Why Did Japan Try to Change Korea's Language and Culture?

Why would an occupying power care what language children spoke, what names families registered, or which ceremonies people attended? During Japan's rule over Korea from 1910 to 1945, these were not merely personal matters: the colonial government treated them as ways to reshape people's loyalties. Its aim was to make Korea easier to govern and, especially during wartime, to turn Koreans into subjects who would serve the Japanese empire.

The changes did not arrive all at once. Policies hardened over decades, and their reach differed between schools, offices, public ceremonies, and private life. Understanding that progression explains both the pressure Koreans faced and why preserving their language became such a significant act.

Why a Colonial Government Wanted to Control Language

Japan formally annexed Korea in 1910 and governed it through the Government-General of Korea. The authorities faced a population with its own language, written traditions, family customs, historical memory, and political aspirations. Administration could operate through interpreters and local intermediaries, but officials increasingly wanted Japanese to become the normal language of public authority.

Language was useful in the practical sense: it connected schools to government offices, newspapers to official notices, and prospective workers to institutions controlled by the empire. Yet the larger ambition was political. Teaching people to think of Japanese as the language of imperial belonging and advancement could help make colonial rule appear natural and permanent.

Reconstructed colonial-era government office with Korean residents facing a uniformed official across a wooden desk

That did not mean the authorities simply banned every use of Korean in 1910. According to a historical account published by Korea's National Institute of Korean History, the government initially promoted Japanese education and official use while also treating Korean as a local language useful for administering a population that mostly did not speak Japanese. The distinction matters: colonial language policy was a process, not a single nationwide switch.

After the March First independence movement of 1919, Japan announced a more accommodating form of colonial administration. Korean-language cultural activity had some room to develop in the 1920s, even as censorship, political restrictions, and inequality remained. That space would narrow sharply as Japan expanded its wars on the Asian mainland.

How Schools Were Used to Make Imperial Subjects

Schools offered officials something an administrative notice could not: years of influence over children. The first Korean Education Ordinance appeared in 1911. It was followed by major revisions in 1922, 1938, and 1943, each reflecting the changing priorities of colonial government. The earlier system was also discriminatory, with Korean students generally receiving different educational opportunities from Japanese residents.

The turning point came after Japan launched full-scale war against China in 1937. The 1938 education reforms emphasized Japanese language, Japanese history, moral instruction, and loyalty to the emperor. Korean, previously a required subject in important parts of the school system, was reduced to an optional subject, while Japanese became central to teaching and school life. The reforms also brought school names and structures closer to those used in Japan without eliminating the underlying inequalities.

Historical reconstruction of Korean primary-school pupils writing at wooden desks during the late colonial period

For a child, the change was not an abstract argument about nationhood. It could mean learning history from an imperial viewpoint, being expected to speak Japanese at school, and encountering the emperor's authority through the daily curriculum. A language used at home was being pushed out of the classroom, one of the places where a new generation learned which identities were officially valued.

The 1943 education ordinance carried this direction further by aligning education with wartime mobilization. Schools were increasingly expected to prepare young people for the needs of the empire rather than provide a broad education on equal terms. Official claims of unity sat uneasily beside the unequal treatment built into colonial society.

Why Family Names and Shrine Rituals Became Political

Schools were only one part of the effort. Officials also tried to change public habits that linked individuals to their families, communities, and beliefs. The policy commonly called sōshi-kaimei, or changssi-gaemyeong in Korean, took effect in 1940 and introduced a Japanese-style family-name system into Korean household registration.

There is an important legal distinction often missed in brief accounts. Creating a registered family name under the new system was mandatory, although the authorities could assign one based on the existing surname if no new choice was submitted. Changing a personal given name was formally optional. In practice, however, schools, employers, officials, and local administrators applied considerable pressure to adopt Japanese-style names. The difference between what the law required and what people felt compelled to do was substantial.

The government hoped that changing family registration would weaken older Korean lineage structures and fit households into an emperor-centered imperial order. But assimilation did not mean genuine equality. Officials also preserved ways to distinguish Koreans from Japanese, revealing a contradiction between their rhetoric of unity and the hierarchy of colonial rule.

Religious and civic practices were targeted as well. State-backed Shinto shrine attendance was presented by colonial authorities as a patriotic public duty. Christian schools and churches that considered shrine rites incompatible with their beliefs faced increasingly intense pressure, particularly in the late 1930s. Some complied under coercion; others resisted, and some institutions closed.

These policies were connected to Japan's growing need for labor, resources, and military manpower. Making Koreans perform visible gestures of allegiance could help authorities measure obedience and advance wartime mobilization. In official language, it was imperial unity. For those subjected to it, it meant state power reaching into names, worship, education, and daily identity.

How Korean Language Scholars Resisted the Pressure

There was no single Korean response to these policies. Some people resisted openly, some complied to protect their livelihoods or families, and others continued using Korean names and language away from official settings. It would be misleading to treat all Koreans as either willing participants or heroic resisters. The limits of choice under colonial rule shaped different decisions.

One especially revealing struggle took place around a dictionary. The Korean Language Society and its predecessors worked to standardize spelling, identify standard vocabulary, and compile a comprehensive Korean dictionary. In 1933, language scholars produced a unified Korean spelling system, an important step toward preserving and organizing written Korean.

Reconstructed period Korean-language books, handwritten pages and calligraphy brush symbolizing dictionary compilation

The society had prepared a dictionary manuscript for publication, but in 1942 colonial police arrested members and seized materials. The crackdown, known as the Korean Language Society Incident, reflected the authorities' suspicion that defending Korean language and national consciousness could support resistance to Japanese rule. Scholars were imprisoned, and the publishing project was interrupted. Two men associated with the case, Yi Yun-jae and Han Jing, died while imprisoned.

The unfinished dictionary outlasted the colonial regime. After liberation in August 1945, surviving scholars resumed work; manuscripts previously seized by the police were recovered. The first volume of the Joseonmal Keun Sajeon, or Great Korean Dictionary, appeared in 1947, and the six-volume project was eventually completed in 1957.

The episode exposes the weakness of the colonial argument that language policy was simply about efficient administration. A spelling guide or dictionary did not command an army. Yet precisely because language helped preserve shared memory and identity, authorities treated cultural work as politically dangerous.

Conclusion

Japan tried to change Korea's language and culture because controlling how people learned, identified themselves, and expressed loyalty could strengthen colonial rule and wartime mobilization. The policies became more coercive as Japan's wars intensified, but they never erased Korean language or identity. The history is not just a story of attempted assimilation; it is also one of the limits of state power over everyday culture.

Sources & Further Reading