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Japan's Cruel Imperial Past Revealed
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The Japanese imperial practice of driving a metal spike into the summit of every high mountain in Korea "to sever the spirit of the Korean race" has been revealed through recently discovered photographs. In this photo, taken in 1943 at the hight of the Pacific War, Japanese soldiers, led by a shaman, drive a metal spike into the Lake of Heaven (Cheon-ji), atop Mt. Paekdu, and conduct a religious ceremony in honor of Amaterasu Omikami, believed by the Japanese to be the ancestral deity of the nation's emporer. The picture was included in a book, published by Korea's Government-General in 1943, entitled "Reaching the Summit of Mt. Paekdu."
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Japanese Emperor Taisho (1912~1926, second from the left in the front row) and Japanese military leaders watch troops in training.
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The book also included images of an exploration team composed of botanists and soldiers from the Japanese 18th Regiment (then based at Yongsan) bathing in the Lake of Heaven and praying for Japan's victory in the war. The book was acquired by the historical document collectors Jeong Seong-gil of Keimyung University and Hong Sa-gwang of the Korea Socio-Cultural Research Institute. The Weekly Chosun will carry these pictures and others Jeong and Hong unearthed that testify to Japan's cruel imperial rule over Korea.
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A Japanese soldier decapitates a person in a Chinese outfit. It is hard to distinguish whether the person is Chinese or Korean by outfit because Korean resistance fighters against Japanese colonial rule often disguised themselves as Chinese.
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(Lee Beom-jin, bomb@chosun.com )
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