| During Korea's colonization by Japan (1910-1945), the number of Koreans studying in Japan proper grew robustly. Standard accounts, however, tend to highlight Korean students' strident demand for Korean independence in the wake of World War I and end there, largely neglecting the rest of the colonial period. In the years immediately after 1919, Korean students in Japan discreetly returned to the long-standing proposition of building a viable Korean nationhood through "cultivation of capabilities" in basic agreement with the gradualist nationalists back home, who were calling for "cultural development" of Koreans. This moderate and elitist line of thought, under the harsh reality of colonial rule, was further manifested in Koreans' continuing zeal for study in Japan during the latter half of the colonial period. While militant activism declined, more and more Korean youngsters flocked to Japan in pursuit of education and individual success. Apart from occasional cases of dissent, their acceptance of and participation in the colonial system became increasingly routine. This prevalent process of co-optation is commonly blamed today on a handful of people, a "pro-Japanese faction" that "collaborated" with Japan. Although the formation of the Korean elite through such "collaboration" is often disparaged as an abominable "colonial vestige," the history of Korean education in Japan shows that many Koreans participated in that process, perhaps as the only realistic path under alien rule. Their colonial experience, moreover, provided much constructive legacy for postcolonial Korea---a prosperous and proud nationhood that, despite dogmatic indictments of a compromised "national autonomy," shall redeem the vision and endeavors of the Korean people who lived within the Japanese Empire. |
