Korea before 1945
In 1910 both the emperors of Japan and Korea finally agreed to merge the two empires into the Empire of Japan, mostly in a peaceful manner.
However in March 1919 Korean students first and then Korean commons started violent protest to the rule of the Korean Peninsula by the Imperial Government of Japan. Those rebels were armed with weapons, attacking village offices, loan association offices, and the likes. According to an estimate, some two million Koreans joined this violent movement. So the Japanese Governor-General of Korea mobilized not only the police and military policemen but also regular troops of the Imperial Army of Japan to subdue and control these Korean insurgents in less than two months by May. In this crush some Koreans were victimized cruelly by Japanese soldiers. In one case 29 Koreans were killed in a Christian church where these victims were pushed in.
Learning lessons from this incident, Tokyo started to take soft measures in its ruling of Korea.
From the beginning, different from colonial policies taken by major European countries in Africa and Asia, the Empire of Japan put Korea under its power and authority in order to prepare for a possible war against the Empire of Russia. Tokyo had to modernize Korea enough so that Koreans would not be subject to the Chinese dynasty called Qing, a suzerain of Korea for centuries, and the Russian Empire. It was not to economically exploit Korea and Koreans, like major European colonial rulers, that the Empire of Japan started to directly govern the Korean Peninsula. In fact, Tokyo gave more than it took from Korea.
Accordingly the Empire of Japan made full efforts to reform the Korean landholding regime, introduce mass-production of agriculture products and improve rice farming in the Korean Peninsula, build modern education systems in Korea, etc. For example, the literacy rate among Koreans was only 6% before Japan's annexation of the Korean Peninsula, but it jumped up to 22% 30 years after the annexation.
Tokyo also stopped assigning an active-duty general of the Imperial Army/Navy of Japan to the Governor-General of Korea. The Imperial Government of Japan lifted restrictions on speech and press in Korea. Freedom of association was also introduced into the Korean society. Japanese also built railroads in Korea, covering a total extension of 5,000 km. Japan also builｔ
its sixth Imperial University in Seoul, Korea, which was called the Keijyo Imperial University.
As the Empire of Japan wanted Koreans to become regular citizens of the Empire eventually, political leaders in Tokyo took various measures to modernize the Korean society through introduction of modern industrial systems, social systems, and educational systems into the Korean Peninsula.
Finally, though no violent insurgency occurred after the 1919 failed uprising, Koreans opted to separate from Japan after the end of WWII, since the Empire of Japan collapsed after it surrendered to the United States in 1945.
In summary, it will be no wonder if Koreans today showed their great appreciation to Japan even in a complicated or subtle manner due to their unfulfilled pride as a people whose history is as long as that of the Japanese.
So, the historical fact is that Koreans needed rule by the Empire of Japan for its modernization, good or bad, before 1945.
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Mar 8:19 When I brake the five loaves among five thousand, how many baskets full of fragments took ye up? They say unto him, Twelve.
Mar 8:20 And when the seven among four thousand, how many baskets full of fragments took ye up? And they said, Seven.
Mar 8:21 And he said unto them, How is it that ye do not understand?