Under The Black Umbrella

In my generation, this was not the first occasion when the strong had attacked the weak. Communism was acting in Korea just as Hitler, Mussolini, and the Japanese had acted ten, fifteen, and twenty years earlier. I felt certain that if South Korea was allowed to fall, Communist leaders would be emboldened to override nations closer to our own shores. (Truman, 1955)

Maus trigger me more than Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass and Half of a Yellow Sun since my country has been through similar experience. My country is the Republic of Korea, also called South Korea. It is small country located between powerful countries like China, Russia, and Japan. Thus, it is a place where war never stopped even till now. Too many times, we were too close to losing our country and one time, in 1910 we actually did. Lasted for Thirty-five years, it is called the Korea under Japanese rule (or Japanese colonization). Just like the Germans did to the Jews, Japan did the same thing to the Korea maybe worse. They striped our country inside out. King was dethroned, queen was murdered, men were taken to camps for

When the Koreans are forced to change their family names to Japanese ones, their Korean identity is weakened. Going through this traumatizing experience is

The dystopian novel, Anthem, and North Korea have similarities and differences that links them together as well as distinguish them from one another. North Korea is a country that is ¨protected¨ by their leader, Kim Jong-un, the North Koreans worship Kim Jong-un as a god. In the novel, Anthem, their government is solely based upon everyone living and working for the benefit of others, never themselves. Everyone in the society is equal, one is never better than the other. Both North Korea and Anthem are similar in ways in which they are to never question their leaders, they are all told what to do and believe. The country and the novel are alike and conflict each other, in this essay we will go in depth.

From 1910 to 1945, Koreans demonstrated their resistance against the Japanese through the Korean Independence Movement when Japan colonized Korea. Weakened by earlier Chinese occupance, Korea was already in a state turmoil. Heroic people such as Yun Bong-Gil and Yu Gwan Sun stood up for their country and culture. It took Korea almost 30 more years to gain their independence, but under their leadership, they proved the success of their determination and patriotism. Despite the eventually liberation of Korea, the Japanese occupation proved to be devastating to the Korean tradition and culture. Yet, the occupation had also been incredibly helpful to the Japanese economy which was under the rule of Hideki

Cordingly, David. Under The Black Flag: The Romance And The Reality Of Life Among The Pirates. Harcourt, Inc.: Orlando, FL, 1997.

Stetz and Oh indicate although WWII has ended and is now a mass piece of history, the “comfort women” ordeal still exists today. They continue their isolated existence in poverty and poor health. They have not regained their honor nor had their pains eased. These women continue to endure insulting comments made by irresponsible Japanese officials and by neoconservative nationalists, who claim that many Asian women were merely sex workers for money during WWII. As of the end of January in 1998, the top aide to Japanese prime minister Hashimoto suggested that many women became “comfort women” for money and that the Japanese military’s use of these women was justified by the moves of the times. Within a month of the inauguration of South Korean president Kim Dae-jung, a lifelong fighter for democracy

This report is a cultural analysis of the country of North Korea. The paper itself analyzes the history, geography, education, language, economy, and politics of the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea known simply as: North Korea. Group 4 chose this particular country out of curiosity and the want to find out what the nation was like. Not many facts are known about North Korea and its shady past. This project explores everything from the difficult relationships between the Korean people and their government, to the famines and floods that threatened the entire survival of the country.

“Mom, why is she so dark like fillipino if she’s korean like me?”, “I thought asians were suppose to be smart”, “Since your last name is Kim are you related to Kim Jong Un?”. These were some of the comments I’ve heard growing up in, my whole life. Not just from America where people see me not as a true American but also from Korea, where there is no ethnicity difference. Growing up, I learned to understand it was because I looked different and racism is a concept that is inevitable, but the summer of seventh grade I visited Korea, it changed everything. It had been a while since I last visited Korea, I had been so young I could not remember anything. But when I went that summer when I was older, I was shocked. In a land where I thought I belonged to with my race, was doing the opposite of what I had to learn to overcome in America. In a place where I thought I looked the same still had reasons to accept me. Even though I was the same race as the people there, I still wasn’t good enough. My skin was to dark, I was too big, my face was too round, and I didn’t look ‘asian’. Racism had been consistently plaguing by my side since the beginning.

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.

During the period of Imperial Japan Koreans suffered. Imperial Japan This period claim lots of Korean lives.

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

In his work “Right to Kill, Right to Make Live” Takashi Fujitani compares and contrasts the Japanese treatment of colonialized Koreans leading up to World War II with the American treatment of the Japanese residents following the bombing of Pearl Harbor. This work highlights how both the Japanese and the Americans treated the Koreans and Japanese Americans, respectively, and offers several different viewpoints. Thus, this work is exceptionally important and provides incredible insight into both cultures and the harsh reality of wartime. Additionally, Fujitani also explains how the Korean and Japanese populations are still influenced today.

The majority of Korean women seem to have come from lower-class worker and farmer families. Korean and other Asian women were assigned to lower-ranking soldiers, while Japanese and European women were reserved for higher-ranking officers (Watanabe). This obviously portrays the condescending attitude the Japanese had toward Koreans.

While the occupant powers were struggling to set ground for securing their interests, the Korean nationalism was at the most heated phase. Suffered through the Japanese colonial rule since 1910, the leaders of the two governments were determined to reunify Korea under their political regimes, and from their point view the only way to reach their aims was war. However, the United States and the Soviet Union were cautious not to take a role in initiating the war since neither of them was eager to prompt another to intervene. Being aware of their dependence on the superpowers, both leaders first had to gain the support of these countries to reach their goals. Until the beginning of the war, Kim Il-Sung particularly struggled hard to convince his mentor Stalin to provide him support in the war against the south.