean armed resistance

2023-11-28

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This is another fascinating historical article that I stumbled upon during my visit to the National Library of Korea a

Post-Liberation

A mere 3 days after surrender, liberated Koreans were already attempting to overthrow the colonial regime in Korea, alarming the Imperial Japanese Army who made this radio broadcast on August 18, 1945 to threaten military action against ‘individuals harboring evil thoughts’

2023-11-24

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This is another fascinating historical article that I stumbled upon during my visit to the National Library of Korea a

Foreign Residents

Annie Ellers Bunker, American missionary who went from personal physician to Empress Myeongseong to thriving philanthropist in Colonial Korea, was praised in this 1938 Keijo Nippo obituary for endorsing the Imperial Japanese Army

2023-11-14

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This obituary from October 1938, published in Keijo Nippo newspaper, an organ of the Imperial Japanese colonial regime which ruled

Christianity

Ms. B.F. Starkey, blue-eyed American missionary featured in 1938 Keijo Nippo as a pro-Imperial model foreigner inspired by Japanese-Korean Unification policy to join the Patriotic Women’s Association in Seoul

2023-11-11

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This 1938 article is a historical account in a colonial propaganda newspaper about Ms. B.F. Starkey, an American missionary in

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

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

Military

In June 1945, Imperial Japan announced a mass mobilization of nearly all able-bodied Korean civilian men ages 12-65 and women ages 12-45 into Volkssturm-like ‘Volunteer’ Corps (義勇隊) and Suicide Squads (特攻隊) to wage last resort armed combat against Allied troops stepping into Korea

2023-10-31

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I’d like to bring to your attention a fascinating article from June 1945, which I found in the archives of