(553) Name-change policy

By Andrei Lankov

A number of policies once enforced by the Japanese colonial administration can be seen as dubious and immoral, but two clearly stand apart, still producing much anger and irritation among Koreans ― “comfort women” recruitment and “the name change.”

“Comfort women” was a description applied to those unlucky Korean girls who were dragged into forced military prostitution from the late 1930s, and this story is known worldwide. The “name change” policy of 1940 has less international publicity, but for the Koreans it remains very painful, since it is still seen as a deliberate attempt to deprive them of their roots and national identity.

From 1911 the colonial authorities explicitly banned ethnic Koreans from using “Japanese-sounding names.” This was deemed necessary because the colonial policy of 1910-36 was somewhat akin to apartheid: Ethnic Koreans and ethnic Japanese had clearly different rights and obligations. Thus, administrators wanted Koreans to be easily distinguishable from Japanese in official papers. Such a distinction would greatly facilitate surveillance and control.

Fortunately for the colonial administrators, Korean names were and are very different from Japanese ones. Personal names in Japan, Korea, China, and for that matter Vietnam, are overwhelmingly based on the Chinese vocabulary and can usually be written by Chinese characters, but the Japanese use such combinations of Chinese characters, which would appear unusual in other cultures of the region, for their names. When names are written in characters one cannot always tell a Korean from a Chinese, but a Japanese person always stands out.

Things changed in the late 1930s when the colonial administration moved from the earlier moderate stance to a harsher set of policies aimed at assimilating Koreans, remaking them as Japanese citizens.

It was against such a background that some officials in the education office of the colonial administration came out with a novel idea. They wanted not only discard the old policy which banned ethnic Koreans from taking Japanese names, but actually wanted to force Koreans to do so.

Governor-General Jiro Minami and most officials embraced the proposal and in late 1939 the new laws were published. The policy got the somewhat strange name of “creating surnames, changing names.” In order to understand why it had such a name, one has to remember that Japanese and Korean people used different Chinese characters to describe what is called a “surname” in English, so from the Japanese point of view Koreans had no proper Japanese-style surnames. Simultaneously, Koreans were expected to make a new Japanese-style given name for themselves, thus becoming virtually indistinguishable from the occupying race. The name change campaign began on Feb. 11, 1940, when the empire celebrated the alleged 2,600th anniversary of the ruling dynasty.

Prominent collaborators were first to change their names, and official newspapers ran predictable articles where they described the enthusiasm and joy of those lucky Koreans who were finally allowed to get rid of their ancestors’ names.

Koreans were given six months to lodge an application for a name change, so the process should have been completed by Aug. 10, 1940.

For Minami and his administrators, the campaign’s success was an important political goal, so they went to great lengths in pushing Koreans toward accepting the new names. So, when after the first three months of the campaign, a mere 7.6 percent of all Koreans changed names, the administration stepped up pressure ― while still denying officially that the new names were forced on the Koreans.

They largely targeted the elite, Koreans who enjoyed a somewhat privileged position and hence had something to lose. Korean teachers, officials and policemen were told that a change of name was a demand of the empire with which they had to conform.

Undue stubbornness could be seen as a sign of insufficient loyalty which might cost a lucrative job or worse. In some schools a Japanese name was made a prerequisite for admission. The newspapers waged a large propaganda campaign insisting that changing one’s names was a patriotic act.

In May 1940, one of the top colonial administrators had an audience with the emperor and told him about the name change campaign. As the administrator related to the press a few days later, his majesty did not say anything, but “listened with interest.”

By Aug. 10, 1940, when the campaign came to an end and new registration papers had to be compiled, 80.3 percent Koreans had lodged applications for making new Japanese-style names while less than 20 percent chose to keep their old ancestral surnames.

Minami and other architects of these assimilation policies were proud of this result: They believed that the success of the name change campaign demonstrated that they were fully in control of the colony and that the empire enjoyed much support from its Korean subjects. They were wrong.

The outburst of public enthusiasm which followed the news of the Japanese surrender in August 1945 clearly demonstrated which future themselves Koreans would prefer for themselves once given a choice. And, needless to say, when all Japanese names were eradicated after liberation, no Korean felt bad about it.

Prof. Andrei Lankov was born in St. Petersburg, Russia, and now teaches at Kookmin University in Seoul. He can be reached at anlankov@yahoo.com.

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