From the National Archives: The Impact of Japanese Imperialism Upon the Economic and Political Rehabilitation of Korea, September 1947
This document provided an astute analysis of how Japanese colonialism warped Korean society in essential ways. It was probably written by a New Deal-type economist first assigned to Japan.
One passage notes how the Korean peninsula escaped the worst of World War II, particularly “devastated cities and farm lands” as in Japan and Okinawa. “No bombs fell upon Korea.” Yet the country is “divided and occupied by forces of two foreign powers,” and the “full impact of the war” must be viewed against the backdrop of Japanese exploitation.
Like other US reports from this period, the American observer was struck by the total domination of the economy and its workforce by the Japanese prior to liberation in 1945.
“The consequence is that today Korea as a liberated nation is sadly handicapped by a scarcity of competent personnel in nearly all educational fields. Filling this tremendous personnel vacuum, this critical need…is an Herculean task facing Korea.”
