Korean Job Discussion Forums

[shakuhachi]

A friend of mine pointed out these interesting pictures to me.


Seoul circa 1897 (the Japanese have yet to destroy Korean Culture)


The "Arc of Gratitude" (to the Chinese). It was torn down when Korean Empire declared independence. (surely the koreans could not be called ingrates?)


Thatched roofs and uneven city blocks of Seoul circa 1890.

For comparison, here is a panoramic photo of Edo (currently Tokyo) of about the same time.



This Seoul in 1937 when it was officially Japanese territory. (truly the wicked japanese had destroyed the "korean way of life)

Also Seoul

seoul again.

And this was Pyongyang under Japanese rule.

pyongyang also

"The Japanese occupation of Korea was a systemic destruction of the Korean people comparable only to the Nazi Holocaust."

(credit to my friend Oscar for this one)


imgs turned to urls due to size. CLG

[mo]

I'm actually quite interested in the Japanese occupation of Korea. Does anyone know of any good books on the topic?

[matko]

I can send you some Japanese High school textbooks on the subject.

Interesting photos Shakuhachi.

You have the best handle on the board dude!!!!

[whatthefunk]

Matko, have you seen the television program thats been on lately? Dont know what channel, but it comes on around 11 at night. Great movies clips from 1900-2000 and they have showed quite a few of occupied Korea. Its all in Japanese, but I have been watching it just because the movies are so interesting..

[ulsanchris]

i think what the koreans are talking about is not so much physical stuff like buildings but the way the japanese tried to replace korean with japanese, and other cultural aspects.

[matko]

[Mosley]

Bruce Cumings' KOREA'S PLACE IN THE SUN has a fair bit on the Japanese period. I'm not a big fan of Cumings' overall outlook but the one worthwhile aspect of his book, IMHO, is that he makes no bones about the high degree of collaboration w/the Japanese that took place-stuff you won't find at Independence Hall or the Prison Museum in Seoul!

[Mr. Pink]

Hmm Japan was most likely mimicing France/England/Spain in what they did in colonel times.

I guess most of us should be thankful to the British Empire for being so good - otherwise we might not have the jobs we do today.

Japan did modernize Korea, but I'd venture to say America did a lot more for Korea and still does a lot more for Korea.

Who built up South Korea after the Korean War?

Hmm the more I think about it, most advanced countries owe America

[mithridates]

I think they could've gotten away with it if they didn't force Japanese language education, changing of the surnames, and making women become sex slaves to the soldiers. It's the equivalent of taking somebody out of their poor family home and making them live in a big rich house with strangers, though complete with satellite tv and all the amenities.
However, I'm pretty sure that if Japan hadn't moved in, China or Russia would have as Korea was pretty weak at the time and didn't even have a stable internal government. I don't know if Russian or Chinese occupation would have been any better.
The best way to learn about that period of time is to get Japanese and Korean newspapers printed at the time, now on CD-ROM. That requires knowing both Korean and Japanese, but if you're really interested the languages should present no problem.

[ryleeys]

I'll try and get the names of some of the textbooks I studied in college if you wanna learn Japanese or Korean history... I minored in East Asian Studies...

[Alias]

Is it true that many young Koreans ignore the fact that the US defeated Japan to end Japanese occupation?

[shakuhachi]

[On the other hand]

You could just as easily get photos of Africa circa 1855, showing the Africans living in generally primitive conditions with little or nothing in the way of infrastructure, housing, technology etc. You could contrast these with photos of an Alabama plantation circa 1855, where the slaves are living in basically decent housing, getting three square meals a day, with a few of them even having the opportunity to get a rudimentary education if their masters so allowed. Then, you could say "See how much better off the blacks were under slavery? What the hell were the abolitionists so worked up about?"

[Psy]

Here's a link to some books about comfort women if interested.

Comfort Women

[matko]

Since Japan already paid war reparations to Korea, why are Korean comfort women demanding renumeration?

Shouldn't that have been paid by the Korean government from the money Japan paid?