Japanese Imperialism in Korea

Japanese rule during 1910 – 1945 was a milestone in Korean history as it bridged the late nineteenth-century premodern Korea with the twentieth-century modern one. This colonial period witnessed dramatic changes in Korean society as industrialization, accelerated by the Japanese exploitation policy, transformed the agrarian economy into a dependent, urban, capitalistic society. Besides the significant socioeconomic developments, the colonial experience also greatly impacted the Koreans’ minds as they underwent multiple identity conflicts between individual and community, tradition and modernity, liberation and dependency. By examining two literary works by two contemporary Korean writers, Hyon Chin-gon and Chae Man-shik, we gain an insight into the sensibilities and habits of thoughts, the moral values and social dilemmas that accompanied the structural changes in Korea at that time. Placing the literature alongside the paper by Park Soon-Won, Colonial Industrial Growth and the Emergence of the Korean Working Class, the picture of Korean society under the twin forces of enlightenment and oppression exerted by the Japanese colonialism becomes quite complete.

Frustration, suppression, and helplessness define the common themes of the colonial literary works in the early twentieth-century Korea. Written in 1921, A Society that Drives You to Drink by Hyon Chin-gon describes the typical trauma experienced by the Korean educated class at the time. After receiving higher education in Japan, the man in the story returned to Korea and reunited with his longing wife after seven years apart. However, contrary to the wife’s expectations, he was ‘no different from those who hadn’t studied.’ Instead of doing some great jobs as she had initially imagined, he mostly stayed home and indulged himself in his own thoughts. He did not seem happy, as he sighed often, lost his appetite, and even sobbed alone sometimes. As months passed, he became more agitated and restless. His time at...