Truth of Japan's Annexation of the Korean Peninsula
For another instance, the UK colonized various African and Asian regions, nations, and kingdoms. The British took natural resources from those colonies to Great Britain to manufacture various products. Then it sold them to people in colonies. Of course, for example, some Indians earned money through trade with the UK, but the UK Government forced them to deposit money they earned in banks in London. The rule of the UK in colonies was essentially complete exploitation.
But, the rule of the Empire of Japan in Korea was utterly different while the Empire annexed and governed the Korean Peninsula between 1910 and 1945. The Empire tried to pull up the social and industrial level of Korea as much as possible. Tokyo wanted to make Korea eventually an integral part of the Empire with equal status. Japanese leaders at the time wanted to make Korea true extension of the empire but not a simple colony.
The Empire of Japan started modernization and westernization since the middle of the 19th century over the fall of the last samurai regime the Tokugawa shogun presided over. While the Empire succeeded in tackling this difficult task, it observed the Korean Kingdom. The Korean Kingdom had also closed the country like Japan of the samurai era. So, Japanese politicians forced Korea to open the door, though Tokyo used some military powers to do so. It was partly because the Russian Empire was aiming at colonizing East Asia; the military pressure from the Russian Empire on the Empire of Japan was so huge. Japanese needed a big buffer zone in the Korean Peninsula as Russians got big interest in Manchuria, north of the Peninsula, through imperialistic negotiation with the Qing dynasty.
But after decades, Japanese leaders found that the Korean Kingdom did not show progress enough to stand with the Empire against Russians invading East Asia. So, Tokyo decided to annex Korea to the Empire.
At the time, starvation was prevailing in the Korean Peninsula as the skill level of Korean agriculture was far behind the Japanese one. So, Tokyo offered to the Korean Government two thirds of funds needed to save starving Koreans.
After integration of Korea, the Japanese Government allocated 10% of the Japanese national budget to Korea so as to develop and improve social infrastructure, educational and medical systems, railroad systems, etc. As a result, the population of Korea increased to 22.5 million in 1940, though it was only 13.3 million before 1910 when Korea was annexed to the Empire of Japan.
Before the political integration of Korea into the Empire, the Korean society was split into two: the noble class and farmers, etc. The Korean noble class respected Confucius and the Chinese traditional culture. They used mainly Chinese letters in reading and writing, while the literacy rate among all the Koreans was less than 10% before the annexation. But under the Japanese rule, it was recommended that Korean schools taught Hangul letters which were unique Korean letters and which were easy for ordinary Koreans to learn. Of curse, the Japanese language was also taught in schools in Korea as Koreans were now of Japanese nationality, and the literacy rate among Koreans went up to 65% by 1936. In this way, Japanese liberated poor Koreans from an oppressive environment they were forced to live in by the Korean noble class.
So, the Korean society could undergo modernization and westernization with huge support and help from the Empire of Japan. Similar condition was observed in development of Taiwan that had been under the Japanese administration since 1895. Indeed, the Empire of Japan invested funds into those areas annexed to the Empire more than it could get from them.
However, after WWII, Koreans got independent, though they were split into two nations: one under the strong influence of the Soviet Union and another of the US.
The Korean Peninsula also unfortunately underwent a war from 1950 to 1953 between the South and the North. Behind the South there was the US and behind the North there were two communist countries: the USSR and China.
And, today, Koreans never cease to blame Japan for the past Japanese rule on the Korean Peninsula, as if a prosperous and highly-civilized kingdom had been conquered, controlled, and colonized by militarist Japanese. They never cease to blame Japan even in the US. But the story on the Japanese side is very different as you now know.
http://azplanning.cocolog-nifty.com/neko/2011/07/post-47ee.html
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Luk 8:17 For nothing is secret, that shall not be made manifest; neither any thing hid, that shall not be known and come abroad.