South Korean History - Page 2

Significance of the Liberation Day of Korea (August 15th)

A Paper by Ki-Won Rhew (Edited by Paul Noll)

The shoguns and samurais of Japan unified the country they learned the rapidly developing Western Technology in the 18th and 19th Centuries. Meanwhile Korea had been tangled with internal politics and successions of child kings and weaklings. Queen dowagers and their clans had been controlling the country and speeding the downfall of Korea. When King Choljong died at the age of 32 in 1864, three queen dowager clans of the deceased kings lived in the palace. The deceased king had no direct bloodline heir. They adopted an eleven-year-old boy in the bloodline of the Yi Dynasty as the son of the deceased king and inaugurated him as the 26th King. This resulted in the King's father earning the power to govern the country. As the King reached the age to govern the nation by himself, his clever and powerful and powerful Queen became the real power.

Japanese imperialism took advantage of Korea's struggle. Japan succeeded in establishing a "protectorate" by forcing the Korean King's cabinet members to sign a document giving up control of the Korean diplomacy, enforcement of law, public safety, and letting Japan construct a telegraph network in Korea after its victories over China and Russia in 1905. They did this against both the King's will and that of the majority of the Korean people. To make it worse, both the USA and England blessed the Japanese imperialism towards Korea and Manchuria as a reward for Japan shying away from the Philippines and the British colonies. Sadly almost all Westerners including Christian missionaries and scholars supported Japan's "Modernizing role" in Korea. The West did not understand, realize or sympathize with the plight of Korea in those times.

Japan succeeded in formally annexing Korea in 1910. This made it easier for Japan's war machine to eventually conquer the whole of Asia by securing a military base in Korea. Japan's rule over Korea for the 40 years from 1905 to 1945, exacted an extremely harsh treatment of the Korean people. Japan controlled almost every facet of Korean life. They forced Koreans to change the names of the cities, people's own names in the Japanese style. They forced them to speak only Japanese in the schools and government offices. They required them to worship the Japanese Emperor at shrines built throughout Korea. Japan created a system of getting Koreans fighting Koreans. Many Koreans killed themselves at the shame of losing their country. Japan jailed many patriotic Koreans and killed them by the thousands.