Korean History Compilation Committee and the Colonial View of History

Also called: colonial historiography

The Government-General set up the Korean History Compilation Committee to publish "Joseonsa" and spread a colonial historiography of stagnation, heteronomy and factionalism to justify its rule.

After the March First Movement, Japan worked hard to distort history in order to break Korean national consciousness. A Korean history compilation commission set up in 1922 was enlarged in 1925 into the Korean History Compilation Committee under the governor-general, which published the 35-volume "Joseonsa" by 1938.

The colonial view of history claimed that Korea had never developed on its own and was stuck at an ancient stage (stagnation theory), that its geography left it always swayed by China and Japan (heteronomy theory), that Joseon was ruined by factional strife (factionalism theory), and that Japanese and Koreans shared common ancestors. The claim that ancient Japan ruled Gaya as "Mimana" belonged to it too. All led to the argument that Koreans could not modernize by themselves and needed Japanese rule.

Against it, the nationalist historiography of Park Eun-sik and Sin Chae-ho and the socio-economic history of Baek Nam-un attacked the stagnation and heteronomy theories, while the Jindan Society’s positivist history and the Joseon Studies movement arose.