Korean Ruling Class - Japanese Occupation Period

Japanese Occupation Period

The annexation of Korea by Japan from 1905 to 1945 ushered in not only a harsh colonial period wherein the Japanese took over and dominated every aspect of Korea's sociopolitical, cultural and economic life, it ironically created a demand for Koreans skilled in working alongside the Japanese as petty bureaucrats, minor officials, junior administrators, clerks and low-level public officials such as policemen, station masters, railroad engineers, and army officers. This fostered the need and creation of a skilled indigenous workforce trained and schooled in Japanese ways and methods. Although small in number, this elite group of Koreans represented the first generation of Korean yuhaksaeng, or overseas students, to be sent abroad for foreign study. From 1910 to 1945 these Koreans studied mostly in Japan's best high schools and universities, especially Tokyo Imperial University. While many overseas Korean students were forcibly conscripted into the Imperial Japanese Army to fight against the allies, many survived the war mostly by being able to evade routine roundups by the Japanese police, usually with the help of sympathetic Japanese teachers and mentors. After Korea's liberation from Japan on August 15, 1945, they immediately were called upon to form Korea's first provisional government in conjunction with a U.S.-administered trusteeship. As they represented the only class of Koreans who were capable of administering the newly formed Republic of Korea upon its establishment in 1948, they became the de facto inheritors of the Japanese colonial system and founders of the first sovereign Korean state in modern times. Among their ranks were a generation's worth of Japanese-trained and educated bureaucrats, administrators, technocrats, military and business leaders, e.g., Park Chung-hee, Lee Byung-chul, etc. In toto, these trailblazers who were educated in Japan during the colonial period, became the founding members of the Republic of Korea as well as movers and shakers in Korean politics and business all the way up till the late 1980s. Collectively, this generation is called the Japanese Generation.