When My Name Was Keoko Book Analysis Essay

“The number of Koreans in Japan went up 47900% from 2,500 in 1911 to 1.2 million in 1940” (Ryang 520). According to Statista, “In 1940, there were 73.2 million people in Japan.” That means that 1.64% of people living in Japan were Koreans in 1940. So for every 100 people in Japan, a little over 1 of them would have been Korean. That is significant because Koreans were not happy with Japan. According to the University of Central Arkansas, “On July 25, 1907, there were some 10,000 Korean protesters in Korea, which Japan didn’t like, so Japan sent 20,000 troops to suppress the protests.” They used the military power they had to enforce what political methods and beliefs they wanted. Also according to the University of Central Arkansas, “Formally on August 22, 1910, Japan formally annexed Korea until August 15, 1945, when Japan surrendered Korea to it and its allies.” That shows Japan was successful until Korea got allies to step in to help fight Japan. When my Name was Keoko talked about what he had to do in Japan’s military and what it was like. The book highlighting those topics brought me to think about what life was like for the Koreans. The historical fiction book was accurate about lots of topics and brought attention to big topics that really happened like the change in Korean to Japan's culture and the power Japan used. It is important to talk about because it shapes a lot of people's lives and what they think about topics. It also shapes lots of people because people are shaped by culture. The Japanese government used many political and cultural methods during the occupation of Korea but some were more effective than others like changing the education system and making it so Koreans could only have certain amounts of land.

To properly understand the impacts of the cultural and political methods used, it is important to explore what happened before and after the occupation. “On July 25, 1907, there were some 10,000 Korean protesters in Korea, which Japan didn’t like, so Japan sent 20,000 troops to suppress the protests” (University of Central Arkansas). That information provides prospective about what happened in Korea and how Japan handled it. This also shows how much power and force Japan put on Korea. The power Japan used in Korea makes it so Koreans do what the Japanese government wants. “The Japanese government took control over Korea on August 22, 1910, but to suppress the protest it took until 1912 and 17,700 Koreans were killed along with 150 Japanese government soldiers” (University of Central Arkansas). This gives information on when Japan first took control and the amount of political/military power they used. It also shows how badly the power they used affected each side because there were 118 Koreans killed for each Japanese person killed. It also shows how Korea doesn't have much power and has to do what Japan wants. According to the University of Central Arkansas, “China and the US joined to get Korea independence on December 1, 1943, and troops from both intervened in Korea in 1945, which caused Japan to surrender to the allies of Korea on August 15, 1945, which Korea was then divided into two different countries.” This shows how Japan's occupation of Korea ended and what happened after it. That also shows why Japan lost control of Korea and it was because of allies of Korea and not Korea by themselves. That shows how Japan got control and lost control over Korea, but let's look into the culture change in Korea during the occupation like in schools. 

To properly understand the impacts of the cultural and political methods used, it is important to explore the most effective changes they made to change the culture of Koreans. According to Tomari, “System is an important factor of school culture; knowledge learned in the school powers is part of what powers the school culture ” (4). This shows how the system of schools plays a big role in the culture. Therefore, they are changing schools to change the culture and make it so the kids change to Japanese culture. According to Griffis, “Their history, language, ethnology, physiology, religion, culture, tastes, habits, and psychology show that instead of being “Mongolians” they are the most un-Mongolian people in Asia'' (46). This shows that Japan was not like any other country in Asia in culture. Japan was going far out to change the culture of the people in Korea and making Korea less like anyone else in Asia. “Control of a nation’s educational system brings with it the potential to define the character of a nation for a generation and more” (Toby 55). The control that Japan had over Korea’s education system was key to defining the culture of the nation for the next generation and more. Therefore, changing the school system was key for Japan to change the culture of the people in Korea so it was easier for them to keep control and occupation. That shows how Japan changed the culture of Korea and what it was like, but now let’s look at how Japan controlled the amount of land owned by Koreans and other political powers.

To properly understand the impacts of the cultural and political methods used, it is important to explore how they kept control of the land and the political methods used. According to Sorensen, “Data published by the Bank of Korea suggest that in 1942, 13 percent of Korea’s agricultural land was owned by Japanese individuals” (262). When 13% of the farmland that Korea had was then owned by Japanese people, that means they lost land and the political control they used worked. Therefore, the amount of land that they allowed the Koreans to own worked. This way, they could get Japanese people farmland over there so they could get more materials. According to Ryang, “The number of Koreans in Japan went up 47900% from 2,500 in 1911 to 1.2 million in 1940” (520). These numbers show that the Japanese government got the Korean people to live with the Japanese people. The fact that they moved from Korea into Japan and lived there during the occupation causing the number of people togo up. Therefore, it was a political method that worked because it got Koreans to trust the government. According to the University of Central Arkansas, “On July 25, 1907, there were some 10,000 Korean protesters in Korea and Japan didn’t like that so they sent 20,000 troops to suppress the protests” (University of Central Arkansas). This shows that the Japanese government used military power as a method to keep it and a lot of force was used to do so. Therefore, the method they used stopped what they wanted to stop, which made it a method that worked. That shows that Japan used a lot of political methods. Some methods worked better than others a for longer period of time, like how much land they could own.

When my Name was Keoko was accurate about Japan’s occupation of Korea. The accuracy is shown by the political methods used and that is because the book talked about officials having the power to do what they wanted and the military bases made for Japanese troops in Korea. That is true because according to the University of Central Arkansas, “20,000 Japanese troops were sent to Korea to suppress protests.” That shows that there would be a lot of militaries there so they would need a place for them to stay. Therefore, military bases would make sense. The military was also there to suppress the protest so Koreans could get no power or momentum to overthrow Japan. The book also talked about how little food they got which can be shown because of what Sorensen said, “Data published by the Bank of Korea suggest that in 1942, 13 percent of Korea’s agricultural land was owned by Japanese individuals” (262). That would suggest that a good part of Korea’s crops/food was taken by Japanese people. The Japanese people then would send it off to Korea cause they didn’t care about Koreans as much. Then there wouldn’t be much food in Korea, just as the book said. The last is social and that is shown because, of the Koreans joining the Japanese military and helping Japan fight. That could be proven because, “The number of Koreans in Japan went up 47900% from 1911 to 1940” (Ryang 520). That could be because of Koreans in the military having to move to Japan, making the number significantly increase. The other thing that helped support that Koreans were joining the military was because every country needed a lot of people in the military. This was all happening during World War II. All of these reasons are why the historical fiction book is accurate.

It is important to learn about Japan’s occupation of Korea because it shapes a lot of people's lives and what they think about topics, and lots of lives were killed because of it. The Japanese government used many political and cultural methods during the occupation of Korea, but some were more effective than others. “The end of Japanese rule caused political confusion among Koreans in both zones” (Britannica). This meant they had many problems that they still had to face after getting independence from Japan.