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89-577: From 1910 to 1945, Korea was ruled by the Empire of Japan . Under Japanese rule, Korean women—primarily from South Korea—were forced into sexual slavery by the Imperial Japanese Army . Japan's rule of Korea has strained relations between the two countries. With the incoming administrations of South Korean president Yoon Suk Yeol and Japanese prime minister Fumio Kishida , both countries made significant amends. In March 2023, Yoon ended

178-692: A considerable number of properties were destroyed by Korean residents. Republic of China further alleged the Japanese authorities in Korea did not take adequate steps to protect the lives and property of the Chinese residents, and blamed the authorities for allowing inflammatory accounts to be published. As a result of this riot, the Minister of Foreign Affairs Kijūrō Shidehara , who insisted on Japanese, Chinese, and Korean harmony, lost his position. In 1911,

267-594: A formal casus foederis in which a threat to one member constitutes a threat against all, but does not mirror Article 5 of the North Atlantic Treaty ; the response to an attack against one member must be discussed. The pact also improves trilateral ballistic missile defense and military exercises. The three countries will develop a security framework for the Indo-Pacific region. The first Indo-Pacific Dialogue, building upon commitments made during

356-638: A missile over Japan, followed by a nuclear threat to South Korea in March 2023. Through an agreement with the United States, Japan and South Korea have real-time information on North Korea's ballistic missiles. In April 2023, U.S. President Joe Biden announced that any attacks against South Korea by North Korea would result in the "end" of Kim Jong Un 's rule. At the White House , Yoon vowed to produce nuclear weapons. Japan declined to participate in

445-469: A move attributed by the United States to domestic politics. At Camp David on 18 August 2023, Biden announced the pact, marking the first time that international leaders visited the retreat since 2015, when then-president Barack Obama held a Gulf Cooperation Council summit there. The summit was the first time in Biden's presidency that journalists were allowed on Camp David's grounds. The pact implements

534-401: A new surname to be used in the family register. The surname could be of their own choosing, including their native clan name, but in practice many Koreans received a Japanese surname. There is controversy over whether or not the adoption of a Japanese surname was effectively mandatory, or merely strongly encouraged. From 1939, labor shortages as a result of conscription of Japanese men for

623-641: A number of irregular civilian militias called "righteous armies" arose. They consisted of tens of thousands of peasants engaged in anti-Japanese armed rebellion. After the Korean army was disbanded in 1907, former soldiers joined the armies and fought the Japanese army at Namdaemun . They were defeated, and largely fled into Manchuria, where they joined the guerrilla resistance movement that persisted until Korea's 1945 liberation. As Korean resistance against Japanese rule intensified, Japanese replaced Korean police system with their military police. Infamous Akashi Motojiro

712-631: A protectorate of China , forced opening of three Korean ports to Japanese trade, granted extraterritorial rights to Japanese citizens, and was an unequal treaty signed under duress ( gunboat diplomacy ) of the Ganghwa Island incident of 1875. The regent Daewongun , who remained opposed to any concessions to Japan or the West, helped organize the Mutiny of 1882, an anti-Japanese outbreak against Queen Min and her allies. Motivated by resentment of

801-419: A representative consultant for Ryohei Uchida , and was used for propaganda with the support of the Japanese government. On 3 December 1909, he and Lee Wan-yong will issue a statement demanding the annexation of Korea. However, the merger took place in the form of Japan's annexation of Korean territory and was disbanded by Terauchi Masatake on 26 September 1910. During the prelude to the 1910 annexation,

890-509: A result refused to receive the envoy. The bureau of foreign affairs wanted to change those arrangements to one based on modern state-to-state relations. On the morning of September 20, 1875, the Japanese gunboat Un'yō began surveying the Western coast of Korea. The ship reached Ganghwa Island , which had been a site of violent confrontations between the Koreans and foreign forces during

979-613: A ship from the East India Company , the Lord Amherst , appeared off the coast of Hwanghae Province seeking trade but was refused. In June 1845, another British warship, Samarang , surveyed the coast of Cheju-do and Chŏlla province. The following month, the Korean government filed a protest with British authorities in Guangzhou through the Chinese government. In June 1846, three French warships dropped anchor off

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1068-674: A total population of over 21 million, less than 3%. By 1939 the Japanese population increased to 651,000, mostly from Japan's western prefectures. During the same period, the population in Chōsen grew faster than that in the naichi . Koreans also migrated to the naichi in large numbers, especially after 1930; by 1939 there were over 981,000 Koreans living in Japan. Challenges which deterred Japanese from migrating into Chōsen included lack of arable land and population density comparable to that of Japan. Japan sent anthropologists to Korea who took photos of

1157-629: Is exemplified in the legacy of Park Chung Hee , South Korea's most influential and controversial president, who collaborated with the Japanese military and continued to praise it even after the colonial period. Until 1964, South Korea and Japan had no functional diplomatic relations, until they signed the Treaty on Basic Relations , which declared "already null and void " the past unequal treaties, especially those of 1905 and 1910. Despite this, relations between Japan and South Korea have oscillated between warmer and colder periods, often due to conflicts over

1246-658: The Donghak Peasant Revolution in 1894 provided a seminal pretext for direct military intervention by Japan in the affairs of Korea. In April 1894, Joseon asked for Chinese assistance in ending the revolt. In response, Japanese leaders, citing a violation of the Convention of Tientsin as a pretext, decided upon military intervention to challenge China. On 3 May 1894, 1,500 Qing forces appeared in Incheon . On 23 July 1894, Japan attacked Seoul in defiance of

1335-490: The First (1839–1842) and Second Opium Wars (1856–1860), reinforced his determination to isolate Korea from the rest of the world. From the early-to mid-19th century, Western vessels began to make frequent appearances in Korean waters, surveying sea routes and seeking trade. The Korean government was extremely wary and referred to the vessels as strange-looking ships. Consequently, several incidents took place. In June 1832,

1424-629: The Gando Massacre , Kantō Massacre , Jeamni massacre , and Shinano River incident . While the international consensus is that these incidents all occurred, various Japanese scholars and politicians, including Tokyo governor Yuriko Koike , either deny completely, attempt to justify, or downplay incidents such as these. Beginning in 1939 and during World War II , Japan mobilized around 5.4 million Koreans to support its war effort. Many were moved forcefully from their homes, and set to work in generally extremely poor working conditions, although there

1513-597: The Japan–Korea Treaty of 1882 indemnified the families of the Japanese victims, paid reparations to the Japanese government in the amount of 500,000 yen, and allowed a company of Japanese guards to be stationed at the Japanese legation in Seoul. The struggle between the Heungseon Daewongun's followers and those of Queen Min was further complicated by competition from a Korean independence faction known as

1602-559: The Japan–Korea Treaty of 1910 . The territory was then administered by the Governor-General of Chōsen , based in Keijō (Seoul), until the end of the colonial period. Japan made sweeping changes in Korea. It began a process of Japanization , eventually functionally banning the use of Korean names and the Korean language altogether. Tens of thousands of cultural artifacts were taken to Japan, and hundreds of historic buildings like

1691-549: The Minister of War of Japan , Terauchi Masatake , was given a mission to finalize Japanese control over Korea after the previous treaties (the Japan–Korea Treaty of 1904 and the Japan–Korea Treaty of 1907 ) had made Korea a protectorate of Japan and had established Japanese hegemony over Korean domestic politics. On 22 August 1910, Japan effectively annexed Korea with the Japan–Korea Treaty of 1910 signed by Ye Wanyong , Prime Minister of Korea, and Terauchi Masatake, who became

1780-708: The Sō family in Tsushima . A Japanese outpost called the waegwan was allowed to be maintained in Tongnae near Pusan. The traders were confined to the outpost and no Japanese were allowed to travel to the Korean capital at Seoul. During the aftermath of the Meiji restoration in late 1868, a member of the Sō daimyō informed the Korean authorities that a new government had been established and that an envoy would be sent from Japan. In 1869,

1869-587: The Treaty of Ganghwa Island in Korea) was made between representatives of the Empire of Japan and the Korean Kingdom of Joseon in 1876. Negotiations were concluded on February 26, 1876. In Korea, Heungseon Daewongun , who instituted a policy of increased isolationism against the European powers, was forced into retirement by his son King Gojong and Gojong's wife, Empress Myeongseong . France and

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1958-594: The United States had already made several unsuccessful attempts to begin commerce with the Joseon dynasty during the Daewongun's era. However, after Daewongun was removed from power, many new officials took power who supported the idea of opening commerce with foreigners. During the political instability in Korea, Japan developed a plan to open and exert influence on Korea before a European power could. In 1875,

2047-557: The "Japanese empire pressured the outcry of the Korean Empire and people and forced by Japan–Korea Treaty of 1910 and full text of a treaty was false and text of the agreement was also false". They also declared the "Process and formality of "Japan–Korea Treaty of 1910" had huge deficiencies and therefore the treaty was null and void. This implied the March First Movement was not an illegal movement. From around

2136-621: The August 2023 Camp David summit, was held in Washington, D.C., on January 5, 2024. In a joint statement released by the US State Department , which described the dialogue mechanism (that will be hosted annually) as a new chapter in the trilateral relationship, Japan (represented by foreign ministry foreign policy bureau director-general Kobe Yasuhiro), Korea (represented by deputy minister for political affairs Chung Byung-won), and

2225-495: The Chinese emperor, and for them, it implied the Japanese ruler's ceremonial superiority to the Korean monarch which would make the Korean monarch a vassal or subject of the Japanese ruler. The Japanese were, however, just reacting to their domestic political situation in which the shogun had been replaced by the emperor. The Koreans remained in the Sinocentric world in which China was at the center of interstate relations and as

2314-603: The German adventurer Ernst J. Oppert appeared off the coast of Chungcheong Province seeking trade. In August 1866, an American merchant ship, the General Sherman , appeared off the coast of Pyongan Province , steaming along the Taedong River to the provincial capital of Pyongyang, and asked permission to trade. Local officials refused to enter into trade talks and demanded the ship's departure. A Korean official

2403-658: The Imperial Palace on 20 September 1905, to seek political support from the United States despite her diplomatic rudeness. However, it was after exchanging opinions through the Taft–Katsura agreement on 27 July 1905, that America and Japan would not interfere with each other on colonial issues. Under the Treaty of Portsmouth , signed in September 1905, Russia acknowledged Japan's "paramount political, military, and economic interest" in Korea. Two months later, Korea

2492-464: The Japanese government took stronger measures. On 19 July 1907, Emperor Gojong was forced to relinquish his imperial authority and appoint the Crown Prince as regent. Japanese officials used this concession to force the accession of the new Emperor Sunjong following abdication, which was never agreed to by Gojong. Neither Gojong nor Sunjong were present at the 'accession' ceremony. Sunjong was to be

2581-551: The Japanese reading of " Joseon ". Japan first took Korea into its sphere of influence during the late 1800s. Both Korea ( Joseon ) and Japan had been under policies of isolationism , with Joseon being a tributary state of Qing China . However, in 1854, Japan was forcefully opened by the United States . It then rapidly modernized under the Meiji Restoration , while Joseon continued to resist foreign attempts to open it up. Japan eventually succeeded in opening Joseon with

2670-629: The Korean Imperial Museum in 1908 to preserve the treasures in the Gyeongbokgung , was retained under the Japanese administration but renamed Museum of the Yi Dynasty in 1938. The Governor-General instituted a law in 1933 in order to preserve Korea's most important historical artifacts. The system established by this law, retained as the present-day National Treasures of South Korea and National Treasures of North Korea ,

2759-489: The Korean government had been advised by the Japanese government "that hereafter the police matters of Seoul will be controlled by the Japanese gendarmerie" and "that a Japanese police inspector will be placed in each prefecture". A large number of Koreans organized themselves in education and reform movements, but Japanese dominance in Korea had become a reality. In June 1907, the Second Peace Conference

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2848-583: The Korean government's demand for withdrawal, and then occupied it and started the Sino-Japanese War. Japan won the First Sino-Japanese War , and China signed the Treaty of Shimonoseki in 1895. Among its many stipulations, the treaty recognized "the full and complete independence and autonomy of Korea", thus ending Joseon's tributary relationship with Qing, leading to the proclamation of the full independence of Joseon in 1895. At

2937-409: The Korean guns. After bombarding the Korean fortifications, the shore party torched several houses on the island and exchanged fire with Korean troops. The Japanese were armed with modern rifles and quickly routed the Koreans who carried matchlock muskets. Thirty-five Korean soldiers were left dead. The Un'yo then attacked another Korean fort on Yeongjong Island and withdrew back to Japan. News of

3026-726: The Progressive Party ( Gaehwa-dang ), as well as the Conservative faction. While the former sought Japan's support, the latter sought China's support. On 4 December 1884, the Progressive Party, assisted by the Japanese, attempted the Gapsin Coup , in which they attempted to maintain Gojong but replace the government with a pro-Japanese one. They also wished to liberate Korea from Chinese suzerainty. However, this proved short-lived, as conservative Korean officials requested

3115-604: The South Korean government's requests to Japanese companies to pay Korean laborers enslaved during World War II . South Korea and Japan have supported Ukraine during the Russian invasion of Ukraine as China and Russia have furthered their relations . China's presence in the Indo-Pacific region has concerned the United States; relations between the two countries has remained low. In October 2022, North Korea fired

3204-454: The US (represented by Assistant Secretary of State for East Asian and Pacific Affairs Daniel J. Kritenbrink ) focused on discussing collaborating with Southeast Asian and Pacific Island countries and emphasized the need for regional economic security enhancement. Korea under Japanese rule From 1910 to 1945, Korea was occupied by the Empire of Japan under the name Chōsen ( 朝鮮 ),

3293-507: The United States . The legacy of Japanese colonization was hotly contested even just after its end, and is still extremely controversial. There is a significant range of opinions in both South Korea and Japan, and historical topics continue to cause significant tension. Within South Korea, a particular focus is the role of the numerous ethnic Korean collaborators with Japan , who have been variously punished or left alone. This controversy

3382-552: The altar. Having established economic and military dominance in Korea in October 1904, Japan reported that it had developed 25 reforms which it intended to introduce into Korea by gradual degrees. Among these was the intended acceptance by the Korean Financial Department of a Japanese Superintendent, the replacement of Korean Foreign Ministers and consuls by Japanese and the "union of military arms" in which

3471-534: The amount of land taken over by private Japanese companies. Many former Korean landowners, as well as agricultural workers, became tenant farmers , having lost their entitlements almost overnight because they could not pay for the land reclamation and irrigation improvements forced on them. Compounding the economic stresses imposed on the Korean peasantry, the authorities forced Korean peasants to do long days of compulsory labor to build irrigation works; Japanese imperial officials made peasants pay for these projects in

3560-413: The amount they took to eat dropped precipitously, causing much resentment among them. By 1910 an estimated 7 to 8% of all arable land in Korea had come under Japanese control. This ratio increased steadily; as of the years 1916, 1920, and 1932, the ratio of Japanese land ownership increased from 36.8 to 39.8 to 52.7%. The level of tenancy was similar to that of farmers in Japan itself; however, in Korea,

3649-527: The basis of written proof (deeds, titles, and similar documents). The system denied ownership to those who could not provide such written documentation; these turned out to be mostly high-class and impartial owners who had only traditional verbal cultivator-rights . Japanese landlords included both individuals and corporations (such as the Oriental Development Company ). Because of these developments, Japanese landownership soared, as did

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3738-463: The coast of Chungcheong Province and conveyed a letter protesting persecution of Catholics in the country. In April 1854, two armed Russian vessels sailed along the eastern coast of Hamgyong Province , causing some deaths and injuries among the Koreans they encountered. The incident prompted the Korean government to issue a ban forbidding the people of the province from having any contact with foreign vessels. In January and July 1866, ships manned by

3827-439: The entire country. Japan was in control of the media, law as well as government by physical power and regulations. In March 2010, 109 Korean intellectuals and 105 Japanese intellectuals met in the 100th anniversary of Japan–Korea Treaty of 1910 and they declared this annexation treaty null and void. They declared these statements in each of their capital cities (Seoul and Tōkyō) with a simultaneous press conference. They announced

3916-502: The envoy from the Meiji government arrived in Korea and carried a letter requesting the establishment of a goodwill mission between the two countries. It contained the seal of the Meiji government rather than the seals that had been authorized for use by the Korean Court for the Sō family. It also used the character ko (皇) rather than taikun (大君) to refer to the Japanese emperor. The Koreans used that character to refer only to

4005-466: The far-right nationalist group Nippon Kaigi , of which Fumio Kishida and 57% of his cabinet are members, deny that they were forced to work at all, and claim that even the pubescent girls consented to sex work and were compensated reasonably. After the surrender of Japan at the end of the war, Korea was liberated, although it was immediately divided under the rule of the Soviet Union and of

4094-464: The first Governor-General of Chōsen . The treaty became effective the same day and was published one week later. The treaty stipulated: Both the protectorate and the annexation treaties were declared already void in the 1965 Treaty on Basic Relations between Japan and the Republic of Korea . This period is also known as Military Police Reign Era (1910–19) in which Police had the authority to rule

4183-399: The form of heavy taxes, impoverishing many of them and causing even more of them lose their land. Although many other subsequent developments placed ever greater strain on Korea's peasants, Japan's rice shortage in 1918 was the greatest catalyst for hardship. During that shortage, Japan looked to Korea for increased rice cultivation; as Korean peasants started producing more for Japan, however,

4272-425: The help of Chinese forces stationed in Korea. The coup was put down by Chinese troops, and a Korean mob killed both Japanese officers and Japanese residents in retaliation. Some leaders of the Progressive Party, including Kim Ok-gyun , fled to Japan, while others were executed. For the next 10 years, Japanese expansion into the Korean economy was approximated only by the efforts of tsarist Russia . The outbreak of

4361-729: The historiography of this era. During the period of Japanese colonial rule, Korea was officially known as Chōsen ( 朝鮮 ) , although the former name continued to be used internationally. In South Korea, the period is usually described as the "Imperial Japanese compulsive occupation period" ( Korean :  일제강점기 ; Hanja :  日帝强占期 ; RR :  Ilje Gangjeomgi ). Other terms, although often considered obsolete, include "Japanese Imperial Period" ( 일제시대 ; 日帝時代 ; Ilje Sidae ), "The dark Japanese Imperial Period" ( 일제암흑기 ; 日帝暗黑期 ; Ilje Amheukgi ), and " Wae (Japanese) administration period" ( 왜정시대 ; 倭政時代 ; Wae-jeong Sidae ). In Japan,

4450-604: The incident only reached the Japanese government eight days later on September 28, and the following day the government decided to dispatch warships to Pusan to protect Japanese residents there. There were also debates within the Japanese government as to whether or not to send a mission to Korea to settle the incident. Japan and Korea signed the 'Japan Korea Treaty of Amity' on 26 February 1876. Japan employed gunboat diplomacy to press Korea to sign this unequal treaty . The pact opened up Korea, as Commodore Matthew Perry's fleet of Black Ships had opened up Japan in 1853. According to

4539-557: The involuntary relocation of workers to Japan itself as needed. The combination of immigrants and forced laborers during World War II brought the total to over 2 million Koreans in Japan by the end of the war, according to estimates by the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers . Japan%E2%80%93Korea Treaty of 1876 The Japan–Korea Treaty of 1876 (also known as the Japan–Korea Treaty of Amity in Japan and

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4628-435: The lack of experts in Korean art at overseas museums and institutions, alterations made to artifacts that obscure their origin, and that moving Korean artifacts within what was previously internationally recognized Japanese territory was lawful at the time. The South Korean government has been continuing its efforts to repatriate Korean artifacts from museums and private collections overseas. The royal palace Gyeongbokgung

4717-571: The landowners were mostly Japanese, while the tenants were all Koreans. As often occurred in Japan itself, tenants had to pay over half their crop in rent. By the 1930s the growth of the urban economy and the exodus of farmers to the cities had gradually weakened the hold of the landlords. With the growth of the wartime economy throughout the Second World War , the government recognized landlordism as an impediment to increased agricultural productivity, and took steps to increase control over

4806-412: The last ruler of the Joseon dynasty, founded in 1392. On 24 July 1907, a treaty was signed under the leadership of Lee Wan-yong and Ito Hirobumi to transfer all rights of Korea to Japan . This led to a large-scale righteous army movement among Koreans, and disbanded troops joined the resistance forces. Japan's response to this was a scorched earth tactic using division-sized troops, which resulted in

4895-506: The military efforts of World War II led to organized official recruitment of Koreans to work in mainland Japan, initially through civilian agents, and later directly, often involving elements of coercion. As the labor shortage increased, by 1942, the Japanese authorities extended the provisions of the National Mobilization Law to include the conscription of Korean workers for factories and mines in Korea, Manchukuo , and

4984-473: The military of Korea would be modeled after the Japanese military. These reforms were forestalled by the prosecution of the Russo-Japanese War from 8 February 1904, to 5 September 1905, which Japan won, thus eliminating Japan's last rival to influence in Korea. Frustrated by this, King Gojong invited Alice Roosevelt Longworth , who was on a tour of Asian countries with William Howard Taft , to

5073-511: The movement of armed resistance organizations in Korea to Manchuria. Amid this confusion, on 26 October 1909, Ahn Jung-geun , a former volunteer soldier, assassinated Ito Hirobumi in Harbin . Meanwhile, pro-Japanese populist groups such as the Iljinhoe helped Japan by being fascinated by Japan's pan-Asianism , thinking that Korea would have autonomy like Austria-Hungary . It was adopted as

5162-679: The north wing of the palace. The Heungseon Daewongun returned to the royal palace the same day. On 11 February 1896, Gojong and the crown prince fled for protection at the Russian legation in Seoul, from which he governed for about a year. In 1896, various Korean activists formed the Independence Club . They advocated a number of societal reforms, including democracy and a constitutional monarchy, and pushed for closer ties to Western countries in order to counterbalance Japanese influence. It went on to be influential in Korean politics for

5251-528: The peninsula, and not to benefit its people. Most of Korea's infrastructure built during this time was destroyed during the 1950–1953 Korean War . These conditions led to the birth of the Korean independence movement , which acted both politically and militantly sometimes within the Japanese Empire, but mostly from outside of it. Koreans were also subjected to a number of mass murders, including

5340-493: The plan was put into action: the Un'yō , a small Japanese warship, was dispatched to present a show of force and survey coastal waters without Korean permission. In January 1864, King Cheoljong died without an heir, and Gojong ascended the throne at the age of 12. However, King Gojong was too young, and the new king's father, Yi Ha-ŭng, became the Daewongun or lord of the great court and ruled Korea in his son's name. Originally,

5429-447: The preferential treatment given to newly trained troops, the Daewongun's forces, or "old military", killed a Japanese training cadre, and attacked the Japanese legation . Japanese diplomats, policemen, students, and some Min clan members were also killed during the incident. The Daewongun was briefly restored to power, only to be forcibly taken to China by Chinese troops dispatched to Seoul to prevent further disorder. In August 1882,

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5518-405: The previous decade. The memories of those confrontations were very fresh, and there was little question that the Korean garrison would shoot at any approaching foreign ship. Nonetheless, Commander Inoue ordered a small boat to launch and put ashore a party on Kanghwa Island to request water and provisions. The Korean forts opened fire. The Un'yō brought its superior firepower to bear and silenced

5607-675: The proclamation "Matter Concerning the Changing of Korean Names" ( 朝鮮人ノ姓名改称ニ関スル件 ) was issued, barring ethnic Koreans from taking Japanese names and retroactively reverting the names of Koreans who had already registered under Japanese names back to the original Korean ones. By 1939, however, this position was reversed and Japan's focus had shifted towards cultural assimilation of the Korean people; Imperial Decree 19 and 20 on Korean Civil Affairs ( Sōshi-kaimei ) went into effect, whereby ethnic Koreans were forced to surrender their traditional use of clan-based Korean family name system, in favor of

5696-434: The royal palaces Gyeongbokgung and Deoksugung were either partially or completely demolished. Japan also built infrastructure and industry. Railways, ports and roads were constructed, although in numerous cases workers were subjected to extremely poor working circumstances and discriminatory pay. While Korea's economy grew under Japan, many argue that many of the infrastructure projects were designed to extract resources from

5785-541: The rural sector through the formation in Japan in 1943 of the Central Agricultural Association ( 中央農会 , chūō nōkai ) , a compulsory organization under the wartime command economy . The Japanese government had hoped emigration to its colonies would mitigate the population boom in the naichi (内地), but had largely failed to accomplish this by 1936. According to figures from 1934, Japanese in Chōsen numbered approximately 561,000 out of

5874-579: The same time, Japan suppressed the peasant revolt with Korean government forces. The Japanese minister to Korea, Miura Gorō , orchestrated a plot against 43-year-old Queen Min (later given the title of " Empress Myeongseong "), and on 8 October 1895, she was assassinated by Japanese agents. In 2001, Russian reports on the assassination were found in the archives of the Foreign Ministry of the Russian Federation. The documents included

5963-619: The ship's entire crew of 23. In 1866, after the execution of several of its Catholic missionaries and Korean Catholics, the French launched a punitive expedition against Korea. In 1871, the Americans also launched an expedition to Korea . However, the Koreans continued to adhere to isolationism and refused to negotiate to open up the country. During the Edo period , Japan's relations and trade with Korea were conducted through intermediaries with

6052-447: The short time that it operated, to the chagrin of Gojong. Gojong eventually forcefully disbanded the organization in 1898. In October 1897, Gojong returned to the palace Deoksugung , and proclaimed the founding of the Korean Empire at the royal altar Hwangudan . This symbolicly asserted Korea's independence from China, especially as Gojong demolished a reception hall that was once used to entertain Chinese ambassadors in order to build

6141-448: The short-lived Korean Empire . Japan then defeated Russia in the 1904–1905 Russo-Japanese War , making it the sole regional power. It then moved quickly to fully absorb Korea. It first made Korea a protectorate with the Japan–Korea Treaty of 1905 , and then ruled the country indirectly through the Japanese Resident-General of Korea . After forcing the Korean Emperor Gojong to abdicate in 1907, Japan then formally colonized Korea with

6230-455: The small town of Wanpaoshan in Manchuria near Changchun , "violent clashes" broke out between the local Chinese and Korean immigrants on 2 July 1931. The Chosun Ilbo , a major Korean newspaper, misreported that many Koreans had died in the clashes, sparking a Chinese exclusion movement in urban areas of the Korean Peninsula. The worst of the rioting occurred in Pyongyang on 5 July. Approximately 127 Chinese people were killed, 393 wounded, and

6319-424: The term "Chōsen of the Japanese-Governed Period" ( 日本統治時代の朝鮮 , Nippon Tōchi-jidai no Chōsen ) has been used. On 27 February 1876, the Japan–Korea Treaty of 1876 was signed. It was designed to open up Korea to Japanese trade, and the rights granted to Japan under the treaty were similar to those granted Western powers in Japan following the visit of Commodore Perry in 1854. The treaty ended Korea's status as

6408-403: The term Daewongun referred to any person who was not actually the king but whose son took the throne. The Daewongun initiated reforms to strengthen the monarchy at the expense of the yangban (aristocrat) class. Even before the 19th century, the Koreans had maintained diplomatic relations only with its suzerain , China, and with neighboring Japan. Foreign trade was mainly limited to China and

6497-512: The testimony of King Gojong, several witnesses of the assassination, and Karl Ivanovich Weber 's report to Aleksey Lobanov-Rostovsky , the Foreign Minister of Russia, by Park Jonghyo. Weber was the chargé d'affaires at the Russian legation in Seoul at that time. According to a Russian eyewitness, Seredin-Sabatin, an employee of the king, a group of Japanese agents entered Gyeongbokgung , killed Queen Min, and desecrated her body in

6586-505: The time of the First Sino-Japanese War of 1894–1895, Japanese merchants started settling in towns and cities in Korea seeking economic opportunity. By 1908 the number of Japanese settlers in Korea was somewhere below the figure of 500,000, comprising one of the nikkei communities in the world at the time. Many Japanese settlers showed interest in acquiring agricultural land in Korea even before Japanese land-ownership

6675-627: The traditional state of Korean villages, serving as evidence that Korea was "backwards" and needed to be modernized. In 1925, the Japanese government established the Korean History Compilation Committee , and it was administered by the Governor-General and engaged in collecting Korean historical materials and compiling Korean history. According to the Doosan Encyclopedia , some mythology

6764-432: The treaty were as follows: The following year (1877) saw a Japanese fleet led by Special Envoy Kuroda Kiyotaka coming over to Joseon, demanding an apology from the Korean government and a commercial treaty between the two nations. The Korean government decided to accept the demand in the hope of importing some technologies to defend the country from any future invasions. However, the treaty would eventually turn out to be

6853-615: The treaty, it ended Joseon's status as a tributary state of the Qing dynasty and opened three ports to Japanese trade. The treaty also granted the Japanese people many of the same rights such as extraterritoriality in Korea that Westerners enjoyed in Japan. The chief treaty negotiators were Kuroda Kiyotaka , Director of the Hokkaidō Colonization Office , and Shin Heon , General/Minister of Joseon-dynasty Korea. The articles of

6942-425: The unequal Japan–Korea Treaty of 1876 . Afterwards, Japan embarked on a decades-long process of defeating its local rivals, securing alliances with Western powers, and asserting its influence in Korea. Japan assassinated the defiant Korean queen and intervened in the Donghak Peasant Revolution . After Japan defeated China in the 1894–1895 First Sino–Japanese War , Joseon became nominally independent and declared

7031-421: Was a range in what people experienced. Some Japanese politicians and scholars, including former Prime Minister Fumio Kishida , deny that Koreans were forced laborers, and instead claim that they were "requisitioned against their will" to work. Women and girls aged 12–17 were controversially forced into sexual slavery by Japan as " comfort women ". A number of modern Japanese scholars and politicians, notably from

7120-567: Was appointed for the commander of Japanese military police forces. Japanese finally replaced Imperial Korean police forces in June 1910, and they combined police forces and military police, firmly establishing the rule of military police. After the annexation, Akashi started to serve as the Chief of Police. These military police officers started to have great authority over Koreans. Not only Japanese but also Koreans served as police officers. In May 1910,

7209-642: Was conducted at designated locations along the China–Korea border , and with Japan through the waegwan in Pusan. By the mid-19th century, Westerners had come to refer to Korea as the Hermit Kingdom . The Daewongun was determined to continue Korea's traditional isolationist policy and to purge the kingdom of any foreign ideas that had infiltrated the nation. The disastrous events occurring in China, including

7298-527: Was held in The Hague . Emperor Gojong secretly sent three representatives to bring the problems of Korea to the world's attention. The three envoys, who questioned the legality of the protectorate convention, were refused access to the public debates by the international delegates. One of these representatives was missionary and historian Homer Hulbert . Out of despair, one of the Korean representatives, Yi Tjoune , committed suicide at The Hague. In response,

7387-525: Was incorporated. The committee supported the theory of a Japanese colony on the Korean Peninsula called Mimana , which, according to E. Taylor Atkins, is "among the most disputed issues in East Asian historiography." Japan executed the first modern archaeological excavations in Korea. The Japanese administration also relocated some artifacts; for instance, a stone monument (棕蟬縣神祠碑), which

7476-482: Was intended to preserve Korean historical artifacts, including those not yet unearthed. Japan's 1871 Edict for the Preservation of Antiquities and Old Items could not be automatically applied to Korea due to Japanese law, which required an imperial ordinance to apply the edict in Korea. The 1933 law to protect Korean cultural heritages was based on the Japanese 1871 edict. Due to a waterway construction permit, in

7565-539: Was obliged to become a Japanese protectorate by the Japan–Korea Treaty of 1905 and the "reforms" were enacted, including the reduction of the Korean Army from 20,000 to 1,000 men by disbanding all garrisons in the provinces, retaining only a single garrison in the precincts of Seoul. On 6 January 1905, Horace Allen, head of the American Legation in Seoul reported to his Secretary of State, John Hay, that

7654-434: Was officially legalized in 1906. Governor-General Terauchi Masatake facilitated settlement through land reform . The Korean land-ownership system featured absentee landlords, only partial owner-tenants and cultivators with traditional (but no legal proof of) ownership. By 1920, 90 percent of Korean land had proper ownership of Koreans. Terauchi's new Land Survey Bureau conducted cadastral surveys that established ownership on

7743-571: Was originally located in the Liaodong Peninsula , then under Japanese control , was taken out of its context and moved to Pyongyang . As of April 2020, 81,889 Korean cultural artifacts are in Japan. According to the Overseas Korean Cultural Heritage Foundation, not all the artifacts were moved illegally. Adding to the challenge of repatriating illegally exported Korean cultural properties is

7832-798: Was partially destroyed beginning in the 1910s, in order to make way for the Japanese General Government Building as well as the colonial Chōsen Industrial Exhibition . Hundreds of historic buildings in Deoksugung were also destroyed to make way for the Yi Royal Family Museum of Fine Art  [ ko ] . The displays in the museum reportedly intentionally contrasted traditional Korean art with examples of modern Japanese art, in order to portray Japan as progressive and legitimize Japanese rule. The National Palace Museum of Korea , originally built as

7921-469: Was then taken hostage aboard the vessel and its crew members fired guns at enraged Korean officials and civilians onshore. The crew then landed ashore and plundered the town, killing seven Koreans in the process. The governor of the province Pak Kyu-su ordered his forces to destroy the ship. During the event, the General Sherman ran aground on a sandbar and Korean forces burned the ship and killed

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