Kang Hang And His Positors: Summary: Kang Hang And His Captors

Kang Hang and His Captors

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Kang Hang and His Captors

Colonization was prevalent centuries ago and this was not only true among Western countries but also among those in Asia. One country colonizes another because the more a country expands in territory, the more it becomes powerful, and the more its income and resources are increased. They expand territories through coercion. Japan was one of the countries that colonized others in its ambition to become a more powerful empire. Despite its small size as a nation, the Japanese people was organized and equipped in terms of its military power. Swope (2005) says that the Asia's first "regional world war" was the Japanese invasion of Korea (1592-98).
It was his students who edited his writings and made it a book which they later on entitled Kangyangnok (Haboush & Robinson, n.d.). The first piece of Kang Hang’s writing was entitled "Encounters with the Adversities of War". This writing narrated Kang's experience as a captive. This writing placed emphasis on how a captive suffers as a prisoner of war. It also narrated how Kang and his family were captured, how they were brought to Japan, and how he escaped and returned to Chosŏn. The second piece is entitled "An Exhortation to Koreans Still Held Prisoner in Japan". This served as an open letter written by Kang which was addressed to the Koreans who were held captives in Japan. Since Japan is very brutal, inhuman, and cruel to the Korean people, he told them that the only way to recover humanity is to endure and persevere just as Su Wu and others who did the same (Haboush & Robinson, n.d.). He pointed out in this piece that even though some of them are forced to swear allegiance to the new state, they, as prisoners of war, still have the choice to stay loyal to Chosŏn. The third piece is called "A Report to the Royal Secretariat on Japanese Social Practices". In this writing, Kang talks about the fortune-tellers who were rather of poor quality because of their lack of knowledge; the construction and residences of Japanese people, swords, and social status, religion, and how
The Japanese rule was harsh because of the Japanese militarists. The Korean resistance only ceased when the Japanese police and military people made strict surveillance over all people who were suspected to oppose the Japanese rule because of the punishment promulgated. Most of the Koreans rendered service to the colonial government with the hope that they will not be killed. Others joined and collaborated with the Japanese government to ensure that they will neither be drawn nor quartered. Under the Japanese rule, it is evident that Korea underwent drastic changes (U.S. Library of Congress, n.d.). The Japanese rule in Korean lasted for 35 years and it was during the colonization that there were new infrastructures such as roads and railroads; there were telegraph lines established and new schools (KoreanHistory.info., n.d.) It might be that during Kang's time, he saw that Koreans were brutally tortured by their captors. However, it cannot be denied that the colonization of Korean by Japan made a major impact on the development of the former in the modern times. Now, Korea is considered to be one of the most advanced countries in Asia (Abe,