THIS MONTH IN KOREAN HISTORY-AUG 2024
Leaders of Provisional Government of Korea celebrating their return to Korea, November 3, 1945
THIS MONTH IN KOREAN HISTORY
By Eun Byoul Oh
August 15 is Korea's Liberation Day, 광복절. 광복절(光復節) which means the "Day When the Light Restores." August 15, 1945 marked Korea's liberation from Japan after 35 years of annexation. Korea was annexed on August 29, 1910 after the Japan–Korea Treaty of 1910 went into effect.
Japanese Propaganda for 내선일체 (内鮮一体), One body of Joseon and Domestic Japanese
Korea suffered greatly under 35 years of Japanese occupation, and the tactics of suppression of Japanese rule has changed throughout the 35 years of colonialism. Towards the end of the occupation in the late 1930s, Japanese Colonial Government of Korea accelerated its effort to re-identify Koreans as Japanese, in order to promote the policy of 내선일체 (One body of Joseon and the Domestic Japanese). The core of the 내선일체 policy of Japan was the decimation of Korean language and culture. The teaching of the Korean language was prohibited, and Koreans were only allowed to speak and write in Japanese.
In September 2017, San Francisco unveiled a memorial commemorating the tens of thousands of “comfort women” who were detained and raped by Japanese soldiers before and during World War II. /Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
The unveiling of the statue has led to Osaka, Japan severing its sister ties with San Francisco, CA
From February of 1940 to when Korea was liberated, Koreans were forced to take a Japanese name to redefine their identity as Japanese. Teenage girls were kidnapped and taken to Comfort Women camps and Koreans were conscripted to participate in Japan’s war effort. The rhetoric of the Japanese was that they were creating a unified body (내선일체) that embraced both Korean and Japanese identities, but they were only suppressing Korean identity. As Japan was reckoning the end of WWII, the brutality of the Japanese occupation worsened for Koreans.
These combined images uploaded on the Eighth Army's Facebook page show a ceremony to lower a Japanese flag and raise a U.S. flag in Seoul on Sept. 9, 1945, after Korea's liberation from Japan's 1910-45 colonial rule.
On August 15, 1945, Japanese emperor Hirohito announced Japan's Surrender, bringing the end to WWII. The Japanese Instrument of Surrender was formally signed on September 2, 1945. Unfortunately, the 38th parallel was drawn almost immediately after Korea's liberation, and the territory south of 38th parallel went under the control of the United States Army Military Government in Korea, and the territory north of the 38th parallel was controlled by the Soviet Civil Administration. Koreans celebrate Liberation Day by remembering those who fought for the country's independence, and those who fought for preservation of Korean language, history, and culture. Let the Light Be Restored to Korea!
