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COMPILATION AND PUBLICATION OF KOREAN HISTORICAL MATERIALS UNDER JAPANESE RULE (1910–1945)
Author(s) -
CHOI KYONGRAK
Publication year - 1969
Publication title -
the developing economies
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.305
H-Index - 30
eISSN - 1746-1049
pISSN - 0012-1533
DOI - 10.1111/j.1746-1049.1969.tb00977.x
Subject(s) - scholarship , realm , history , scope (computer science) , period (music) , politics , subject (documents) , government (linguistics) , heading (navigation) , colonialism , political science , literature , law , aesthetics , linguistics , art , philosophy , library science , geography , computer science , programming language , geodesy
The years 1910–1945, during which the Japanese‐controlled Sōtokufu (Government‐General) dominated the Korean political scene, are commonly imagined as uniformly tragic and ruinous years for the Korean people. Little attention has so far been given to the positive accomplishments in the realm of historical scholarship made by both Japanese and Korean scholars during this period. Some idea of the scope of the compilation and republication activities undertaken during the years of Japanese occupation will be had from a review of the list enumerated below, although the tremendous significance for Korean culture of the works actually rescued from the process of decay and disintegration will not easily be grasped by someone unfamiliar with works themselves. To correct this deficiency, I have appended to each heading in the list a brief description of the contents. In addition, there are summarized below the great names in the field of Korean cultural studies whose efforts we see crystallized in the bibliographical output that is the main subject of this paper. That many Japanese scholars have earned a place among the guardians of Korea's cultural tradition is something that ought not to be forgotten when we Koreans look back upon our colonial past.