Figure 1.--These Korean boys are on their way toschool in the 1950s. Notice thst they are still wearing Japanese army styled uniforms. Notice the book carriers. |
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We know nothing about Korean schools before the 20th century. We suspect tht there were schools along the lines of traditional schools in China. Korea even mote than Japan was heavily influenced by China. We have no information on these schools. The students would have been boys. And they would have irn traditiinal clothes. Western clothes were were not worn to any extent in Korea until after the Japanese seized control. Korean officials did their best to ward off foreign influences, although Christian missionaries were active and founded a few schools. As a result of the Sino-Japanese War (1894-95), Japan replaced Chima as the dominat power on the Korean Peninsula. Jspan formally seized the country and converted it to a colony (1909). Japanese rule was brutal, but the Japanese began the process of turning a very traditional agricultural sociery into a modern industrial powerhouse. Curiously most of the industrial development launched by the Japanese was in the north. As part of the moderization process, the Japanese began building a new school system. Instruction was in the Japanese language, but large numbers of Korean children, including girls began to attend school for the first time. The children wore Japanese-style uniforms. Thus when Korea was liberated at the end of World War II, a modern school system was functioning. Japan was a very poor country, in part because the economy was exploited by the Japanese, but it was not an uneducated country. We have relatively little information about what transpired in the North, but in the South, the children seem to have continued to wear Japanese style uniforms. We see both Japanese army styles as well as cadet unforms. The Japanese army uniforms disappeared in the 1950s, but the cadet uniforms continue to be worn in Korea. This is interesting given the animosity toward Japan resulting from the colonial experience.
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