How Korea was really colonized

Korea was colonized by Japan, but the writer argues that a deeper colonization happened inside Korean minds and institutions. The essay says Koreans began judging their own history by Western standards of progress, rationality, and material success. It argues that true liberation requires rethinking those measuring sticks rather than shaming individuals or chasing nostalgia.

During the Japanese colonial period from 1910 to 1945, Seoul was officially known in Japanese as Keijō and in Korean as Gyeongseong.

The essay cites the 1905 Taft-Katsura Agreement as an example of great powers negotiating Korea’s sovereignty over the heads of the people living there.

At the 1936 Berlin Olympics, Son Kee-chung won the marathon and Nam Seung-yong won bronze, but both competed under the Japanese flag.

The writer says Koreans have measured themselves since the turn of the 20th century by scientific revolution, rationality, modernity, growth, progress, economy, and material conditions.

Published Sep 5, 2026 1:18 pm KST

For 35 years, the place that I inhabit today was not known as Korea, but rather it was part of Japan. While during the 1392-1910 Joseon Dynasty the capital was known as Hanyang, from 1910 to 1945 during the Japanese colonial period the city was officially known in Japanese as Keijō and in Korean as Gyeongseong. Only following liberation did it formally adopt the previous vernacular term of Seoul. My father-in-law, to this day, speaks Japanese very well. This is not because he was associated with the Japanese empire, but rather those that lived in this land went to school, had to face Tokyo, had to bow, had to assume Japanese names and language while in public, and then go home and speak Korean and dream of the flag and liberation and hope.

In 1936, when Korean athletes competed at the Berlin Olympics, made famous by Jesse Owens for defying Hitler's terrible ideology, they did so with a Japanese flag on their chest. The most famous was Son Kee-chung, who won the marathon and became the first Korean to win an Olympic gold medal. His fellow Korean Nam Seung-yong won bronze in the same race. But neither man stood on the podium as Korean. They competed as representatives of the Japanese Empire, with the Japanese flag beside their names. Son later recalled that he felt ashamed rather than proud when he saw the Japanese flag being raised above him.

Some might not realize it, but for a very long time, Korea as we know it today did not exist. It could not be found on a map. Just consider that, for example, when you pick up a map and you look for Persia, the Ottoman Empire, or Manchuria, you do not find them. Of course, you know these names and you find them in history books, but in the modern globe as we know it today, they are gone. They are national empires that have disappeared. And that should remind you that although we consider them to be these permanent, forever entities, they are far from it. Rather, they are constructs; social constructs that rise and fall, just as the deeds of men.

So yes, Korea was colonized, and yes, this colonization was done by the Japanese. But it was done in accordance with the rules of the time, and according to the 1905 Taft-Katsura Agreement, where the United States acknowledged Japan's sphere of influence over Korea in exchange for Japan recognizing U.S. control over the Philippines. Sovereignty was thus something the great powers could negotiate over the heads of the people who actually lived in the territories concerned.

But that colonization is not the colonization that I want to talk about today. That colonization, with the flags, the names, the treaties, that was just the beginning. It was the scaffolding. The real structure was built inside. And the worst part? We built it ourselves. Because the important thing about colonialism, however, is that it does not always end when the colonial government leaves. Institutions can disappear while habits of thought remain. A political empire can collapse while its categories survive.

I want to talk about a colonization that's more ideological and that still has huge effects on the country today. One of the biggest examples of colonization is not in the usage of hairstyles or physical objects, but in the way it can make a nation rethink, rewrite and reshape its entire history.

So, at the beginning of the 20th century, when the Western powers came to the East, Korea decided to try to see itself as equal to them and posit that it also had the capability of achieving enlightenment for its own history, not necessarily through Western history. But in doing this, they began to look through their own accomplishments, their own figures, and their own people of the past. And when they did that, they valued their own history insofar as it contributed to the march of progress in global history. They judged their own history according to the standards made by the West, rather than any domestic or indigenous ways. And this is how colonization can make a nation read its own history differently. The real colonizer is the ideology that makes you hate your own stories because they don't fit a spreadsheet.

And the weird thing about it is, it's not actually done by the colonizers; it's done by the colonized. It's a self-colonization. There is a policeman in your head, and that policeman is focused primarily on scientific revolution, on empirical data, on all that makes us march towards rationality. And in doing so, it makes us forget the myth, the stories, the reach into the beyond; the thing that unites people and the things that cannot be put into words. And it's those things that Korea has, in some way, abandoned, because it seeks to be a colonizer of itself, like those who colonized it.

So, when all this was happening in the age of empire, you had a whole slew of different Korean groups trying to achieve different things. Those in Seoul and those in Pyongyang have very different opinions on this. Furthermore, because it is a democracy, those in the South are not unified in their opinion: they are very divided about who the perpetrators are, who the belligerents are, and how and why justice should be sought for the division and colonization of Korea. There is a traditional four-character expression which says: internal disorder, external chaos. And that was the problem here in Korea, or at least, how they describe it. Because basically, whether the approach was nationalist or colonialist, there was always an impulse by Koreans to appraise cultural practices, if not the whole nation and its culture on a grand scale, in terms of their compatibility with the ideals of a civilized nation and capitalist modernity.

What I'm trying to say here is that the measuring stick by which things were gauged was completely changed. And you can only find that which you are measuring for. For example, if you are using a thermometer, you will never find out how loud something is. And by the same token, if you are using a breathalyzer, you are never going to find out how hot or cold something is. The thing that you use to measure will determine the results that you find.

And Korean people, since the turn of the 20th century, have been measuring their own present and, more importantly, their own past by the measuring stick of the scientific revolution, of rationality and modernity that's associated with the left hemisphere of the brain. Socialism and capitalism are both essentially materialist; they're just different ways of approaching the lifeless world of matter and deciding how best to share the spoils. That's what we see in the North and the South. Despite how different they might seem, they are both a reflection of the same thing. And in a way, they're both outrageously Korean, and by the same token, a product of imperialism and not Korean at all.

So, the big question is: how did Koreans measure themselves before the age of imperialism, before their minds were taken over by judging things according to growth, progress, economy, and material conditions? We know the answer to that question; we have the religious, cultural, and philosophical conditions well studied. The real question is: can we ever return to them? Do we ever want to return to them?

Because returning isn't just about nostalgia. It's about saying that GDP, literacy rates, and scientific output are not the only things that make a life meaningful. And for a nation that has clawed its way from poverty to prosperity using exactly those tools, that is a terrifying thought. It feels like a betrayal of everything that brought us here. So the goal is to not undo anything, but simply rethink the measuring stick.

That is how Korea will achieve real liberation from colonization. It's not by shaming some young woman celebrity because her grandfather did something: that's just scapegoating people, and it achieves nothing other than virtue signaling for people. The real colonization is the colonization that happens in your mind, that tells you the only good thing is that which was decided by the Enlightenment.

Korea is colonized because it still thinks the West is the umpire. Until Korea realizes the game doesn't need an umpire, it will always be playing someone else's sport.

韩国曾被日本殖民统治，但作者认为，更深层次的殖民化发生在韩国人的思想和制度之中。文章指出，韩国人开始用西方衡量进步、理性以及物质成功的标准来评判自身的历史。文章认为，真正的解放需要重新审视这些衡量标准，而不是羞辱个人或沉溺于怀旧之中。

1910 年至 1945 年日本殖民统治时期，首尔的日语官方名称是京城（Keijō），韩语官方名称是京城（Gyeongseong）。

文章引用 1905 年的《塔夫脱-桂离协定》作为大国凌驾于朝鲜人民之上，就朝鲜主权问题进行谈判的例子。

在 1936 年柏林奥运会上，孙基忠赢得了马拉松冠军，南承勇获得了铜牌，但两人都是代表日本参赛的。

作者指出，自 20 世纪初以来，韩国人一直以科学革命、理性、现代化、增长、进步、经济和物质条件来衡量自身。

发布于2026年9月5日下午1:18（韩国标准时间）

在我如今居住的这片土地上，曾有35年不被称为韩国，而是日本的一部分。1392年至1910年朝鲜王朝时期，都城名为汉阳；1910年至1945年日本殖民统治时期，这座城市日语官方名称为京城，韩语官方名称为庆城。直到解放后，它才正式采用之前的俗称“首尔”。我的岳父至今日语说得非常流利。这并非因为他与日本帝国有任何关联，而是因为生活在这片土地上的人们，上学时不得不面对东京，不得不鞠躬，不得不在公共场合使用日语名字和语言，然后回到家却要说韩语，梦想着国旗、解放和希望。

1936年，当韩国运动员参加柏林奥运会时——这场奥运会因杰西·欧文斯挑战希特勒的恐怖意识形态而闻名——他们胸前佩戴着日本国旗。其中最著名的是孙基忠，他赢得了马拉松比赛的冠军，成为第一位获得奥运金牌的韩国人。他的同胞南承勇在同一比​​赛中获得铜牌。但两人都不是以韩国人的身份站在领奖台上。他们代表的是日本帝国，名字旁边都佩戴着日本国旗。孙基忠后来回忆说，当他看到日本国旗在他头顶升起时，他感到的是羞耻而不是自豪。

有些人可能没有意识到，但在很长一段时间里，我们今天所知的韩国并不存在。它在地图上根本找不到。想想看，比如，当你拿起一张地图寻找波斯、奥斯曼帝国或满洲时，你根本找不到它们。当然，你听说过这些名字，也读过历史书，但在我们今天所知的现代世界里，它们已经消失了。它们是已经消亡的民族帝国。这应该提醒我们，尽管我们认为它们是永恒不变的实体，但事实远非如此。它们只是人为构建的；是社会建构，如同人类的兴衰更替一般。

所以，没错，朝鲜半岛曾被殖民，而且殖民者正是日本人。但这符合当时的规则，依据的是1905年的《塔夫脱-桂离协定》。根据该协定，美国承认日本对朝鲜半岛的势力范围，而日本则承认美国对菲律宾的控制权。由此可见，主权问题成了列强可以绕过实际生活在相关领土上的人民去谈判解决的问题。

但我今天想谈的并非那种殖民主义。那种殖民主义，伴随着旗帜、名称和条约，仅仅是开始，是搭建的框架。真正的结构是在内部构建的。而最糟糕的是什么？是我们自己建造的。因为殖民主义的关键在于，它并非总是随着殖民政府的撤离而结束。制度可能会消失，但思维习惯却会留存。政治帝国可能会崩溃，但其既有的范畴却依然存在。

我想谈谈一种更具意识形态色彩的殖民化，这种殖民化至今仍对国家产生着巨大的影响。殖民化最显著的体现之一并非发型或实物上的运用，而是它能够让一个国家重新思考、改写甚至重塑其整个历史。

因此，在20世纪初，当西方列强涌入东方时，韩国试图将自己视为与他们平等的一员，并认为自身也有能力启迪历史，而不必非得通过西方历史。但在此过程中，他们开始审视自身的成就、人物和历史先辈。他们如此看待自身历史，仅仅因为其对全球历史进程有所贡献。他们用西方的标准来评判自身历史，而非任何本土或本土的方式。这就是殖民化如何使一个国家以不同的方式解读自身历史。真正的殖民者是那种让你憎恨自身历史的意识形态，因为它们不符合既定的模式。

而最奇特的是，这实际上并非殖民者所为，而是被殖民者所为。这是一种自我殖民。你的脑海中有一个警察，它主要关注科学革命、经验数据，以及所有引领我们走向理性的事物。如此一来，它便使我们遗忘了神话、故事，以及对超越世俗的探索；遗忘了那些将人们联系在一起的东西，以及那些无法用语言表达的事物。而韩国在某种程度上已经抛弃了这些，因为它试图像殖民者一样，成为自身的殖民者。

所以，在帝国时代，当这一切发生的时候，韩国各派势力纷至沓来，各自追求不同的目标。首尔和平壤对此的看法截然不同。此外，由于韩国是民主国家，南方民众的意见也并不统一：他们对谁是罪魁祸首、谁是交战方，以及如何以及为何要为朝鲜半岛的分裂和殖民寻求正义，都存在着严重的分歧。韩国有一句传统的四字箴言：“内乱，外乱”。这正是当时韩国面临的问题，或者至少是他们自己所描述的问题。因为无论采取的是民族主义还是殖民主义的手段，韩国人始终有一种冲动，那就是从文明国家和资本主义现代性的理想出发，去评判各种文化习俗，甚至整个国家及其文化。

我想说的是，衡量事物的标准已经彻底改变了。你只能找到你想要测量的东西。例如，如果你用温度计，你永远无法知道声音有多大。同样，如果你用酒精测试仪，你永远无法知道物体有多冷或多热。你用来测量的工具决定了你得到的结果。

自20世纪初以来，韩国人一直以科学革命、理性主义和现代性（与大脑左半球相关）为标尺来衡量自身的现在，更重要的是，衡量自身的过去。社会主义和资本主义本质上都是唯物主义；它们只是看待物质世界、决定如何更好地分配利益的不同方式。我们在朝鲜和韩国都看到了这一点。尽管它们看起来截然不同，但实际上都反映了同一件事。从某种意义上说，它们都极具韩国特色，但同时，它们也是帝国主义的产物，而非韩国本土的产物。

所以，关键问题是：在帝国主义时代之前，在人们的思想被增长、进步、经济和物质条件等标准所支配之前，韩国人是如何衡量自身的？我们知道这个问题的答案；我们对当时的宗教、文化和哲学状况都有深入的研究。真正的问题是：我们还能回到过去吗？我们真的想回到过去吗？

因为回归并非仅仅出于怀旧。它意味着要表明，GDP、识字率和科学产出并非衡量人生意义的唯一标准。对于一个正是依靠这些指标才摆脱贫困走向繁荣的国家而言，这无疑是一个令人恐惧的想法。这感觉就像是对我们赖以生存的一切的背叛。因此，我们的目标并非推翻任何既有的成就，而是重新思考衡量标准。

这才是韩国真正摆脱殖民统治的方式。不是通过羞辱某个年轻女明星的祖父做过的事：那只是找替罪羊，除了博取人们的道德优越感之外，毫无益处。真正的殖民统治发生在你的思想中，它告诉你，唯一好的事物就是启蒙运动所决定的那些。

韩国之所以被殖民，是因为它仍然认为西方是仲裁者。除非韩国意识到这项运动不需要仲裁者，否则它永远只能玩别人的游戏。