Korea as a Japanese Colony

Thetreaty of Portsmouth, which terminated the Russo-Japanese War, and the acquiescence of Great Britain and of the United States gave Japan a free hand in the peninsula. At the apex of Korea’s pyramid of power stood the Governor-General, whose imperial appointment was recommended by the Japanese Premier on the advice of the Home Minister. Japanese personnel dominated the government from top to bottom although a number of Koreans who were willing to collaborate were given minor posts. Korean nationalism was probably strengthened as well as modernized by the ordeal of overlordship. Andrew J. Grajdanzev has demonstrated how exaggerated, and in many respects superficial, the supposed progress of Korea as a Japanese colony actually was. In advancing their own interests in Korea the Japanese in essence were expanding the Japanese economy, not replacing the medieval agrarian economy of Korea. The ascendancy of the militarists in Japan after 1930 was followed by increased attention to achieving economic autarky.