Culture under Japanese rule

氏の創設は自由 ・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・・

Korean names
the photo

1)About 80% of Koreans adopted Japanese names.
But there were Koreans who kept using Korean names.
The photos on the left are a classbook.The names underlined are Korean names.
It was published in 1942.toron
.
Only about 2% of Taiwaneses were allowed to adopt Japanese names.
link
Japanese police was againt Koreans using Japanese names.link
2)
There was no law that Korean had to change their name in Japanese way.dreamtale
There were no penalty for not using Japanese name.
Hence, general. Hong Shi-yoku(洪思翊中将) and the governer of Gyeongsong Bug Do, Kim Dei-u( 金大羽慶北道知事),for instance, thouth they were pro-Japanese, did not use Japanese name.
3) Koreans had been adopting quasi-Chinese names .
For instance,
Lee Teng-hui 李登輝 is the former president of Taiwan
Lee Wan-yon 李完用　is the prime minister when Korea is annexed.
Most of Koreans in Japan is using Japanese names now.
Most of ethinic Koreans in the US is adopting American names now.

Koryo kings took Mongol names, wore their hair in Mongol style, wore Mongol dress, and used the Mongol language. .project

4)
The name was pronounced in Japanese way. For instance, Lee Wan yon 李完用 is pronounced Li Kan you.
5)nobi,Korean
slave had no name.

See the name changing under Japanese rule

Language

Japanese was an official language in Korean under Japanese rule just as English was an official language in philippines.

English is one of the official language in the Philippines. It was imposed by Americans during the U.S. intervention and colonization of the archipelago. ...wiki

Hence, Speaking Japanese was encouraged.
So for instance Japanese was used at school
http://www.answers.com/topic/languages-of-the-philippines
http://mirror.jijisama.org/syokuminti2.htm#hanguru

However it is not true that Korean people were not allowed to speak Korean in daily life.
a Seoul streetcar map from the 1930s (from Seoul Under Japanese Aggression (1910 - 1945)via Gusts Of Popular Feeling
how to book for those who are mobilized.

1))NHK radio station in Korea broadcasted in Korean and Japanese until 1945
(ater that, broadcasting in Japanese was abolished.)[1]

2)The films in Korean were produced.

link
link

chosun libo



3)
According to statistics by government general, Koreans who could understand Japanese were as follows.(諸君　２００６年４月ｐ１０１）
year・・・・・ rate
大正２年末　1913・・・・・0.61%
昭和１４年　1939・・・・・１３．９%
昭和１５年　1940・・・・・１５．５７%
昭和１６年　1941・・・・・１６．６１%
昭和１７年　1942・・・・・１９．９４%
昭和１８年　1943・・・・・ ２２．１５%

Remember North Korea abducted Japanse because they wanted someone to teach Japanese.


4)Korean was taught at school



the photos a textbook of Korean

And teaching Korean at school was complusory until 1938.After that time, it was selective , that means it is the principals of school who decided if Korean was to be taught at school. It is said Koeran principals had chosen not to teach Korean but Japaense principal chose to teach it.

4)The oldest Korean dictoinary was published during this period.

japanese.chosun.com

6)Hangule was used in the newspaper.
The newspaper on the photo is published in 1940 during the war.

Hangule was used in a telegram.For instance, in 1939,1091040 telegrams were sent from Korea in Korean language.(p102 諸君　2006・４月）
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Update

One typical issue that has been repeatedly claimed by nationalistic Koreans is the total ban of Korean language by the governor general. I can say fairly confidently that anyone can find it’s completely untrue by refering to some fundamental primary sources of information, such as The Annual Administration Reports of the Governor General of Korea. After all, how do you explain why the Governor General was publishing Hangul news letters (毎日申報) up until 1945 if the use of Korean was totally banned?
Also the first dictionary of Korean language for normal school was published in 1930.
http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200402/200402260026.html

When Korea was a vassal state of China, every official document was written in Chinese character. That’s because Korean leaders considered Hangul as “inferior characters for women”. It is just shocking how little of Koreans know how Haugul has come to such a popularity while constantly boasting about its “rational and systematic” way of writing.

Another myth is the total ban of Korean name. If that was the case, how can anyone explain the very existence of Generals 洪思翊 and 李恨, former of whom were executed by the Allied Forces after WW2? Both of them used their Korean names throughout their Japanese millitary careers. A hero of the Korean War, General 白善燁 was a young Lieutenant in the Manchurian Army, and of course he was able to use his own Korean name. And the following is a part of Miyukimori school list of graduates for 1942. This shows Koreans students in Japan were allowed to use Korean names.
http://park6.wakwak.com/~photo/image/tb02.jpg

Mika

7)Japanese policeman in Korea had to take a korean course.and Japanese public employee were encouraged to study Korean by giving a sort of scholarship.

8)It was Japanese who helped to spread Hangule

In July, 1894, Mr Otori made the useful innovation of publishing the Gasette in clear type, and inthe following January it appeared in a mixture of Chinese hieroglyphs and En-mun, the "vulgar script" of Korea, and became intelligible to the common people.

p374 Isabella L. Bird [2] Otori is a Japanese.

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UPDATE
Two Cents Said:

January 23, 2007 at 6:52 am

Lirelou,
The official bulletin by the Chosun Consulate continued to be printed in Korean (hanja + hangul) until the end of the war. Private newspapers were all abolished on August 10, 1940.
http://ndl.go.jp/jp/data/theme/asia/theme_asia_52.html
毎日申報（京城 毎日申報社[編]）
Mai-il Shin-po (Keijo Mai-il Shin-po sha ed.)
出版期間:1910.8.30～1945.11.28
Period of circulation: August 30, 1901-Nov. 28, 1945
Unfortunately, it seems that the National Diet Library of Congress in Japan only has those up to 1938. Maybe Seoul University will have them.

Radios continued to be aired in Korean. (How else was Japan supposed to disseminate war propaganda?) The Chosun Housou Kyokai (CHK; call sign JODK, 朝鮮放送協会), established in 1927 was the counterpart of the Japanese NHK, and used two frequencies, one for Japanese and one for Korean. There were stations that began Radio 2 (frequency dedicated to Korean programs) broadcasting very late in the war, like the Wonsan (元山, JBJK) and Haeju (海州, JBKK) stations on Nov. 10, 1943, and the Daejon (大田, JBIK) station on Nov. 11, 1944. There were more than 20 stations throughout Korea, and those that did not carry out broadcasting in 2 frequencies, alternated between Japanese and Korean programs on one channel. In February 1945, Radio 2 broadcasting were all abolished, and all stations alternated programs on one channel until the end of the war. I think the Japanese will notice that this Radio One/Two system is still used by the NHK Radio. Radio stations south of the 38th parallel were turned over to the US forces on Sept. 9, 1945, at point all Japanese broadcasting ceased. Maybe libraries of the US Forces have some info on this.

No laws existed which prohibited the use of the Korean language (if there had been, the official gazette and the radio would have been continued to the end of the war). Even the 1940 law that Koreans and some Japanese historians cite as the one that prohibited Korean education in schools says that all schools in the Imperial Japan had to conform to the curriculum of Japan proper. However, the law also repeatedly states that the Chosun consulate may make decisions on subjects that are unique to Korea in a manner that the General Consulate sees fit. The Consulate never passed any laws or regulations forbidding Korean classes. It simply became elective. Curiously, it seems Japanese principals were the ones who chose to keep Korean in the curriculum while Korean principals were rather quick in terminating them. I do not know the reason for this.two cents at occidentalism
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Update
Mika said:

Paul89,

You say that Japan did systematic attempt to destroy Korean culture, but primary documents don’t agree with you.

The first dictionary of Korean language for normal school published in 1930.
http://english.chosun.com/w21data/html/news/200402/200402260026.html

A list of Korean movies which were produced during annexation.
http://kaokaosama.hp.infoseek.co.jp/garakuta/cinema3.html

Japanese magazines promoted Korean movies.
http://syasinsyuu.cool.ne.jp/corea/corea34.jpg

Some of Korean popular songs released by Japanese record companies in the late 1930’s.
http://syasinsyuu.cool.ne.jp/corea/corea22.jpg
http://syasinsyuu.cool.ne.jp/corea/corea21.jpg

Here is a Chosunilbo newspaper which was published in 1940. They were allowed to use Hangul.
http://blog.ameba.jp/user_images/be/b9/10003227193.gif
Posted on 25-Feb-07 at 6:40 am | Permalink

jounalism

More or less all Korean books on the history of journalism insist that the first Korean newspaper was the Hansong sunbo which began publication in October 1883 in Seoul. But this oft-repeated statement is not quite correct, since the first modern newspaper in Korea appeared earlier than that. The Choson sinbo had been published in Pusan since October 1881, and preceded the Hansong sunbo by almost two years. Nonetheless, it is mentioned only in passing by most Korean studies of journalism.

This silence is understandable: the Choson sinbo (or the Chosen sinpo, if we use the Japanese reading of its title characters) was published by the Japanese.

One important feature of the Choson sinbo was that it deliberately addressed both the Japanese and Korean communities. Of course, few Koreans in the area had a sufficient command of written Japanese, so the newspaper ran articles in two languages: in Japanese and in Classical Chinese (hanmun) which remained the major language of the educated elite in Korea, but also could be read by the educated Japanese without much difficulty. In one instance the newspaper even ran a short news story in Korean, written in the phonetic script, now known as hangul (125 years ago hangul was referred to by a number of other terms). This was unusual, since the early Korean press, until the mid-1890s, seldom published Korean language material, being dominated as it was by Classical Chinese.The Korean Times By Andrei Lankov

History

Korean history was taught as a part of Japanese history.
Moreover in 1922 the comittee for Korean history was established and in 1941 the 35 volumes of Korean history which consisted of 2500 pages were published.
toron


toron
It is true that some books were confiscated. The photo on the left is the list of books confiscated. Such books include "the equality of man and woman" ,"the development of nationals' libety, "three monster of the world" "Japanese dictionary" "Japanese grammer" "ethics"the geography of korea" the history of korea",The paper says these books causes disorder in society. I am not sure what exactly criteria for prohibiting. From the list, my guess is that some books are confiscated because they were too liberal for the times, others because inaccurate or inadequate in description, still others because of the reasons beyond my imagination.
link

philosophy and social science

It was only after Japan's rule that western thought was imported, though the idea of communism was surpressed in Korea as well as in Japan.

Religion{3}

Shinto was the national religion, and hence students had duty to visit Japanese Shinto shrine.
However other religions were not prohibited.There were Chiristianity and other religiions.
Remember the main groups of March first movement were Christians and the members of Chundoism(天道教）＊
＊Chundo-gyo is a religion indigenous to Korea. Chundo-gyo ('chun' = Heaven, 'do' = path or ways, 'gyo' = religion or 'ism' = Heavenly Way)link


[1]
1925 8月：朝鮮総督府、実験放送実施 朝鮮語による放送第一声といわれている
1927 7月：京城放送局、放送編成比率を日本語6、朝鮮語4に変更
1929 3月 放送編成比率は日本語5、朝鮮語5に変更
1932 4月 第一放送課（日本語）と第二放送課（朝鮮語）を設置
11月 京城放送局、最初の朝鮮語アナウンサー募集
朴忠根、南廷駿、崔児只、金文卿を採用
1945 9月9日：朝鮮語による第２放送を第１放送に変更（970kHz）
日本語による第１放送（710kHz）は廃止
朝鮮放送協会

[2]

The language of korea is mixed. The educated classes introduced Chinese as much as possible into their conversation, and all the literature of any account is in that language, ・・・・・・En-mun, the Korean script, is utterly despised by the educated・・・・・Only women,children and the uneducated used the En-mun till January,1895, when a new departure was made by the officail Gazette,・・・・appearing
in a mixture of Chinese Characters and En-mun, a resemblance to the Japanese mode of writing.p20

Isabella L. Bird

Update
Mimong

By Kim Hyun
SEOUL, March 1 (Yonhap) -- In Korea, when sound movies first appeared in the 1930s during the colonial occupation by Japan, what did Korean moviemakers try to put on the screen?

For one 25-year-old director's debut movie, it wasn't a love story or ethical drama. "Mimong" (bad dreams), directed by Yang Joo-nam in 1936 and recently discovered in a Chinese archive, portrays an unsympathetic woman who leaves her family to follow her desires, an atypical figure in the strict society of the time.

Yang's heroine, Ae-sun, reminiscent of Madame Bovary, was played by Mun Ye-bong, said to be the most popular actress of the time, who later became an honorable star in North Korea. Ae-sun is bored with her decent but mediocre husband and longs for romance and the newest fashions.

On one of her shopping days she encounters a well-dressed man who steals her purse, then returns it, pretending that he found it. The man, who appears to be a wealthy businessman but is later found to be a thief, becomes Ae-sun's lover and takes her to a hotel, their home of adultery.

Her lust for romance seems unrelenting, as she finds a new object of desire in a flirtatious dancer.

Amidst the luxurious life in a hotel room, she discovers the true identity of her paramour and leaves him, but the taxi she is in hits her daughter, who tries to get in her way. With her daughter lying in bed with minor injuries, Ae-sun takes poison from her purse.

Between her movements, there can be seen the city of Seoul in bygone times: a diesel train belching smoke in Seoul Station, and the large intersection in front of the ancient gate Namdaemun, Korean national treasure No. 1, as several cars roll by on dusty, unpaved roads

"Mimong," the oldest surviving Korean movies discovered yet, which runs for 47 minutes with Japanese subtitles, is to be screened for the first time at the Korean Film Archive in Seoul from Thursday.2006/03/01 Yohan

[3} I think shinto is similar to Korean tradtional religion.
Here is some description of Korean "pagan beliefs"

Then whoever the senior is will take a bottle of soju and splash it onto the tires and on the sides of the new car to ensure that no evil spirits are left lurking inside and that the new owner will have safe mileage and never get into an accident.

This is the same with Shinto purifying the place, things.
Moreover it is also similar in that the religion is compatible with other religions.

For all the hard-core Christians in this country, it is so fascinating to see that many of these same people participate in what seem like "pagan" practices. When Ghosts Walk the Streets March 22, 2006/Asian pages

update
Choi Seung-hui

。