The Korean Mind. Boye Lafayette De Mente
the existence of the family and family clan but also because there were no religious, social, or political sanctions against extramarital sex as a pleasurable activity—at least for men.
Furthermore, Korean males had adopted many of the traditional erotic pastimes of China soon after large-scale contact between China and Korea began in 108 B.C. These early Koreans did not, however, let the Chinese male fetish with small feet persuade them to begin binding the feet of young girls, as happened in China. Historical records show that prior to the massive introduction of Confucianism into Korea from around A.D. 600, upper-class Korean women as well as men had considerable freedom of choice in establishing intimate liaisons with lovers and engaging in aeyok (aye-yohk), or “eroticism.” But for women this freedom dwindled in direct proportion to the growing strength of Confucianism.
With the founding of the Choson dynasty in 1392, and its adoption of Neo-Confucianism as the ideology of Korean society, women in all classes became totally subject to the will of men. Sexual activity outside conjugal relations undertaken by husbands and wives for procreation became the exclusive preserve of men, who were allowed to have concubines (second wives) and patronize the famous kisaeng (kee-sang), or “entertainment girls” (if they could afford them). It was also common for upper-class men to make use of maids and other female servants in their households—another custom widely practiced in China.
Outside of professional female entertainers and those who caught the eye of well-to-do men, the women of Korea were forced to repress their sexual desires, a system that resulted in emotionally and psychically induced illnesses becoming endemic among them. With rare exceptions (see Kisaeng) only virgins were acceptable as legal primary wives.
From the first generations of the Choson dynasty in 1392 until the beginning of the twentieth century, Korean women in urban areas lived as virtual prisoners in their homes. They could leave their homes and go shopping or visiting only at night during a special sodung (soh-duung), or “curfew,” period when men were required to remain indoors. This system did, however, provide an opportunity for braver women (almost always the wives of well-to-do officials) to establish sexual liaisons with men, usually young Buddhist monks whom they ostensibly visited for spiritual solace. Among the freest women in Korea during the long centuries of the Choson era were spinsters, widows, and women who had been cast out by their husbands for not bearing sons or for breaking one of the “wives’” commandments (see Yoja) and had taken up prostitution to earn a living.
Korean women have long been known—and prized by invaders—for their beauty and other attributes, but it was not until the introduction of democratic principles into Korean society following the end of World War II in 1945 that they began to have a choice in their sexual behavior. By the 1960s it was common to hear from international businessmen and travelers that the sensual attributes of Korean women were one of the best-kept secrets of Asia.
There is still a significant degree of public puritanism in Korea, but as in most countries that have different sexual standards for men and women, eroticism in all of its usual forms exists behind the public facade.
Amhuk Ki 암훅기 Ahm-huuk Kee
The Dark Period
In the 1870s, Japan began to take actions that would cast Korea into an amhuk ki (ahm-huuk kee), or “dark period,” the likes of which it had never before experienced. Within less than twenty years after its own self-imposed isolation from the West had been ended by American gunboat diplomacy, Japan began using the same approach against the weak and squabbling Choson court in Seoul.
The Japanese government, with its warrior mentality and a rapidly modernized army and navy at its disposal, began a systematic campaign to replace the traditional suzerainty of China over Korea. In 1876 the Choson court was forced to sign a treaty with Japan, opening the country up for trade and other ties that quickly became financial, military, and political.
In 1894 a rebellion by Korean dissidents against the weak Choson court prompted both China and Japan to rush troops to Seoul supposedly to protect the king. The Japanese got there first, seized the royal palace, killed the queen (Queen Min), deposed the king, and appointed a puppet regent in his place. This led to all-out war between China and Japan, with the Japanese victorious on land as well as at sea. Under the terms of the peace treaty, signed in 1895 and approved by most of the leading Western nations, Korea became a protectorate of Japan. Japan immediately began strengthening its presence in Korea, both overtly and covertly treating the country like a colony.
Nine years later Japan went to war again, this time against Russia, successfully eliminating it as a rival in East Asia. With a free hand in Korea, the Japanese continued their program of converting Korea into a Japanese appendage. Responding to this threat, Korean patriots formed underground resistance groups and guerrilla bands to combat the Japanese. Finally in 1910 Japan gave up all pretense of “protecting” Korea, annexed the country, and began an all-out political, military, and cultural campaign to condition Koreans to accept their fate.
Japanese administrators in Korea repressed all political activity and cultural life. Spies were dispatched into every corner of the country to report on the activities of intellectuals, religious leaders, and former politicians, beginning an era that Koreans were later to call Amhuk Ki (Ahm-huuk Kee), or “The Dark Period.”
Japan dispatched a large number of its notorious kempeitai (kem-pay-e-tie), or “thought police,” to Korea, charging them with ferreting out and punishing anyone who spoke ill of the Japanese or Japan. They also created a large corps of koto keisatsu (koh-toh kay-e-saht-sue), literally “high police”—approximately half of whom were Koreans who had agreed to work for the Japanese. These police were charged with the responsibility of overseeing political activity, education, health, morality, tax collection, public welfare—in fact every facet of life in Korea—and they had virtually unlimited powers to search, arrest, pass sentences, imprison, or execute anyone accused of breaking their laws.
One of the extremes to which the Japanese went to enforce their laws and impress on Koreans their power and the importance of obeying them without question was a provision that required government officials and teachers to wear swords as a means of intimidating people. Koreans who refused to act as spies and informers themselves became subject to arrest and punishment as enemies of the Japanese regime. The slightest suspicions were grounds for arrest, torture, and imprisonment or death. Punishment was typically collective, with hundreds punished for the crime or rebellious conduct of a single person or a small group.
The psychic damage caused by this kind of control by force and fear was magnified beyond all reason because so many Koreans themselves were intimidated into participating in the brutalities inflicted on the population, making it impossible for people to trust anyone except their own families.
Despite these draconian measures, the Japanese annexation and continued occupation of Korea did not go smoothly. More and more Korean patriots took to the hills as guerrillas and began a campaign of attacking Japanese troops and their facilities. Urban residents staged street demonstrations, resulting in thousands of them being killed. In retaliation Japan began a campaign to totally eradicate Korean culture. Schools were required to teach only in Japanese. All Koreans were ordered to take Japanese names, speak only Japanese when dealing with the Japanese, and behave in the Japanese manner. Leading artists and craftsmen were killed or imprisoned to prevent them from passing Korean culture on to the next generation. Hundreds of ancient palaces and temples were destroyed.
Dozens of thousands of Korean men were inducted into the Japanese army. Thousands of Korean women were forced to serve as prostitutes for the Japanese military. Other thousands of men and women were shipped to Japan as slave laborers to work in factories and mines. Rather than submit to Japanese rule and enslavement, thousands of Koreans fled their homeland, some making their way to Manchuria and China and others to the United States. Many of the refugees who fled to nearby China and Manchuria formed clandestine guerrilla groups that carried out commando raids against Japanese facilities.
Other exiles formed assassination teams that targeted Japanese government officials and military officers. One member of a group in China that organized an Aeguk Tan (Aye-guuk Tahn), or “Patriotic Society,” succeeded in killing several high-ranking Japanese military officers with a bomb,