Japanese Colonialism in Korea
Japanese Colonialism in KoreaNorth and South Korea are nations that while filled with
contempt for Japan have used the foundations that Japan laid during
the colonial period to further industrialization. Japan’s colonization
of Korea is critical in understanding what enabled Korea to
industrialize in the period since 1961.
Japan’s program of colonial industrialization is unique in
the world. Japan was the only colonizer to locate various heavy
industry is in its colonies. By 1945 the industrial plants in Korea
accounted for about a quarter of Japan’s industrial base. Japan’s
colonization of Korea was therefore much more comparable to the
relationship between England and Ireland then that of European
colonization of Asia or Africa. Japan’s push to create colonial
industry lead Japan to build a vast network of railroads, ports, and a
system of hydro-electric dams and heavy industrial plants around the
Yalu River in what is now North Korea. The Japanese to facilitate and
manage the industrialization of a colony also put in place a strong
central government.
Although Japan’s colonial industrialism in Korea was aimed at
advancing Japanese policies and goals and not those of the Korean
populace; colonization left Korea with distinct advantages over other
developing countries at the end of World War Two. Korea was left with
a base for industrializing, a high level of literacy, experience with
modern commerce, and close ties to Japan. Japan’s colonial heavy
industrial plants were located primarily around the Yalu River in
North Korea. Because of this the North had an edge in
industrialization. For many years the North had the fastest growth
rates of the communist countries, and its cities were on par with
those of Eastern Europe. It was not until the early 1970’s that the
South surpassed the North in levels of industrialization. Because most
of the heavy industrial plants were either located in North Korea or
destroyed by the Korean War the groundwork for industrialization that
South Korea received from Japanese colonialism consisted mostly of
social changes. During colonialism Korea’s populace in increasing
numbers moved to cities and became urbanized these new urbanites
worked in factories and were used to the organization of modern
commerce. The Japanese also let...
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