Volta
Politics11 February 1940

Name-Change Order (Sōshi-kaimei)

Japan made Koreans adopt Japanese-style family and given names. Those who refused faced penalties such as their children being barred from school and exclusion from food rations.

Name-change notice issued by the Daegu court — 1940
Name-change notice issued by the Daegu court — 1940

大邱地方法院 · Public domain · Source

The Korean Civil Ordinance was amended in 1939 and the change took effect on 11 February 1940. Registration was nominally voluntary, but those who did not register within six months found their children barred from school, their business with government offices refused and their rations withheld, so most had no choice.

Part of the imperial-subject policy, it aimed to destroy Korean identity by breaking the tradition of lineage and surname. Some refused to the end.

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States and rulers at the time
Korea under Japanese rule — Governor-General Minami Jirō
Japan · ruling power — Emperor Shōwa

People

  • Minami Jirō1874 – 1955

    leader · Seventh Governor-General of Korea, who pushed "Japan and Korea as one", imperial-subject policies and the name-change order

Before and after

Earlier
1940 Discovery of the Hunminjeongeum Haerye
Later
1940 Founding of the Korean Liberation Army

Themes that include this event

  • World War II and Korea1937 – 1945

    Wartime mobilization and exploitation, independence armies, from the Cairo Declaration to liberation