Korean people lived a hard life in the hands of their colonizing masters, the Japanese. This article confirms this with examples of Korean harsh treatment from the Japanese as illustrated in the book “Lost Names”. Each paragraph illustrates harsh situations that Koreans went through during the colonization.
Korean students were being mistreated by their Japanese teachers. An example is when a young boy and his classmates were ordered to go around their town and collect all the rubber balls that had been given to Korean children as gifts by the Japanese in celebration of their conquest of Malaysia and Singapore. The students collected all the rubber balls but because they could not fit in a sack they punctured and flattened the balls so that they would fit. They brought the balls to their teachers but the boy was beaten by a teacher who accused him of being dangerous and dissident (Kim, Richard. Lost Names , 2010).
During the 1930’s the Japanese were trying to cultural synthetize the Korean people by forcing them to take on the Japanese names, speak the Japanese language and worship the emperor and the Shinto shrines. This attack on Koreans identity made them very angry and it’s the most difficult thing for them to accept or forgive. The Japanese wanted the Koreans to act, dress and behave like them and this was an insult to the Korea.
There are situations where the Korean men were forced into hard labor by the Japanese. Their women were turned into sex slaves to work in military brothels and they lived a life of servitude as stated in the book. The men were forced to become soldiers, risking their lives and fighting for Japanese causes. This was possible because the men were also forced to change their names to Japanese ones. Socially the Korean identity was lost and replaced with ideals and beliefs of the Japanese.
The Koreans lived in separate communities that were created by the Japanese as one of their assimilation policies of colonization. They would, not be allowed to mingle with the Japanese on social events as they were considered to be less superior to the Japanese. Their children were schooled in two separate and unequal systems. There were relatively low cases of intermarriages between the Japanese and the Koreans. (Kim, Richard. Lost Names, 2010).
The Japanese engaged in plundering of Koreans land. They stole big chunks of land from the Koreans rendering most of the Koreans landless. The Koreans were forced to reregister their land through complicated procedures which ensured that they were unsuccessful in registering. Eventually the land became property of the government. The Koreans had lost a home as is stated in the book to an external force which to them was more than a mere nation-state.
Many Koreans migrated abroad because the Japanese created an economic aggression. Many of these Koreans left because of desolate economic conditions to search for a new life elsewhere with their families. Families would relocate to Manchuria and the maritime province. Also when labor shortages occurred they would be taken to work in Japanese factories, mines, or textile factories.
Japan set up a police squad that was oppressive beyond belief. These police would be used to punish who were thought to be against the Japanese rule. Any Korean who was arrested would be tortured by every imaginable means. Their leaders would be arrested and thrown in prison as shown in the book. The Korean people lived somber life as if in prison completely deprived of their freedom of association, speech and assembly.
Work Cited
Kim, Richard E. Lost Names: Scenes from a Korean Boyhood. Berkeley, University of California Press, 2010. Print.
