韓國植民地時代史의 理解方法

A Recommended Approach to the Period of Colonization in Korean History

This paper suggests an attitude which the author believes to be prerequisite to any proper understanding of the period of history under Japanese colonial rule. To ensure a correct examination of relevant records and archives it would be well to proceed with a clarification of the nature and function of Japanese colonial policy in Korea, then to advance into a careful probing of its impact on politics, law, economics - its social and cultural repercussions would best be studied with particular reference to the general moral enervation arising from forfeiture of freedom, impoverization, and a tradition pushed to the edge of extinction. It would be worth special mention that Japanese rule tended to retard Korea s modernization efforts, and that what modernization was achieved in certain limited areas was exclusively in the interests of Japanese colonial advance or for the benefit of individual Japanese citizens. It was against such a background that the movement for independence was initiated and conducted.