The Proletarian Gamble: Korean Workers In Interwar Japan

Consistent with Japanese propaganda the nationalist leaders held belief that Japan was “the leader, protector and light of Asia”. However, this perception of liberation from colonial rule was a façade as the civilians of occupied nations experienced harsher treatment under the Japanese than they did under the colonial authorities.

Yuasa Katusei, a prominent Japanese author, published two novels regarding colonial life in Korea during the mid-1930s: Kannani (1934) and Document of Flames (1935). Kannani tells the story about a Japanese boy called Ryuji and a Korean girl named Kannani. In Korea, Ryuji witnessed the poverty and misery of Koreans under the colonial rule of Japan. Document of Flames focuses on the life of a Japanese mother and daughter who escaped to Korea after the mother was divorced in Japan. The novel reveals gender inequality that existed in Japanese society during the 1900s and presents issues of gender, class, and power in Korea. In this essay, I will answer the following four questions: (1) What do these novels tell us about the identities of colonized

Louise Young in her meticulous and groundbreaking monograph, Japan’s Total Empire: Manchuria and the Culture of Wartime Imperialism, calls for a turn to the study of ordinary people’s agency in building Japanese imperialism and empire. She accurately points out the problem at the root of previous scholarships that concentrate on the state as the sole actor in the history of Japan’s expansionism. Certainly, to drag the ordinary into the swirl of history and the responsibility of its cause is not to negate the state’s role, but to have a fuller picture of how the empire worked at the home front. It is interesting, in this sense, to juxtapose Wilson’s piece along with Young’s to understand Japan’s empire at home in the early 1930s.

The Americans prior to World War II had always seen the Japanese as an inferior race dating back even further than the time of Commodore Matthew Perry in the mid 19th century. The US government saw the country of Japan as childish and immature. After the War The United States wanted to fix Japan, make it an ally by changing the country into a more western mature nation. The USA wanted to create a democratic economic powerhouse in its own image. The reformation of Japan after the war was simply an imposing of western ideas and values, not unlike the Meiji period that happened almost a century prior. The article shows that the United States needed the help the Japanese because they believed that the Japanese could not help themselves. The article also show a contrast to this with the treatment of the Chinese by the Japanese during the second Sino-Japanese war, who saw them as inferiors. Japan saw themselves as liberators from barbarism as much as the Americans. The article stops itself from being an essay on the shortcomings of the US, but also of Japan; it succeeds in giving discredit where discredit is due, for a more balanced look at both of the

Before looking further, the historical context of Japanese Americans being marked as the “model minority,” must be explained to better understand the establishment of the East Winds. Bob H. Suzuki brings to light the transition from Yellow Peril of Japanese Americans being 
depicted by dehumanizing stereotypes,” to the “model minority,” myth (Suzuki 23). The thesis of the “model minority” formulates from the wake of World War II, as “ the limited upward mobility of Asian Americans was achievable because of the demand for workers to fill lower-echelon white-collar jobs” along with training and socialization Asians had acquired through both home and extended schooling” (Suzuki 43).

The Japanese, though, had a similar facade covering their actions in Asia. Prior to World War II, there was a number of colonial settlements in Asia to which were controlled by Western Allies. “In the highly publicized Assembly of the Greater East Asiatic Nations convened in Tokyo in November 1943, a succession of Asian leaders voiced support for Japan and placed the war in East-versus-West, Oriental-versus-Occidental, and ultimately blood-versus-blood context”(6). The war appeared to be a way for Asian leaders to gain control over their own lands again; however, Japan’s behavior towards other Asians caused for a lose of support in their growth. the Japanese became “dominating the political scene, taking over local economies, imposing broad programs of “Japanization,” slapping non-Japanese in public, torturing and executing dissidents, exploiting native labor so severely that between 1942 and 1945 the death toll among such workers numbered in the hundreds of thousands” (7). Though moving across the continent under ideals of a “free Asia,” the Japanese were also moving with the ideal of imperialism and cultural superiority.

During World War II, the Imperial Japanese Army and Navy’s “human resources were stretched thin,” forcing the Japanese government officials to turn towards Korea for extra manpower. In 1942, the government-general of Korea (GGK) announced that twenty-year-old Korean men would be conscripted into the Imperial Japanese Army and Navy. To promote Korean acceptance of conscription, the Japanese encouraged assimilation of Koreans into Japanese culture and society. This included learning Japanese and taking on a Japanese name. The attempts at assimilation and the draft left Koreans wondering whether they would become full citizens or “remain second rate subjects” after the war. Even Korean soldiers, who were supposedly equal to Japanese soldiers, were left wondering about their position in Japanese society. Through an analysis of Kasayama Yoshikichi’s recount of “The Korean Guard,” this paper argues that Kasayama reveals the nature of Korean conscription in the Japanese Army. In doing so, this paper shows how Korean soldiers were forced to comply to Japanese official orders, otherwise they would be punished; although, some Korean soldiers resisted towards the end of the war.

Before the period of Cold War, Koreans were included in one of the biggest vulnerable groups in the world and they were standing at the passive international position between Soviet government and Japanese empire. In Choi Kiyoung’s article “Forced Migration of Koreans to Sakhalin and Their Repatriation”, Choi points out that Japanese empire forced Koreans to migrate from Korean peninsula to Sakhalin to occupy this land with abundant nature resources and these Sakhalin Koreans were conscripted to serve Japanese empire as cheap labors. And he also condemns Japanese empire’s irresponsible attitude towards Korean repatriation and Soviet government’s covetous ambition of using Sakhalin Koreans as their cheap labor force to exploit Sakhalin’s

Beginning from the last years of World War II and then following Japan’s defeat to the allied forces, the Japanese had to endure arguably its most painful few years to date. The majority of Japan’s cities had all been completely destroyed during the war, especially in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, where the first atomic bombs were dropped. As a result, the majority of Japanese population had to not only survive the extremes of the seasons in make-shift shelters, but also endure starvation due to the lack of food and water available. However, thanks to the American occupation of Japan following the end of the war, Japan was finally able to recover. The year 1950 turned out to be the beginning of an extended period of Japanese economic and social prosperity. Starting from 1950 to 1990, Japan had experienced unrivalled miraculous economic growth and success in comparison to the majority of other developed countries. For this reason, the Japanese economic success during this period is known by many as the “economic miracle”. There are multiple reasons behind this so called “miracle”, and this essay explores some of these causes. In particular focusing on the major factors which include; the American occupation of Japan, the Korean and Vietnam War as well as social and economic reasons.

The mid-1930’s was an extremely turbulent time in the Far East. The Soviets and Japanese had been at each other’s throats since the Russo-Japanese War from 1904 to 1905. The Treaty of Portsmouth ended the war in September 1905, which had given the Japanese South Manchuria and gave them the lease on the Liaotung Peninsula. This important because the Japanese would create the Kwantung Army to defend this area. “The number of regular troops Japan might station in the Kwantung Territory was not stipulated by treaty, but the initial strength of the Kwantung Garrison amounted to two regular army divisions and fortress units stationed at Port Arthur and Dairen.” The Japanese were going to defend their newly acquired territory with this sizeable force. The Japanese also benefitted from World War I because they were able to put more forces into Manchuria and they were able to get concessions from China, which gave them more control over Manchuria. The Japanese had control over this part of the world. The Japanese would also attempt again to take advantage of a great situation. In 1917, the Russian tsar collapsed and plunged Russia into civil war and revolution and they were able to capture most of Manchuria. The Japanese were invited to the Washington armament conference of 1921, but it was because the Allies from World War I were trying to take away the land acquired by the Japanese. The Japanese had agreed to give up the Shantung province and withdrew

In the early twentieth century Japan had reached its industrial revolution therefore, leading to an increase in Japanese nationalism and imperialism. Consequently, this led to Japanese military aggression against China. The Chinese suffered high mortality rates from the advanced Japanese troops that would simply raze and beleaguer Chinese cities. Japan managed to gain an advantage against the less industrialized Chinese who fell as if a deck of cards to the militarized Japanese and died as if infected with a pathogen. This would lead to an inevitable contact with the powerful U.S who proposed inhibiting sanctions against the U.S.A’s new nemesis, the Japanese.

Under the Black Umbrella tells the many captivating stories about the 35 years of Japanese occupation in Korea through both world wars. The memories are all from the perspective of Korean men and women who lived through some or all of it. Many of their stories and the history during that time are influenced by several factors, some of which include their location in Korea or surrounding areas and the government’s involvement in recording history. The Japanese were not all awful to the Koreans, since they were humans all the same, but they committed enough atrocities to have a bad reputation with the Koreans. In attempts to unify, North Koreans employed nationalism and ethnocentrism to fuel their way to become a strong nation again. South Koreans did not rally around such extreme ways and did not utilize their northern brethren’s methods of fear for power. Back then and now, globalization is a part of life and it should not be stifled. Nationalistic thinking will bring about more pain and suffering rather than just trying to coexist. Korea faced many hardships with the Japanese occupation. In recovery to their rule, issues arose when it came to accuracy in history, nationalism, ethnocentrism, and the different roles they all took between the north and the south.

Many historians have addressed the issue of military prostitution during Japan’s imperial rule and the United States role in it during their reign. For roughly 50 years’ comfort women were the silent victims of war. During the 1990’s and 2000’s many Korean comfort women came into the lime light by opening up about their experiences in the comfort system. The Feminist Studies journal published Na Young Lee’s scholarly work, “The Construction of Military Prostitution in South Korea during the U.S. Military Rule, 1945-1948”, in which the author argues the view held by Korean feminist NGO’s in light to the Untied States responsibility for the eradication of the prostitution system is exaggerated. In addition, Lee adds that it not only

In 1910, “Korea became a Japanese colony with Prime Minister Yi Wan-yong’s signing of the Treaty of Annexation.”Korea under Japanese colonialism, from 1910 to 1945, struggled to maintain their nationalism as a whole. Almost every Korean citizen, the ones without connections to power, had to give up on their properties for Japanese military and government purposes. A great amount of Koreans were tortured or even killed if they refused to comply with the soldiers’ demand. During this colonization of Korea, Koreans suffered greatly not only because of the loss of their identity, but through the hardships they were forced into by the Japanese. Such as the men being forced into hard labor jobs under dangerous and slave-like conditions while the

This was a threat to Japan but even more so was the belief in Korea