Overview
Korea was ruled by the Japanese Government-General. The “military rule” of the 1910s brought land surveys that dispossessed many farmers, and the suppression of political life.
Key developments
The March First Movement of 1919 — nationwide independence demonstrations — was suppressed with heavy casualties. It led to a somewhat looser “cultural rule” in the 1920s and to the Korean Provisional Government in exile in Shanghai.
From the 1930s, wartime mobilization brought forced assimilation — Japanese-language education, pressure to adopt Japanese names (soshi-kaimei), and suppression of the Korean language — along with forced labor conscription and the military “comfort women” system of sexual servitude; the system is documented, while the numbers involved are debated among historians. Independence movements continued at home and abroad.
End and transition
Liberation came on August 15, 1945, with Japan’s surrender.