Textbook Inspection and Censorship in Korea during the Protectorate Period: A Study of Inspection Copies of Textbooks Compiled by the Young Korean Academy

Abstract

Established during the Japanese protectorate period, the censorship system lasted throughout the colonial period as well. Therefore it is necessary to examine such censorship system as part of Japan’s colonization policy and shed light on the historical and current significance of the censorship system as well as its effects. Recently, copies of textbook provided to the Ministry of Education (Hakbu) for inspection in the protectorate period were newly discovered. Materials that have been inspected by the Japanese Residency-General of Korea—inspection copies of textbooks from the Young Korean Academy (Heungsadan)—were included in the “Collection of new materials related to Yu Kilchun”. Using these newly discovered copies of textbooks that had been subject to inspection, this study is the first in a series of research that attempted to examine actual cases of textbook inspection and censorship during the protectorate period and shed light on the historical significance of such activities. This study therefore review legislations on inspection and censorship in this period and studied the early stages in the establishment process of a censorship system in modern Korea. Secondly, this study attempted to provide a bibliographical analysis of the inspection copies of textbooks from the protectorate period, as these are new documents that had never been analyzed or used in research.

Keywords

• Textbook inspection
• censorship
• Japanese Residency-General of Korea
• Heungsadan
• Yu Kilchun
• Pak Chŏngtong