¹ This is a revised version of my presentation, “Reexamining Japan's Annexation of Korea: Extending the Parameters of Colonial Histories” delivered on March 27, 2010, at the Association for Asian Studies conference held in Philadelphia, PA. An earlier version appeared as “New Interpretations of Japan's Annexation of Korea: A Conservative Agenda Groping for ‘Normalcy,’” Acta Koreana 13 (1) (June 2010), 113-34. It benefited from comments by Jay Lewis, Kenneth Robinson, and Mark Selden.

² Murata Haruki is an executive committee member of the Deliberation Committee for the Rescue of Japanese Kidnapped by North Koreans (Kita Chosen ni rachi sareta Nihonjin o kyūshutsu suru tame no zenkoku kyōgikai) and the Conference against Foreigner Voting Rights (Gaikokujin sanseiken ni hantai suru kai), among other organizations. Many of his lectures appear on YouTube. See, for example, his lecture expressing concerns over foreigner voting rights in local elections here. (Accessed October 9, 2010).

³ Murata Haruki, “The Annexation of Korea was Decidedly not a Case of Colonial Rule,” (accessed October 9, 2010).

⁴ See also Kaya University professor Ch'oe Kiho's three-part lecture on why he supported Japan's decision to annex Korea in his book Nikkan heigō: Kanminzoku o sukutta “Nittei 36 nen “ no shinjutsu (Japan-Korea Annexation: The Truth Behind the 36 Years of Imperial Japanese Rule), (Tokyo: Shodensha, 2004). The video version of Ch'oe's lectures has proven to be very popular, drawing close to 120,000 viewers. (last accessed March 17, 2010).

⁵ In addition to textbooks such as Atarashii rekishi kyōkasho (The New History Textbook), (Tokyo: Fusōsha, 2001), conservative groups have published a large number of monographs, as well as a comic book series Kenkanryū (Hate Korea Wave), dedicated to “correcting” liberal Japanese and Korean views on issues involving Japanese and Korean history. For a critique of this series see Rumi Sakamoto and Matthew Allen, “Hating ‘The Korean Wave’ Comic Books: A Sign of New Nationalism in Japan?” Japan Focus (October 4, 2007). On the Korean side, see the bilingual (Korean and English) Hanguk ŭi yŏksa munhwa (Korean History and Culture) series, particularly volume 3 titled Hanguk chŏnjaeng kwa kŭndaesa (The Korean War and Modern History), which covers the period from late Chosŏn to the present. Nakano Toshio labels such debates “Wars of Memory” (kioku no sensō) in his “Tōhoku Ajia de ‘sensō’ o tou koto” (Questioning “War” in Northeast Asia), in Keizoku suru shokuminchishugi: Jendā, minzoku, jinshu, kaikyū (Colonialism without End: Gender, Race, Ethnicity, and Class), ed. Iwasaki Minoru, Ōkawa Masahiko, Nakano Toshio, and Yi Hyodŏk, (Tokyo: Seikyūsha, 2005), 13.

⁶ As we shall see below, this last point is addressed more comprehensibly in another YouTube video, “The Korean File of Korea Under Japanese Rule,” (last accessed October 9, 2010).

⁷ The coverage of the American “annexation” of the Philippines in one American textbook resembles that offered in Japan's Atarashii rekishi kyōkasho. This textbook details the debate over the decision to annex, but provides little information on the bloody battles that the U.S. fought to crush Philippines insurgents and secure control over the colony. Its coverage ends with discussion of the U.S. development of Filipino schools, the literacy rates it improved, and U.S. guidance to lead the islanders to independence. Winthrop D. Jordon, Miriam Green Watt, and John S. Bowes, The Americas: A History, (Evanston, IL: McDougal, Littell and Co., 1994), 518519, 523.

⁸ One example is the U.S. handling of the atomic bombings during World War II, which it justifies as being necessary to end the war and save lives. Conservative elements in the U.S. had little reason to be active on this issue until it was challenged by the Smithsonian Museum's plans to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the Enola Gay's mission by displaying the aircraft along with scenes from below the mushroom cloud, in other words, pictures and artifacts of the destruction of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Edward T. Linenthal describes the conflicts that arose over this plan in his “Anatomy of a Controversy,” in History Wars: The Enola Gay and Other Battles for the American Past, ed. Edward T. Linenthal and Tom Engelhardt, (New York: Metropolitan Books, Henry Holt and Company, 1996), 9-62.

⁹ See Nishio Kanji and the Atarashi rekishi kyōkasho o tsukurukai, eds., Kokumin no rekishi (The People's History), (Tokyo: Sankei Shinbunsha, 2000). This group has also authored the history books that have caused anger among Koreans and Chinese. Many Japanese writers in 1910 cited the peace dividend as justification for Korea's annexation. See, for example, Prime Minister Katsura Tarō's announcement of Korea's annexation as carried in the August 30, 1910, edition of the Japan Times.

¹⁰ Another word, gappō (merger), as popularized by the Kokuryūkai (Black Dragon Society)'s Nikkan gappō hisshi (The Secret History of the Merger of Japan and Korea), was deemed too intimate to represent the Japan-Korea relationship imagined by the Japanese government at this time. See Hilary Conroy, The Japanese Seizure of Korea, 1868-1910: A Study of Realism and Idealism in International Relations, (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1960), 415417.

¹¹ Much conservative Japanese writing on the Korea-Japan colonial relationship in 1910 filled their essays with examples of what I call peripheral colonization—territories having close geographical and cultural proximity to the colonizers, but avoided examples of the more distant external colonization. Their images of the Koreans as lazy and dirty, and the Korean (Chosŏn) government as inept, mirrored those that the British, and others, held toward colonized peoples. See Mark E. Caprio, Japanese Assimilation Policies in Colonial Korea, 1910-1945, (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2009), 82-92.

¹² Nitobe Inazō, “Japanese Colonization,” in Nitobe Inazō zenshū (The complete works of Nitobe Inazō), vol. 23, edited by Yanaihara Tetsuō, (Tokyo: Kyōbunkan, 1983-1987), 120. Ukita Kazutani made a similar comparison earlier using Scotland and Ireland as examples in his “Kankoku heigō no kōka ikan” (What Are the Effects of Korean Annexation?), Taiyō (October 1, 1910), 2.

¹³ Alexis Dudden, Japan's Colonization of Korea: Discourse and Power, (Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 2005), 136-137. Nitobe Inazō's article, published in 1911, was titled “On the Term ‘Colony’” (Shokumin naru meiji ni tsuite).

¹⁴ Hara Takashi, “Taiwan mondai futa an” (Two Proposals for the Taiwan Problem), in Hisho ruisan, Taiwan shiryō (Classified Collection of Private Documents, Taiwan Materials), ed. Itō Hirobumi, in Meiji hyakunenshi sōshi (Meiji Centennial History Collection), vol. 127, (Tokyo: Hara Shobō, 1970), 32-34.

¹⁵ Hara Takashi, Hara Takashi nikk (Hara Takashi Diaries), edited by Hara Keiichirō, vol. 4, May 31, 1911, (Tokyo: Kengensha, 1950), 276.

¹⁶ See Gregory Henderson, Korea: The Politics of the Vortex, (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1968), 72; Bruce Cumings, The Origins of the Korean War: Liberation and the Emergence of Separate Regimes, 1945-1947, (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1981), 7; and Carter J. Eckert, Ki-baik Lee, Young Ick Lew, Michael Robinson, and Edward W. Wagner, Korea Old and New: A History, (Seoul: Ilchokak, 1990), 256. Among Japanese historians, see Eguchi Keiichi, Nihon teikokushugishi kenkyū (Research in the History of Japanese Imperialism), (Tokyo: Aoki Shoten, 1998), 31, 122. Bruce Cumings later suggested similarity with the England-Ireland relationship in his Korea's Place in the Sun: A History, (New York: W. W. Norton, 1997), 140.

¹⁷ Conroy, The Japanese Seizure of Korea.

¹⁸ Frederick R. Dickinson suggests that Japan also sought to control China's Fujian province soon after it annexed Taiwan to protect its new colonial acquisition. See his War and National Reinvention: Japan in the Great War, 1914-1919, (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Asia Center, 1999), 89.

¹⁹ Congress (House), 66th Congress, third session, Congressional Record 60 (December 23, 1920), 707-728.

²⁰ Stanley K. Hornbeck, Contemporary Politics in the Far East, (New York: D. Appleton, 1924), 214, 215. Hornbeck also contributed to one of the first reports accessing Korea's capacity for self-rule after Japan's defeat. The Joint U.S. Senate Intelligence Committee, “Recognition of a ‘Free Korea’ Organization,” in Haebang chŏnhusa charyojip I: Mi kukchŏng chunbi charyo (Collection of Historical Documents before and after Liberation I: Materials of United States Administration Preparation), ed. Yi Kilsang, (Seoul: Wŏnju Munhwasa, 1992), 7-13.

²¹ Translations taken from the August 30, 1910, editions of the Tokyo Asahi shinbun (Japanese), the Seoul Press (English) and the Maeil sinbo (Korean).

²² “Nihonjin to Nihon shinmin to no kubetsu” (Differentiating between Japanese Nationals and Japanese Subjects), Keijō shinpō (September 13, 1910). We see a similar distinction maintained by the French in their West African colonies, where they referred to the assimilated indigenes as “native” rather than “French,” citizens. See Raymond L. Buell, The Native Problem in Africa, vol. 1, (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1928), 946.

²³ See Caprio, Japanese Assimilation Policies in Colonial Korea, 86-92, for discussion by Japanese, and 100-105 for discussion by Koreans.

²⁴ Quoted in Kenneth B. Pyle, The Making of Modern Japan, second edition, (Washington, D.C.: D. C. Heath and Co., 1996), 91.

²⁵ Byron K. Marshall, Learning to be Modern: Japanese Political Discourse on Education, (Boulder, CO: Westview, 1994), 62.

²⁶ Takahashi Hamakichi, “Gimu kyōiku jisshi no igi” (The Significance of the Implementation of Compulsory Education in Korea), Chosen (June 1944), 2-8.

²⁷ Schools on the peninsula were strictly segregated through 1920. The post-March First Movement reforms altered policy to allow Koreans capable in Japanese to attend Japanese schools. However, individual classes tended to limit the number of Koreans to approximately 10 percent, or three to four students per class. Japanese enrollees in Korean schools averaged about three to four percent.

²⁸ Dong Wonmo, “Japanese Colonial Policy and Practice in Korea, 1905-1945: A Study in Assimilation,” unpublished Ph.D. dissertation, Georgetown University, 1969.

²⁹ Hara Takashi, “Chōsen tōchi shaken” (A Personal Opinion on Korean Administration), in Saitō Makoto kankei monjo, reel 104 (1919), Tokyo: Japanese Diet Library, 1998.

³⁰ Chu Yosŏp, Chosŏn kyoyuk ŭi kyŏrham (Deficiencies in Korean Education), (Keijō: Segye Sŏwŏn, 1930), 1-7.

³¹ This involved a proposal to the Diet to allow Koreans suffrage and representative rights. See “Chosen ni tai suru sanseiken jisshi ni kansuru seigansho” (A Petition Regarding the Effectuation of Political Participation Rights in Korea), Saito Makoto kankei monjo, reel 76 (February 1929). Koreans in Japan gained suffrage rights from 1931 and elected the first Japanbased Korean to the Japanese Diet the following year.

³² This was evident in the meetings convened to gather Korean and Japanese views on ways to strengthen Japanese-Korean unity. See Caprio, Japanese Assimilation Policies in Colonial Korea, 188-193. Transcripts of these meetings can be found in “Daiichi bunka kaigi jiroku” (Transcripts of the First Subcommittee), in Ilcheha chibae chŏngch'aek charyojip (Compilation of Materials on Control Policy under Imperial Japan), vol. 16, ed. Sin Chubaek, (Seoul: Koryŏ Sŏrim, 1993), 341-483.

³³ Sin Chubaek, ed., Ilcheha chibae chŏngch'aek charyojip, vol. 17 (Seoul: Koryŏ sŏim, 1993), 365-7. See also Carter J. Eckert, Offspring of Empire: The Koch'ang Kims and the Colonial Origins of Korean Capitalism, 1876-1945 (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1991), 240.

³⁴ “The Korean File of Korea Under Japanese Rule—Nikkan heigō no shinjutsu” (The Truth Behind the Japan-Korea Annexation) link (last accessed March 10, 2010). This presentation, which has drawn over 19,300 viewers, has also received five-star ratings from 162 people. A longer version of this presentation has attracted over 40,000 viewers. (last accessed March 17, 2010).

³⁵ These photo-comparisons appeared often in the Government-General's monthly magazine Chōsen and in the annual reports it issued in Japanese and English.

³⁶ L. H. Underwood described the streets as follows: Upon entering the gates, “we saw narrow, filthy streets, flanked by low mud houses, either thatched with straw, or tiled. It has been aptly said that the city looks like a vast bed of mushrooms since none of the Korean houses are built more than one story high.” L. H. Underwood, Fifteen Years Among the Top-knots or Life in Korea, (New York: American Tract Society, 1904), 39.

³⁷ Isabella Bird, Korea and Her Neighbors, (London: KPI, 1985 [1897]), 40.

³⁸ Bird, Korea and Her Neighbors, 435. This tends to be a general impression of other Westerner travelers who witnessed the city's progress.

³⁹ Angus Hamilton, Korea, (New York: Charles Scribner's Sons, 1904), 25.

⁴⁰ For Seoul's development see Yi T'aejin, The Dynamics and Modernization in Korean History, (Ithaca, NY: East Asian Program, Cornell University, 2007), chapter 10.

⁴¹ Even buildings on the grounds of one of Japan's most sacred shrines, Yasukuni Shrine, including the original war museum (Yūshūkan), were designed by non-Japanese. T. Fujitani, Splendid Monarchy: Power and Pageantry in Modern Japan, (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1998), 37.

⁴² We see one example in Kajiyama Toshiyuki's novel Gei no naka (Inside the Rainbow), in which his main character, Kaji, “refused to walk in [Koreatown],” a part of Seoul that “strangled him in depression.” Quoted in Kawamura Minato, Sōru toshi monogatari: Rekishi, bungaku to fūkei, (The Story of Seoul: History, Literature, and Landscape), (Tokyo: Heibonsha, 2000), 106. Kajiyama, who grew up in Seoul, often wrote about conflict in Korean-Japanese relations. For the psychological reaction of a Korean crossing into Japantown see Peter Hyun, Man Sei! The Making of a Korean American, (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1986), 62-66.

⁴³ Yun Ch'iho, Yun Ch'iho ilgi (Yun Ch'iho diaries), July 21, 1923, (Seoul: Kuksa P'yŏnch'an Wiwŏnhoe, 1973-1986).

⁴⁴ For example, see Kim Sam'ung, Ch'inil chŏngch'i 100 nyŏnsa (The One Hundred Year History of Pro-Japanese Politics), (Seoul: Tosŏ Chulp'an, 1995), 164, 176-177.

⁴⁵ One example is the Government-General's newspaper, the Maeil sinbo, which continued to publish in Korean to August 15, 1945. A number of Korean-language magazines also managed to continue operations throughout the duration of Japanese rule.

⁴⁶ It is estimated that 80 percent of Koreans officially Japanized their names, many to allow their children to enter schools. Even after this campaign had begun, Koreans who had changed their names used their Korean names on certain occasions, particularly when participating as instruments of Japanese wartime propaganda, such as in the media and cinema. For discussion on Japanization of Korean names see Miyata Setsuko, Kim Yŏngjŭl, and Yang Taeho, Sōshi kaimei (Name Changes), (Tokyo: Akashi Shoten, 1994), and Mizuno Naoki, Sōshi kaimei: Nihon no Chōsen shihai no naka de (Name Changes in the Context of Japan's Rule Over Korea), (Tokyo: Iwanami Shinsho, 2008).

⁴⁷ Ken C. Kawashima, The Proletarian Gamble; Korean Workers in Interwar Japan, (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2009), 106.

⁴⁸ See C. Sarah Soh's The Comfort Women: Sexual Violence and Postcolonial Memory in Korea and Japan, (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2008).

⁴⁹ Carter J. Eckert documents the rise of Korea's conglomerates (K. chaebŏl) under Japanese rule in Offspring of Empire: The Koch'ang Kims and the Colonial Origins of Korean Capitalism, 1876-1945, (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1991).

⁵⁰ Soh, The Comfort Women. Tessa Morris-Suzuki, describing “coercion and the comfort women,” depicts the enormous variety of approaches to recruiting women for this job as follows:

Some were Japanese women who had worked as prostitutes previously, some were “volunteers” in a sense, although often driven to “volunteer” through pressures of poverty, debt and desperation. A very large number were women from Korea and China. Many had been lured away from their homes with promises of work in factories or restaurants, only to find themselves incarcerated in “comfort stations” in foreign lands. Other women…were rounded up at gunpoint….

Tessa Morris-Suzuki, “Japan's ‘Comfort Women’: It's Time for the Truth (In the Ordinary, Everyday Sense of the Word),” Japan Focus (March 8, 2007).

⁵¹ Michael E. Robinson argues this on two occasions. See his “Colonial Publication Policy and the Korean Nationalist Movement,” in The Japanese Colonial Empire, 1895-1945, ed. Ramon H. Myers and Mark R. Peattie, (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1984), 312-343; and “Broadcasting in Korea, 1924-1937: Colonial Modernity and Cultural Hegemony,” in Japan's Competing Modernities: Issues in Culture and Democracy, 1900-1930, ed. Sharon A.

Minichiello, (Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 1998), 358-378. The following two Government-General reports, issued in the late 1920s, warned that Korean national sentiment would continue to develop as long as the Japanese administration permitted Koreans exposure to their culture. Chōsen Government-General, Keimu kyoku toshoka, “Ri denka no shikyo ni saishi ‘shinbunshi o tōshite mitaru’ Chōsenjin no shisō keikō” (Tendencies in Korean Thought ‘as Seen through Newspapers’ at the Time of the Death of the Yi Monarch), (Keijō: Chōsen Sōtokufu, 1926), and Chōsen Government-General, “Dokuritsu undō ni okeru minzoku undo no kōgai” (A Summary of the People's Movement from the Cessation of the Independence Movement) (January 1927), Saito Makoto kankei monjo (Official Papers Regarding Saitō Makoto), reel 97, (Tokyo: Japanese National Diet Library).

⁵² I should add that comments written in English were rather critical of Murata's message.

⁵³ Ken Kawashima's The Proletarian Gamble provides one lucid example of Korean migration to, and living conditions in, Japan.

⁵⁴ Ienaga Saburō's essay, titled “Sengo no rekishi kyōiku (The Future of National History Education”), was published in October 1946. See Yoshiko Nozaki, “Education Reform and History Textbooks in Occupied Japan,” in Democracy in Occupied Japan: The U.S. Occupation and Japanese Politics and Society, ed. Mark E. Caprio and Yoneyuki Sugita, (London: Routledge, 2007), 127. Nozaki's chapter provides a good review of textbook editing from the days following the Emperor of Japan's August 15, 1945 announcement that ended the Pacific War.