Occupation:Military, Labor, Land, Cultural Imperialism
While Japan claimed these women volunteered their services to the Empire, many of the former prostitutes later testified that they were coerced, deceived, or kidnapped from their homes, and forced into the industry.
In 1910, after years of war between the two countries, Japan took military control of Korea until 1945. The occupation government took over Korea’s labor and land. Nearly 725,000 Korean workers were forced to work in Japan and its other colonies. One hundred thousand Japanese families settled on Korean land stolen by the Japanese government, and Japan changed the landscape of Korea, making it unfamiliar to Koreans.
Other forms of cultural imperialism included prohibiting the speaking of Korean, erasing Korean history from approved textbooks, burning over 200,000 Korean historical documents, and forcing Koreans to worship Shinto shrines. Finally, towards the end of occupation, the Japanese government forced hundreds of thousands of Korean women into sexual slavery.