Milo Dix

A Korean sailor takes a break from transporting cargo and people by sitting under the shadow from the sail, smoking from his long bamboo pipe. He wears cool hemp clothes, 1904. Six years later, in 1910, Japan would colonize Korea and conduct an all-out war against Korean culture. Schools and universities were forbidden to speak Korean and teach Korean history. Japanese soldiers destroyed more than 200,000 Korean historical documents. Moreover, Koreans were forced to chop down millions of trees and plant non-native species, effectively changing the landscape and paving the way to rapid urban growth. The Japanese encouraged the development of industries for the primary purpose of supporting Japan's expansion into China and the Pacific. During wartime mobilization against China in the late 1930s, many Korean men were forced to fight in the front lines, while tens of thousands of Korean women were forced to become "comfort women." By 1939, the Japanese government forced Korean families to change to Japanese surnames. Nearly 80% of Koreans took on Japanese names. Those that refused were not recognized by the state and would not be able to send or receive mail or even receive ration cards. When the Japanese surrendered on August 15, 1945, Korea was in turmoil. The country was now occupied by both American and Soviet soldiers who failed to reach an agreement on a unified Korea. On June 25, 1950, North Korean forces, backed by the Soviet Union and China, crossed the 38th parallel and ignited the Korean War. Throughout the war, Seoul changed hands four times, and by the time the war came to an end, 3 million people had died, the majority of whom were civilians. Even to this day, the two Koreas are still technically at war.