ABSTRACT
The importance of the military varied by country, era, and class. Because Japan was feudal, in a sense comparable to Europe and unlike Korea and China, the military tradition was more widely honored there. The maxim applied to the top literati in Korea during the Yi Dynasty, and the attitude it reflects, held on longer there than elsewhere in East Asia, reinforced by the Japanese military's role in the colonial era. In 1907, the Japanese demobilized the remaining forces of the Korean army, a decrepit troupe of six thousand men, a shadow of the might that at critical points in Korean history had played an important role on the peninsula. The military command structure perpetuated and strengthened the traditionally strong authoritarian and hierarchical tendencies inside Korean society that were exacerbated under Japanese colonial rule. The penetration of Korean society by the military has given the military a pivotal and unprecedented role in the culture.
