Korea as a Japanese Colony

Japanese rule of Korea is generally divided into three periods.

First came the age of subjugation (1910 - 1919), when the military ruled by threat and violence. After the Korean independence movement in March 1919, the Japanese eased into a time of cultural accommodation (1920 - 1931), allowing some freedoms in schools, newspapers and businesses. Then came the years of assimilation (1931 - 1945), with a renewed tightening of controls and forced participation in the Japanese war effort.

As Hildi Kang noted in her book Under the Black Umbrella Voices from Colonial Korea 1910 - 1945 (Cornell University, 2001), even though Japanese occupation ended in 1945, the debate raged then, and continues to this day, "over whether that occupation was beneficial or harmful for Korea."

When elder Yi Sangdo recalled the Japanese-built dams and bridges that brought flood control to his village, he admitted, "I must say, their organization impressed me. I think probably it was good, in the long run." But Yang Songdok just as strongly insisted, "They had sinister plans ... to eliminate any vestige of Korean consciousness."

Scholar Carter Eckert looked at both sides of the picture: "If one finds [in the colonial period] enlightenment and progress, one also finds national subjugation, shame and betrayal, political authoritarianism and violence, and profound human suffering."

Bruce Cumings also stressed this dichotomy when he said that politically Koreans could barely breathe, but economically there was significant, if unevenly distributed growth.

Indeed, this complexity can be found throughout Kang's book. The complexity led to the crumbling of the old order, and coincided with a time where the "modern world knocked, pounded, and battered its way into [Korea's] consciousness."

Perhaps, just perhaps, hermits and recluses* cannot be left alone for long, or forever.

* Ab FS being one of them.