Jubilee

By Deauwand Myers

After the American Civil War, all states with enslaved populations of African descent (the Confederacy) were forced to free those populations (except in Texas, where the enslaved were informed of their hard-fought freedom later than in other states). On June 19, 1865, 2,000 Union troops entered Galveston Bay, Texas. The Union Army declared that the more than 250,000 enslaved people in the state of Texas were emancipated by order of the president (President Lincoln, at the time).

In the United States, this day is celebrated as a federal holiday called "Juneteenth." Juneteenth is a combination of the words "June" and "nineteenth," the day the last group of slaves was officially freed. Long before this official holiday was observed (a holiday ushered in by President Biden), there was an alternative term for Juneteenth, one that simply means joy. They called it "Jubilee."

There is a similar national holiday in Korea on this very day, Aug. 15, a day called "Gwangbokjeol," which, loosely translated, means "the day the light returned" or "bringing back the light." I would say the day the light returned would be a joyful moment indeed. The official name for this national holiday is the National Liberation Day of Korea. Interestingly, this holiday is also celebrated in North Korea.

I will explain. From 1910 to 1945, the entire Korean Peninsula was annexed and essentially made a part of Imperial Japan. There was no "north" or "south" Korea back then, as this was before the Korean War, where, upon its conclusion, the peninsula was bifurcated into the communist North and the democratic South (although, in truth, Korea was not a real democracy until the 1990s; before that, it was ruled by a string of brutal dictators, like Park Chung-hee and Chun Doo-hwan).

Under Imperial Japan's rule, Korean citizens experienced an ever-increasing amount of brutality and cultural genocide at the hands of Imperial Japan and Korean collaborators. Japanese names, the Japanese language, Japanese customs and even styles of dress and hair were forced upon Korean citizens in an attempt, ostensibly, to make Koreans Japanese in all but name. There is actually an official term for this process if you can believe it.

"Japanization" is a concerted effort wherein Japanese culture assimilates, dominates or deeply influences other cultures deemed "lesser," invariably in an undemocratic and often violent way. If one looks this word up in a dictionary, like the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, one will find that the term "Japanize" means "to make or become Japanese in form, idiom, style or character." During the brutal expansion of Imperial Japan's empire in the early 1900s, many nations under Japan's rule experienced this process.

Imperial Japan started to industrialize the Korean Peninsula through forced labor (which is a euphemism for what it truly was, modern-day slavery). The forced labor and labor camps therein were often dangerous and deadly, and as World War II heated up and Imperial Japan joined the Axis Alliance with Nazi Germany and fascist Italy, these conditions worsened.

How Korea was annexed by Japan is a fascinating, complex and bloody affair with many chapters including the regicide. Queen Min, posthumously named Empress Myeongseong, was against closer ties to Japan, and on Oct. 5, 1895, a pro-Japan group of elite soldiers overcame royal guardsmen, entered Gyeongbok Palace, the royal palace, and assassinated her, to the shock and outrage of the world. The annexation also saw attempted coups, double agents, high treason, espionage, peasants turned generals commanding thousands of troops to fight against Imperial Japan, military police forces and the like.

But suffice it to say, unlike some other forced annexations in history, Imperial Japan's takeover of the Korean Peninsula was done by degrees over a period of years, with increasingly unequal treaties, culminating with the death knell of Korean autonomy with the treaty of 1910.

In May 1910, Japanese War Minister Terauchi Masatake was tasked with finalizing Japan's control over Korea.

By this time, Japan established hegemony over all Korean domestic politics. And on Aug. 22, 1910, Japan annexed the Korean Peninsula with the Japan―Korea Treaty of 1910 signed by Ye Wanyong, then prime minister of Korea, and Masatake, who became the first Japanese governor-general of Korea. The treaty eliminated all royal power and remanded that power to the Japanese state. It formally declared Korea to be part of the Japanese empire in no uncertain terms.

I think the reason why so many black people and Korean people sing and act and write so well is because of a long history of blood and struggle for freedom against daunting odds. So just like I celebrate Juneteenth with fervor, Koreans, in Korea and abroad, really should do the same. It's your Jubilee.

Deauwand Myers (deauwand@hotmail.com) holds a master's degree in English literature and literary theory, and is an English professor outside of Seoul.