Korea Under Japanese Rule

Between 1910 and 1945, Korea was under Japanese colonial rule. Japan’s annexation of the Korean peninsula was a key part of its imperial expansion in the 19th and 20th centuries, which began after the Meiji Restoration and ended with its defeat in World War II. Japanese rule in Korea was characterized by political and cultural repression as well as economic exploitation and widespread human rights abuses, including forced labor and systematic sexual violence.

The legacy of Japanese imperialism has been profound and enduring. Colonial practices in Korea transformed social structures and Korean national consciousness and shaped the historical conditions that contributed to the division of the peninsula into North Korea and South Korea after 1945. Unresolved historical grievances related to this period continue to influence public discourse, diplomacy, and security relations in East Asia into the 21st century.

The gradual subjugation of Korea

The late Joseon dynasty

The last imperial dynasty of Korea was the Joseon (Yi) dynasty (1392–1910), founded by Yi Seong-Gye. It established a centralized state rooted in Confucian ideology and was closely aligned with China under the Ming and Qing dynasties. Political authority rested with a scholarly class known as the yangban, and the dynasty oversaw major cultural achievements, including the creation of the Hangul script in 1443 under King Sejong.

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During the 16th and 17th centuries, however, Korea faced successive Japanese and Manchu invasions that were ultimately repulsed but caused widespread devastation and weakened central authority. Although partial recovery followed in the 18th century, Korea was increasingly stagnant and vulnerable by the 19th century because of rigid social hierarchies, factional politics, and limited industrial modernization. Additionally, the dynasty’s long-standing tributary relationship with China insulated it diplomatically and encouraged continued isolation.

The decline of Chinese dominance

For centuries East Asia had been organized around China, which was known across the region as the “Middle Kingdom.” China sat at the apex of a tributary system in which states such as Korea and Vietnam acknowledged Chinese supremacy in exchange for trade access, military protection, and diplomatic recognition. Japan had historically occupied a peripheral position within this system, participating only selectively over the centuries before ceasing tributary relations altogether under the Tokugawa shogunate (1603–1867).

By the 19th century China, under the Qing dynasty, had become weakened by internal rebellions, fiscal strain, and the aftermath of the Opium Wars, which exposed its inability to counter the industrialized military methods of the Western imperial powers. China’s declining capacity to protect itself and its tributaries proved critical for Korea.

The rise of Japan

Japan’s relative isolation under the Tokugawa shogunate ended in the early 1850s, when a U.S. naval expedition led by Commodore Matthew Perry forced it to open its ports to foreign trade. Japan was then subjected to pressures and unequal treaties similar to those imposed upon China. The Japanese leadership, however, recognized the necessity of rapid modernization and initiated what would be known as the Meiji Restoration in 1868. Political authority was centralized under the emperor, the old feudal order was dismantled, and sweeping military, economic, and administrative reforms enabled Japan to emerge as a modernized industrial and military power.

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The First Sino-Japanese War and the assassination of Queen Min

Rivalry over Korea culminated in the First Sino-Japanese War (1894–95), triggered by internal unrest in Korea and competing Chinese and Japanese interventions. Japan’s decisive victory dismantled the China-centered regional order and forced China to renounce its traditional tributary relationship with Korea, leaving the peninsula diplomatically isolated. In the war’s aftermath Japan moved to consolidate its dominance.

In October 1895 Japanese agents assassinated Korea’s Queen Min (Empress Myeongseong), a leading opponent of Japanese influence. Her husband, King Gojong, subsequently sought refuge in the Russian legation and later proclaimed the Great Korean (Dae Han) Empire in 1897 in a symbolic assertion of sovereignty that failed to halt Japan’s advance.

The Russo-Japanese War and the loss of sovereignty

The Russo-Japanese War (1904–05), which followed Russia’s expansion into Manchuria after the Boxer Rebellion, proved decisive for Korea’s fate. Despite declaring neutrality, Korea was compelled to permit Japanese military operations on its territory. Japan’s victory and the Treaty of Portsmouth (1905) secured its undisputed supremacy in Korea, after which Japan imposed a protectorate treaty later that year.

Gojong made an appeal to the Hague Peace Conference in 1907 requesting foreign intervention in support of Korea, but this failed and served only to infuriate Japan, leading to his forced abdication, the disbanding of the Korean army, and the erosion of Korea’s remaining autonomy. In 1910 Japan formally annexed Korea. Armed resistance by guerrilla units known as the “righteous armies” continued for several years before being suppressed, while large numbers of Koreans emigrated to Manchuria, Siberia, and Hawaii.

Ethan Teekah

Early military rule

Japan set up a government in Korea with the governor-generalship filled by generals or admirals appointed by the Japanese emperor. The Koreans were deprived of freedom of assembly, association, press, and speech. Many private schools were closed because they did not meet certain arbitrary standards. The colonial authorities used their own school system as a tool for assimilating Korea to Japan, placing primary emphasis on teaching the Japanese language and excluding from the educational curriculum such subjects as Korean language and Korean history. The Japanese built nationwide transportation and communications networks and established a new monetary and financial system. They also promoted Japanese commerce in Korea while barring Koreans from similar activities.

The colonial government promulgated a land-survey ordinance that forced landowners to report the size and area of their land. By failing to do this, many farmers were deprived of their land. Farmland and forests owned jointly by a village or a clan were likewise expropriated by the Japanese since no single individual could claim them. Much of the land thus expropriated was then sold cheaply to the Japanese. Many of the dispossessed took to the woods and subsisted by slash-and-burn tillage, while others immigrated to Manchuria and Japan in search of jobs; the majority of Korean residents now in those areas are their descendants.

Korean resistance and the March First Movement

A turning point in Korea’s resistance movement came on March 1, 1919, when nationwide anti-Japanese rallies were staged. The former emperor Gojong, the supreme symbol of independence, had died a few weeks earlier, bringing mourners from all parts of the country to the capital for his funeral. A Korean Declaration of Independence was read at a rally in Seoul on March 1.

Waves of students and citizens took to the streets, demanding independence. An estimated two million people took part. The March First Movement, as it came to be known, took the form of peaceful demonstrations, appealing to the conscience of the Japanese.

The Japanese, however, responded with brutal repression, unleashing their gendarmerie and army and navy units to suppress the demonstrations. They arrested some 47,000 Koreans, of whom about 10,500 were indicted, while some 7,500 were killed and 16,000 wounded.

Superficial reforms and continued exploitation

In September 1919, independence leaders, including Yi Dong-Nyeong and Ahn Chang-Ho, who in April had formed a Korean provisional government in Shanghai, elected Syngman Rhee as president. This group brought together all Korean exiles and established an efficient liaison with leaders inside Korea. Japan realized that its iron rule required more sophisticated methods. The gendarmerie gave way to an ordinary constabulary force, and partial freedom of the press was granted. But the oppressive and exploitative Japanese colonial policy remained ruthless, though using less conspicuous methods.

Within these narrow constraints Korean cultural and intellectual life experienced a partial revival. Newspapers such as Dong-A Ilbo (“East Asia Daily”) and Chosun Ilbo (“Korea Daily”) emerged as prominent voices advocating patriotism and democratic ideals, while scholars conducted research on Korean history and culture. Literary works in colloquial Korean gained popularity, and new forms of cultural expression circulated widely. Political resistance also persisted: A major anti-Japanese rally was held in Seoul in 1926 during the funeral of Emperor Sunjong, and a nationwide student uprising originating in Gwangju in November 1929 protested Japanese discrimination. These movements were led by a broad spectrum of Korean intellectuals and activists.

At the same time Japan intensified its economic exploitation of Korea. Taking advantage of a wartime business boom, Japan took leaps forward as a capitalist country. Korea became not only a market for Japanese goods but also a fertile region for capital investment. Meanwhile, industrial development in Japan was achieved at the sacrifice of agricultural production, creating a chronic shortage of rice. The colonial government undertook projects for increasing rice production throughout Korea. Many farmers were ordered to turn their dry fields into paddies. The program was temporarily suspended during the worldwide economic depression in the early 1930s. It soon resumed, however, in order to meet the increased needs of the Japanese military in its war against China, which began in 1931. Most Koreans were forced to subsist on low-quality cereals imported from Manchuria instead of their own rice.

The end of Japanese rule

In 1931 the Japanese imposed military rule once again. After the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937 and World War II in the Pacific in 1941, Japan attempted to obliterate Korea as a nation. Koreans were forced to worship at Japanese Shintō shrines and even to adopt Japanese-style names, and academic societies devoted to Korean studies as well as newspapers and magazines published in Korean were banned. The Japanese desperately needed additional manpower to replenish the dwindling ranks of their military and labor forces. As a consequence, hundreds of thousands of able-bodied Koreans, regardless of gender, were drafted to fight for Japan and to work in mines, factories, and military bases. In addition, after the start of the Pacific war, the Japanese forced thousands of Korean women to provide sexual services (as “comfort women”) for the military.

When Shanghai fell to the Japanese, the Korean Provisional Government moved to Chongqing in southwestern China. It declared war against Japan in December 1941 and organized the Korean Restoration Army, composed of independence fighters in China. This army fought with the Allied forces in China until the Japanese surrender in August 1945, which ended 35 years of Japanese rule over Korea.

Aftermath and historical legacy

Following Japan’s surrender in August 1945, Korea was liberated but immediately divided along the 38th parallel, with Soviet forces occupying the north and U.S. forces the south. What was initially intended as a temporary administrative arrangement hardened into a permanent division as Cold War tensions intensified. The establishment of separate regimes in Pyongyang and Seoul in 1948, followed by the Korean War (1950–53), entrenched the division of the peninsula and established modern North Korea and South Korea, ensuring that the end of Japanese colonial rule would be followed not by reunification but by decades of political and military tensions.

The experience of Japanese occupation profoundly shaped the political leadership and ideological foundations of both North and South Korea. Many of the central figures of 20th-century Korean history were forged during this period: Kim Il-Sung emerged from the anti-Japanese resistance movement in Manchuria to become the founding leader of North Korea; Syngman Rhee, South Korea’s first president, built his political identity in exile as an independence activist; and Park Chung-Hee, later a dominant figure in South Korean politics, had served in the Japanese military before Korea’s liberation.

The consequences of Japanese colonial rule continue to shape regional politics into the 21st century. Japan has issued multiple apologies for its actions during the colonial period, but disputes over historical interpretation and accountability—particularly concerning forced labor and “comfort women”—have persisted. In both Koreas, as well as in China, Japanese imperialism remains a central reference point in public discourse, education, and media, while security concerns in East Asia are often framed against the backdrop of this shared history.