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Colonization as Planned Changed: The Korean Case*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 November 2008

Yunshik Chang
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Extract

With the Kangwha treaty in 1876 Korea ended its period of isolation and became exposed to foreign pressures. In 1906, after a period of turmoil in Asian international affairs, Korea was declared a Japanese protectorate, and in 1910 it became a colony of that country. Korea remained a Japanese possession until the end of the Pacific War in 1945. This essay is concerned with some of the economic and social changes that took place in Korea under Japanese rule. The first part of the paper discusses the reorganization of the traditional economy by changes in institutional control over it, and the second part describes the growth of the economy during these years.

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Articles
Information
Modern Asian Studies , Volume 5 , Issue 2 , March 1971 , pp. 161 - 186
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1971

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References

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2 For a fuller description see Lee, Sangbeck, Hankuk-sa (The History of Korea), Seoul, 1962, pp. 303–24.Google Scholar

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4 There were also seven occupational roles which were legally stipulated as inferior work and assigned to commoners. These included servants in administration offices, sailors engaged in transportation of tax tributes, beacon-tenders, palacetomb guards, and so on. These roles, however, were regarded as temporary occupations and most individuals engaged in them were also farmers.

5 But the nobi is not exactly an occupational category such as ‘butcher’. Being a slave his work was dictated by the master who legally owned him.

6 For example, not all the yangban elites could achieve the upper levels of administrative positions which were almost exclusively confined to the yangban status.

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19 Headed by such giant firms as the Fuji Industrial Company and later the Oriental Development Company.

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27 As an index of increased exchanges at public market the government statistics show the amount of commodities exchanged at the market. See below, Section II. See also, Moon, Chungchang, op. cit.Google Scholar

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43 One of the most ardent intellectual spokesmen for this view, Takeo Suzuki, was then professor of economics at Keijo Imperial University. See his ‘Hokusen route-ron’, (‘On the North-Korean Route’) in Hogakkai, Keijo Tekoku Daigaku, op. cit., pp. 321–62.Google Scholar

44 Chang, Yunshik, op. cit., Chapter 4.Google Scholar

45 Ibid., Chapter 4.

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51 Kawai, , op. cit., p. 235.Google Scholar

52 Ibid., pp. 235–36. The share of the household industry in the gross value of the total manufacturing industry in 1939 was as follows: 48·9% in the lumber industry; 45·8% in the food industry; 8·8% in machinery and tools; 7·% in the chemical industry; 6·3% in ceramics; and so on. See also, Grajdanzev, , op. cit., pp. 150–2.Google Scholar

53 Kawai, , op. cit., pp. 150–2.Google Scholar

54 Ibid., p. 254.

55 Ibid., p. 254.

56 If women are included, the figures become 78% and 73% of the total labour force—a figure difficult to interpret because of the great fall in the number reported in manufacturing. Again changes in census definitions make interpretation of the figures difficult.