KYUNG MOON HWANG

Q. IT IS OFTEN ARGUED THAT JAPANESE COLONIAL RULE RESULTED IN THE MODERNISATION OF KOREA. HOW DID THIS NARRATIVE BEGIN AND WHY HAS IT PERSISTED TO THIS DAY?

A. Japanese officials and intellectuals constructed this narrative in the early 20th century in order to justify Japanese colonial rule over Korea (1910-1945). Naturally, after 1945 liberated Koreans on both sides of the national border vehemently rejected this notion that colonialism had delivered modernity. In its place, a dominant counter-narrative