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Exposing Imperial Japan

Exposing Imperial Japan

Viewing the suffering of colonized people through the lens of the colonizer's propaganda

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‘We’re going to Washington!’ – a 1944...
Governor-General Koiso blamed excessive chili peppers for...
The Korean people were allegedly liars, slackers,...
Korean candidate defiantly ran for office in...
Korean comfort women interviewed after whirlwind 1943...
Forgotten Korean Suicide Attacker ‘Hero’ celebrated by...
August 28, 1945: Colonial regime announces a...
Imperial Japanese news staff departing Korea wrote...
Korean children underwent mass medical inspections in...
Korean director of Straits of Chosun (1943)...
Bilingual Korean-Japanese propaganda posters started to be...
February 1943, Seoul high school girls perform...
When all of Korea was forced to...
In 1942 Busan, Korean pastors and foreign...
Five Korean singers, including future pop stars...

Tag: 1943

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
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

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

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Food Shortages

By December 1943, poultry was unavailable anywhere in Seoul, eggs were supposed to be priority-rationed to hospitalized war veterans and people with doctors’ certificates (pregnant women and nursing mothers), but ordinary Koreans had to buy eggs on the black market at 30 sen (about $6 USD today) each

2022-08-06

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This article talks about the egg and poultry shortage that was rampant in Korea in December 1943, two years into

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Military

Minakai Department Store in Seoul featured a propaganda panoramic picture depicting New York City in flames from an Imperial Japanese air raid and President Roosevelt fainting out of panic, as part of a warplane donation campaign (September 1943)

2022-08-03

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This is my translation and transcription of a ‘forward-looking’ news article from Keijo Nippo, a propaganda newspaper and mouthpiece of

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Military

Propaganda ‘feel good story’ praises Korean grandfather for finally accepting his grandson’s voluntary enlistment in the Imperial Japanese air force, as it was ‘not easy to persuade’ him due to his ‘having lived through half a century of complicated historical changes’ (Dongdaemun Seoul, 1943)

2022-08-01

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

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Food Shortages

Colonial authorities discussed how to reduce prenatal/infant mortality rates in the midst of severe 1943 wartime food shortages, declaring that the Korean children belong to Imperial Japan and not to the mother, who must raise them into future soldiers and leaders of the Co-prosperity Sphere

2022-07-24

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

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Internment Camp

Young Korean men were ‘beaten into shape’ at militaristic farmers’ dōjō (Imperial Japanese training indoctrination camp) to cultivate the next generation of rural Korean leaders who would spread the Imperial Way of farming throughout the Korean countryside (Daejeon, 1943)

2022-07-18

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

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Uncategorized

Educational supervisor declares that ‘old ways of thought of the Korean women must first be corrected’, and mocks Korean mothers for being worried for their conscripted sons’ lives while they aren’t afraid of death when it comes to shopping

2022-07-06

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This 1943 article describes 200 Korean women packed in an auditorium as Mr. Kondo the colonial educational supervisor delivers a

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Uncategorized

Five Korean singers, including future pop stars of postwar South Korea, performed at a 1943 Imperial Japanese Army music party and sang a newly released song with lyrics ‘the spirit of the Empire, which is a burning fire, we’re at the Emperor’s command, we’re in awe, we of Japan harden our resolve’

2022-06-25

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

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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
Japanese Language

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

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

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School

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

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

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Recent Posts

  • 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
  • Imperial Japan banned passengers wearing chima skirts from boarding trains, escalating its campaign against traditional Korean garments in May 1945
  • “If Japan loses, Koreans will fight each other, divided by foreign powers”: June 1945 warning by Korean collaborator (박춘금, 朴春琴) who urged authorities to redirect Korean nationalism into support for Imperial Japan
  • Imperial Japan called Korean women in chima dresses ‘the most filthy and ugly sight’ and shamed them with posters captioned ‘there are still women like these’ (April 1945)
  • Imperial Japan shamed Koreans for going to theaters instead of preparing for invasion (March 1945)

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    • Imperial Japanese penal official said Korean 'ideological criminals' (independence activists) were 'not well made as human beings', but 'if only their thoughts could be corrected, then they will get better' so they can be 'used' for wartime labor, but 'this is not the case with ordinary criminals'
    • Nostalgia for Imperial Japan and its undercurrents in Kishi Nobusuke's legacy in postwar Japan, in Park Chung-hee and Chun Doo-hwan's legacy in South Korea, and why access to wartime newspapers of Japan-occupied Korea is important to combat historical misinformation by the far-right in both countries
    • Simon Young Kim (김영근), a South Korean violin virtuoso and disciple of famous violinist Jascha Heifetz, Simon was once my teacher and mentor, and his son was my best friend in elementary school
    Exposing Imperial Japan
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