JAPANESE INVASION OF KOREA

Between 1910 and 1945, Japan worked to wipe out Korean culture, language and history
In 1910, Korea was annexed by the Empire of Japan after years of war, intimidation and political
machinations; the country would be considered a part of Japan until 1945. In order to establish
control over its new protectorate, the Empire of Japan waged an all-out war on Korean culture.
Public places adopted Japanese, too, and an edict to make films in Japanese soon followed. It also
became a crime to teach history from non-approved texts and authorities burned over 200,000
Korean historical documents, essentially wiping out the historical memory of Korea.
Following the annexation of Korea, the Japanese administration introduced a free public education
system modeled after the Japanese school system with a pyramidal hierarchy of elementary, middle
and high schools, culminating at the Keijō Imperial University in Keijō. As in Japan itself, education
was viewed primarily as an instrument of “the Formation of the Imperial Citizen” ( 황민화; 皇民化;
Kōminka) with a heavy emphasis on moral and political instruction. Japanese religious groups such as
Protestant Christians willingly supported the Japanese authorities in their effort to assimilate
Koreans through education.

By the end of its occupation of Korea, Japan had even waged war on people’s family names. At first,
the colonial government made it illegal for people to adopt Japanese-style names, ostensibly to
prevent confusion in family registries. But in 1939, the government made changing names an official
policy. Under the law, Korean families were “graciously allowed” to choose Japanese surnames.

In 1921, government efforts were strengthened to promote Korean media and literature throughout
Korea and also in Japan. The Japanese government also created incentives to educate ethnic
Japanese students in the Korean language. In 1928, the Korean Language Society inaugurated Hangul
Day (9 October), which was meant to celebrate the Korean alphabet in the face of accelerating
Japanization of Korean culture.

Though Japan occupied Korea for an entire generation, the Korean people didn’t submit passively to
Japanese rule. Throughout the occupation, protest movements pushed for Korean independence. In
1919, the March First Movement proclaimed Korean independence and more than 1,500
demonstrations broke out. The protests were brutally suppressed by the Japanese, but not before
the desire for independence swept through Korea.

When Shanghai fell to the Japanese, the Korean provisional government moved to Chongqing in
south-western China. It declared war against Japan in December 1941 and organized the Korean
Restoration Army, composed of independence fighters in China. World War II devastated not just
Japan, but the Korean Peninsula. The army fought with the Allied forces in China until the Japanese
surrender in August 1945, which ended 35 years of Japanese rule over Korea. Korea was divided into
two occupation zones that were intended to be temporary. However, a unified state was never given
back to the newly independent Korean people.
BENGALI LANGUAGE MOVEMENT IN
BANGLADESH
The Bengali language movement was a political movement in former East Bengal (renamed East
Pakistan in 1952) advocating the recognition of the Bengali language as an official language of the
Dominion of Pakistan in order to allow its use in government affairs, the continuation of its use as a
medium of education, its use in media, currency and stamps, and to maintain its writing in the
Bengali script.

When the Dominion of Pakistan was formed after the separation of the Indian subcontinent in 1947
when the British left, it was composed of various ethnic and linguistic groups, with the
geographically non-contiguous East Bengal province having a mainly Bengali population. In 1948, the
Government of the Dominion of Pakistan ordained as part of Islamization and Arabization of East
Pakistan or East Bengal that Urdu will be the sole national language, alternately Bengali writing in
Arabic script or Arabic as the state language of the whole of Pakistan was also proposed, sparking
extensive protests among the Bengali-speaking majority of East Bengal. Facing rising sectarian
tensions and mass discontent with the new law, the government outlawed public meetings and
rallies.

On 21 February 1952 students protest led to killing of ordinary citizen by the police. More people
were killed the next day. The names of the five most famous Language Movement’s martyrs are
much heard of: Salam, Barkat, Rafiq, Jabbar and Shafiur.
The Language Movement catalysed the assertion of Bengali national identity in East Bengal and later
East Pakistan, and became a forerunner to Bengali nationalist movements, including the 6-Point
Movement and subsequently the Bangladesh Liberation War and the Bengali Language
Implementation Act, 1987.

However, the language movement was more than a fight to preserve a rich language dating back
over 1,000 years. It was a fight for social and economic justice. A fight to maintain one's own identity
at a time when official measures were taken to crush it. A fight taken up by ordinary people, who
just wanted to live. A fight taken up by women and children so future generation can say "moder
gorob, moder aasha, a'mori Bangla bhasha". For Bengali speaking people worldwide, the language
itself is a big part of their history... the very birth of today's Bangladesh is intimately linked with the
Bengali language or Bangla.

The heroics, sacrifices, passion for the mother tongue, and patriotism to the motherland made the
powerful rulers of the then Pakistan yield to public demand and accept Bangla as one of the official
languages of the country. It is a tragic tale with a happy ending: Bangla eventually achieved the
status it deserved, albeit at the cost of valuable lives. In Bangladesh 21st February - 'Ekushey
February' in Bangla - is observed as 'Shaheed Dibosh' (Martyr's Day) whilst the United Nations
declared it officially as "International Mother Language Day". The Shaheed Minar (Martyr's Column)
in Dhaka, and other replicas around the world, was constructed as tribute to those who lost their
lives to protect Bangla

GROUP 8
SHAMBHAVI
LIKITHA
ABHISHEK
RIJUL
AKHILESH