Korean Job Discussion Forums

[noelinkorea]

I have been trying to get my head around the colonial period here and how Koreans seem to use it as fuel for their own identity. The cruel and unjust treatment by Japan was to varying degrees also present in other colonial nations...not surprising. However one question nags me about the period. Koreans go on about having how they had to adopt Japaese names. I would like to know whether:
a) They were made to take (or given) a random Japanese name (in the way they take English names these days with some selectivity...) or
b) They translated their own Korean names (based on hanja) into the Japanese reading of the characters to create a Japanese name or
c) Japanese pronunication of the origina Korean pronunciation or
d)...some other way...

I have no evidence and hence am curious, but I suspect perhaps the second makes a lot of sense - since Korean/Japanese/Chinese character names can be read by each language differently. My (admittedly weak) idea is that in as much as it was about subverting Korean culture it was also practical means when the bureaucracy was administered in Japanese anyway (witness the Soviets also did similar things to minorities' names within their territory - by Russifying them - adding patrionymic names and often adding linguistic devices to the end of family names in line with Russian ones.)

Any ideas here people? Or can someone point me where to look to find out more about this? I'm not taking the piss - just an honest question...

[mithridates]

One of the first things Japan did around 1910 when it first started running the place was made it illegal for Koreans to take Japanese names. That changed in...1934 (I think) when they brought in the changing of their names to Japanese ones. There was a grace period of a few months for them to register their names as Japanese ones, though they often used the same kanji making some weird names like Bokomoto, from the �� in Park. ��� - Bokumoto. It was still obvious that the person was Korean. Some people took names like �� (��) meaning well, and turned them into less obvious names like Arai, which is written as ����, meaning new well, so the same name but renewed.
The difference is that they were changing from �� to ��, �� being the surname passed down through the father's line and �� the Japanese system. Back then it wasn't permitted for a person of the same �� to get married, and people weren't allowed to adopt people of a different ��.
Anyone who didn't register their new names after the deadline had their Korean names used the way they were originally written, but as �� instead of ��.

[billybrobby]

huh?

why did they suddenly go from having something be illegal to making it required? it's like america requiring everybody to smoke pot (crosses fingers)

and what is the japanese �� system? how does that work?

"Anyone who didn't register their new names after the deadline had their Korean names used the way they were originally written, but as �� instead of ��"

what does this mean? can you give an example? thanks.

[mithridates]

I'll quote something I wrote on another board last month:

[ajuma]

If you want to read a good book about the Japanese occupation and the changing of names, read: When My Name Was Keoko -- by Linda Sue Park. It's fairly unbiased and available in most bookstores (try Kyobo).