The other Japan is criminal and brutal. Everyone knows about the Yakuza from movies. But descriptions of the atrocities of Japanese colonialists in Asia in the first half of the 20th century, especially in China and Korea, evoke the feeling of a different, second Japan, completely unlike the first – wise and bright.

Compared to how the Japanese treated the Koreans during World War II, the atrocities of their European fascist allies seem less monstrous.

What did the Japanese do to the Koreans?

During World War II and the broader colonial occupation (1910–1945), the Empire of Japan committed severe atrocities against the Korean people, marked by forced mobilization, sexual slavery, cultural erasure, and brutal labor exploitation.

Key Atrocities and War Crimes

Cultural Erasure and Assimilation: Japan enforced a policy of soshi-kaimei (forcing Koreans to adopt Japanese surnames) and banned the use of the Korean language in schools and public life. Authorities also burned or confiscated hundreds of thousands of historical and educational documents to erase Korean identity.

"Comfort Women" (Sexual Slavery): The Japanese military forced an estimated 200,000 women and girls from Korea and other occupied Asian nations into front-line military brothels as sexual slaves.

Forced Labor Mobilization: Hundreds of thousands of Koreans (with estimates up to roughly one million total across the colonial period) were forcibly drafted and transported to factories, mines, and military construction sites in mainland Japan and occupied territories. Many endured starvation, extreme physical abuse, and death without pay or records.

"The farther backward you can look,
the farther forward you can see." ~ Winston Churchill