---
node: colonial_period
type: period
slug: japanese_colonial_period_in_korea
title: "Japanese colonial period"
lead: "Japan ruled Korea through a Government-General from 1910 to 1945. Colonial rule ended with liberation on August 15, 1945, upon Japan's surrender."
published: 2026-07-09
updated: 2026-07-09
---

## Overview

Korea was ruled by the Japanese Government-General. The "military rule" of the 1910s brought land surveys that dispossessed many farmers, and the suppression of political life.

## Key developments

The March First Movement of 1919 — nationwide independence demonstrations — was suppressed with heavy casualties. It led to a somewhat looser "cultural rule" in the 1920s and to the Korean Provisional Government in exile in Shanghai.

From the 1930s, wartime mobilization brought forced assimilation — Japanese-language education, pressure to adopt Japanese names (soshi-kaimei), and suppression of the Korean language — along with forced labor conscription and the military "comfort women" system of sexual servitude; the system is documented, while the numbers involved are debated among historians. Independence movements continued at home and abroad.

## End and transition

Liberation came on August 15, 1945, with Japan's surrender.