Korean History - Assignment Example

What was the relationship between colonialism and capitalism in the Japanese rule of Korea? In answering this question be sure to explain a) the major shifts in Japanese economic policy, and b) the diverse ways Koreans experienced the changing economy within the broader context of the growing Japanese empire? INTRODUCTION Korea as a civilization has a history dated back well over thousand years [Henry H. Em, pp1]. As we all know Korea was under the control of Japan between 1910 and 1945 for around 35 years. During this period, there were dramatic changes in the economic, political, social and technological environments of Korea. In Korean history, this period is also known as the, “Time of Japanese Forced Occupation.” Let us discuss about the various economic changes that Korea underwent when ruled by Japan. WHAT IS COLONIALISM? Colonialism is defined as the process of exploitation of a weaker country by a stronger country. In other words it is a process by which stronger nations take control over weaker nations by establishing their power and exploiting the resources of the weaker nations in order to strengthen their economy. WHAT IS CAPITALISM? Capitalism is a social system which exists in all the countries of the world. Capitalism involves distributing and producing goods that are owned by a small minority of people. Under capitalism the private owners who are rich in economic status flourish more and more by utilizing the man power of the poor workers working under them. relationship between Colonialism and Capitalism in Korea under the Japanese Rule The term colony comes from the Latin word colon us, which means farmer. This term reminds the practice of colonialism that involved the transfer of population to a new geographic area where the new comers lived as the settlers with permanent mind while solving the allegiance of politics of their country. Colonialism is thus a practice or power which involves the control of one county by another country. Colonialism here refers to the act of Japanese people settling in Korea. At the initial stages, many Japanese came to Korea to farm and to fish the beautiful waters. Later on they started to fix the crop prices. The high crop prices and taxes forced the Korean residents, especially farmers to relocate to Manchuria, a place in Japan. Many Koreans were made to work as laborers in Japanese soil. The big business enterprise and semi governmental organizations of Japan began to establish a monopoly on the mining, industry and commerce. The progress in energy, transportation and communication systems, agriculture, commercial distribution and monetary control was the benefit of the Japanese to enable their dominance of Korea. The Japanese held almost all of the top positions in Korea. Japan slowly started involving in activities such as banning Korean languages in schools and trying to change the names of Korean people, with the intention of completely eliminating the Korean identity. In addition to that, the Japanese stole expensive treasures such as porcelain products, paintings, gems, old books, jewels and a lot more from the Koreans making them economically poor. On the other hand, capitalism refers to the group of people who call themselves to be belonging to the class of capitalist. Under this system, the capitalists hire a set of working class for cheap wages and labor. The working class is paid to produce the services and goods of the capitalists and those services and goods were then sold in the market for a huge profit. After invading Korea, obviously the Japanese came under the classes of capitalist thereby putting the poor Korean under the working class. The classes of capitalist were able to gain a huge profit because they had an opportunity to obtain high productivity by incurring a very low cost on the workforce and the labor. The working classes were literally destroyed by the class of capitalist. The capitalists prospered through the profits they obtained from destroying the working class and also reinvested some percentage of profit for future operations. This made the Japanese economy to strengthen at the cost of Korean economy. On the whole the Japanese colonialism and capitalism together ruined the economic status of Koreans resulting in the uplift of the Japanese. the major shifts in economic policy The Japanese rule in Korea lasted for around thirty five years. These thirty five years brought in major drift in the economic policies of Japan. Korea was modernized with railroads, schools, new roads and telegraph lines. However, the per capita consumption of rice went down as a huge quantity was exported to Japan. The economic history of Koreans when ruled by the Japanese broadly falls under three categories. They are the starvation of North Koreans, prosperity of South Koreans and a shift from colonial economy to modern economic growth, respectively THE DIVERSE WAYS kOREANS EXPERIENCED THE CHANGING ECONOMY CREATED BY THE JAPANESE RULE The first decade of the colonial rule was one of the suppression and military rule. The Koreans were not allowed to participate politically. The Koreans were deprived from all aspects of the social, political and economic life. Journals and Magazines In 1895, there was not even one privately managed newspaper in Korea. However when time went on the Koreans started publishing newspapers and handful of educational magazines. These were named as the Eyes and the Ears of the Nation. They were very informative to the people in multiple ways. In 1896, the first newspaper by name, “The Independant”, was published in Korea by Philip Jaisohn a returned Korean American, and Yun Chiho an essayist [Binder 5, pp47]. This shows that the Koreans who were initially less aware of liberation and independence, later started revolutionary measures to get rid of the Japanese. After 25 years of immense struggle the Koreans managed to drive out the Japanese out of their motherland. Finally, Japan surrendered on August 15, 1945. The Koreans celebrated this movement to take of the Japanese clothes they were wearing and to dress themselves with Korean clothes. The Koreans also burnt and tore torii gates and Shinto Shrines constructed by the Japanese, in order to celebrate their victory over Japan. HISTORICAL EVIDENCES There are numerical historical evidences to prove the atrocities committed by Japan to Korea. The following are some of the important incidences in the Korean history that elucidates the sufferings underwent by the Korean’s owing to the insane deeds of the Japanese. Forced Labor After the completion of World War II, the Japanese government drew the Korean men for its war effort and put these men in hard labor. They made these men work in factories and mines. A few of them were injured or killed in factories or mines with substandard conditions of labor. The Koreans were underpaid and assigned heavy workloads. Emphasis on Reading Japanese Language: An excerpt from the Independent, dated April 18th 1896 says that the Japanese opened schools in Hyo Dong and enrolled thousands of Koreans in them to learn the Japanese language [The Independent]. The biggest thing that contributed to cultural differences between Japan and Korea was the attempt of Japan to change the names of Korean into names of Japanese style known as Chang-sib-gee-myeong. The Koreans felt it as an insult to change their names since; they gave much importance to their family names. Another insult caused by the colonial government of Japanese to Koreans is that the Japanese converted the main palace of one of the greatest Korean emperors into a zoo. Many buildings and palaces were broke down. However, the destruction of Gyeong-bok-gung is noteworthy of all. Half of Gyeong-bok-gung was broken down in order to make a path way for the building of colonial government. The destruction of borderline hokey is another noteworthy loss faced by the Koreans. Exploitation of Women In the prehistoric period, the women did not have the tiniest freedom. They were just treated as one of the abandoned goods of the human society [Binder 5, pp35]. The military of Japanese, after the World War II, rounded up between 200,000 and 500,000 women in order to treat them as slaves of sex. They named these women as the “Comfort Women”[Binder 23]. The roles of these Comfort Women were to please the Japanese soldiers. According to the statistics revealed by some of the Korean survivors, women were mercilessly raped 30 times in a day and as many as 200 times in a week. A majority of the women were Chinese and Korean. However, few Australian and Dutch women were also kidnapped from various Pacific islands and Dutch Indies by the Japanese. Massacre and Torture The colonial government of the Japanese literally tortured the natives who were arrested on account of participating in the independence movement of Korea [Binder 27, pp45]. June 25th Incident is one of the most unforgettable cases in the Korean War History. Siyang Li was a small village in Korea. Under the Japanese colonialism it was divided into two as Gamgol and Bamgol. Two revolutionists by name Yu- Chan- Gil and Kim- Hyeong- Jun opened a night school in order t to teach the people of Siyang Li to protest against Japanese. Under the influence of the students they all conducted and participated in a strike against Japanese on June 25th. Yu- Chan- Gil and Kim- Hyeong- Jun were arrested, punished and sentenced by the Japanese Government. cONCLUSION Even though the Japanese did a lot of reforms to the Korean society by introducing new primary schools, modernizing tax policies and legal procedures, the Japanese government ensured to keep the economy of Korea extremely unsophisticated and rural. This shows their greediness and urge to grow under the pain of others. Time must have passed and the days might have gone. However the bitterness caused in the hearts of Koreans towards the Japanese has not vanished [Binder 16]. They are still lingering in the hearts and minds of the Korean community. With the cruel and inhuman deeds caused by the Japanese to the Koreans having its effects till date, it will undoubtedly take centuries for the Koreans to forget and forgive the Japanese! REFERENCES 1. [Binder 9], Henry H.Em, Nationalism, Post Nationalism and Shin- Chae-Ho 2. Binder 5, The Universalizing Winds of Civilization, pp 35 3. Binder 5, The Universalizing Winds of Civilization, pp 45 4. The Independent, April 18th , 1896 5. Binder 27, Ordinary people’s war stories, pp 45 6. [Binder 23] Oh Omak, True stories of the Korean Comfort Women 7. Binder16, The Nation’s Present Situation Read More