What was happening in Korea while it was under
Japanese control? Certainly, there were a lot of investments by Japanese
companies. Heavy industry and mining developed in the north. Lighter industry developed
in the south. But not many native Koreans were able to share in those
developments.
The whole point of Japanese expansion was to
gain control of “resources” and “markets” (as was the point of British control of
India and her other Asian colonies). Japanese government policies in Korea
therefore (on one hand) promoted development, and on the other hand, exercised
tight control. The administration rewarded “co-operative elements in Korean
society,' while increasing police control. An army of informers worked to
eliminate political dissension before it could become organized. Even so, and
in spite of heavy censorship of information, a sense of Korean identity and
nationalism continued. That sense of nationalism was often conflated with
leftist ideology, fed by growing interest in communist ideology among exiled
Korean groups. Not surprisingly, considering the close proximity of Russia, the
first formal Korean socialist organisations emerged among exile groups in
Russian and Manchuria.
These groups often split and reformed and members may
have belonged to, or have been involved in other groups with radical ideologies. Curiously,
Japan itself was the home of at least some radical thinking. Korean students in
Japan, often became members of such radical Japanese groups.* The increase in such groups led to efforts by
the Japanese administration in 1925 to control political interests. That in
turn led more Koreans to seek some sort of unity of purpose among the fractured leftist/nationalist
groups.
Interestingly, it was the Korean Communist Party that became a major
force for unity among these radical groups. In 1927, the New Korean Society,
with top posts held by moderate nationalist was permitted to operate by the
Japanese authorities. By 1930 this group claimed 386 branches throughout Korea,
that managed to link worker groups, peasant groups and youth groups, but as this
organisation grew, at local level, leftists were gradually elected to office.
This led to a division on goals and by 1931 it collapsed.
1931 also saw the Japanese Kwantung Army
manufacturing a pretext to attack Chinese troops in Manchuria, and Japan soon
assumed control of all of Manchuria, as the puppet state of Manchukuo, with the
last Chinese Emperor, Pu Yi as nominal Head of Government. In Korea, the
Japanese now required a higher level of support from ordinary Koreans. This, in turn, led
to more arrests for “political crimes” and harassment of the leaders of peasant
and worker groups.
In the border zone between Korea and Manchuria, the Korean
Communist Party began to organize underground guerilla groups, and this is
likely where Kim Il Sung, may have begun to make his name.**
From (circa) 1935 there was an increased effort
by the Japanese Colonial administration to enforce a cultural assimilation onto
the Koreans, In schools, there was more emphasis on learning Japanese. All students and
government employees had to attend Shinto services and adopt Japanese names.
In 1940, the administration re-organised all Koreans into 350,000 Neighbourhood Patriotic Associations. Each basic association
consisted of ten households and became the basic unit for all government programs
and requirements.
From 1943 all college students were required to
serve in the Japanese military. And in later war years any ordinary Korean
could be “mobilized” to work anywhere the government directed. By 1944,
16
percent of Koreans (4,000,000 people) were working outside Korea. This is the
explanation for the wide dispersion of Koreans into other areas. Their
descendants still live in both Japan and Manchuria. Socially, the policy aroused
resentment, raised political and social consciousness and increased hatred for
Koreans who collaborated with the Japanese. Korean prisons held thousands of
political prisoners, which also spread radical ideologies.
·
Japan is home to one of the largest
non-governing Communist parties in the world, with 305, 000 members in over
22,000 branches. After the 2014 elections it held 21 seats in the House of
Representatives and since 2016, 14 seats in the House of Councillors.
**
There is some dispute as to whether the Kim Il Sung who became leader of
the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (North Korea) is the same person that was leading a guerilla group. In any
case, a North Korean TV program claiming to show this Kim’s guerilla war is a total fairy tale.
Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ul24uHOfY-A
