Japanese War Crimes  Japanese Korean Disputes  Comfort women  Enumerating the influence that Japan Possesses on the United States

Japanese forced Occupation

In Korea, the period is usually described as a time of "Japanese forced occupation" (Hangul: 일제 강점기; Ilje gangjeomgi, Hanja: 日帝强占期). Other terms used for it include "Japanese Imperial Period" (Hangul: 일제시대, Ilje sidae, Hanja: 日帝時代) or "Wae (Japanese) administration" (Hangul: 왜정, Wae jeong, Hanja: 倭政). In Japan, a more common description is "Japanese rule of Chosun" (日本統治時代の朝鮮, Nippon Tōchi-jidai no Chōsen).

The modern history of Korea opened with the struggle against aggression and feudalism in the 60’s of the 19th century, the struggle to repulse the armed aggression of Western powers headed by the American intruders and to oppose the feudal system which had long hampered her social progress. The Korean people burn down the US ship, General Sherman which sailed up the Taedong River to the vicinity of Pyongyang in 1866, thus adorning the modern history of Korea. The Koreans triumphantly beat back a French fleet that same year and an American fleet in 1871.

 In 1876 the Japanese militarists threatened the feudal rulers of the Choson Dynasty (Ri dynasty in North Korea or Joseon dynasty or Yi dynasty in South Korea) with armed force into signing the Treaty of Ganghwa(江華條約) in 1875, thereby placing Korea under their colonial yoke and Japanese agents assassinated Empress Myeongseong(明星王后) in 1895.  In 1897, Joseon was renamed the Korean Empire, 大韓帝國 (1897–1910), and King Gojong became Emperor Gojong(高宗皇帝).

After winning the Sino-Japanese War in 1894-1895 and the Russo-Japanese War in 1904-1905, Japan contracted Treaty on Basic Relations between Japan and Korean

Empire(大韓帝國) in August 22, 1904. Then in 1904, a local fisherman at Japan’s Shimane Prefecture, Nakai, petitioned for Tokdo’s territorial annexation and lease to Japanese ministers who in turn decided to grant such petition without any on-site, historical, and geographical study of Tokdo. Then Japanese cabinet announced February, 15th 1905 as The Day of Takeshima on which Second Korea-Japan Convention, blatant symbol of invasion of Korea, was also conducted.

After that, Japan concluded Taft-Katsura Agreement (July 1905) with the United States, an action which blatantly shows the US’s acknowledgement of Japan’s exclusive right to rule over Korea. In addition, Japan conducted Anglo-Japanese Alliance (August 1905) to attain international approval, and reaffirmed its policy to render Korea its protectorate through the Treaty of Portsmouth (August 1905).

Nevertheless, November 17, 1905, Japanese forced Korea to sign the Eulsa Treaty. The 1905 Protectorate Treaty(을사보호조약) have been promulgated without Emperor Gojong's required seal. US was the first country to withdraw its troops from Korea. Following the signing of the treaty An Jung-geun assassinated Japanese statesman Itō Hirobumi, the Resident-General of Korea, in Manchuria on 1909 for Ito's role in helping occupy Korea.

In 1910, Korea was forcibly annexed by Japan beginning a controversial period of Japanese rule. This ended the Joseon(Choson, Yi Dynasty) with its history of over 500 years. Although both the annexation and the 35-year Japanese colonial rule are considered "illegal" because it was based on the invalid protectorate treaty of 1905, under threat of force/duress and it was never ratified by the Emperor of Korea. This view was ratified in the communique issued at the Moscow Conference of the Foreign Ministers of the United Kingdom, the Soviet Union, and the United States on December 27, 1945. They declared that "With a view to the reestablishment of Korea as an independent state". On the other hand, Japan has claimed that the treaty was valid regarding the formality and procedure which view is rejected by the Korean government and scholarship.

During the Japanese rule, Japanese War Crimes (Asian Holocaust) are mass killings, human experimentation and biological warfare, use of chemical weapons, preventable famine, torture of POWs, cannibalism, looting and included the confiscation of Korean crops to Japan caused food shortages, sweatshops and forced slave labor became rife, and life for ordinary Koreans was harshly suppressed. The Korean language, and teaching of Korean history and culture in schools, had been banned in an attempt to eradicate national identity. In a nationwide uprising on March 1, 1919 in korea was an outcry for national survival in the face of the intolerable aggression, oppression, and plundering by the Japanese colonialists. An apparent sudden change in the international situation in the wake of World War I stimulated Korean leaders to launch an independence struggle, both at home and abroad. For the tighter control of the Koreans, Japanese colonial government monitors and surveillance over Korean citizens’ political behavior against the annexation and it employs trailers and informers, and conduct widespread eavesdropping.

When Japan entered World War II in 1941, tens of thousands of Korean men were conscripted into the Japanese army and conscripted 200 thousands of Korean (and Chinese women) young girls as “comfort women” to the Japanese army; many exiles joined the Allied war effort under the banner of the Korean Liberation Army and Korean People’s Revolutionary Army. The struggle for liberating the country from under the occupation of Japanese imperialism continued unremittingly. The 1905 and 1910 treaties were eventually declared "null and void" by both Japan and South Korea in 1965.