Japanese-Korean Relations: Historical Ideas of Superiority and their effect on Current Relations with the Koreas

This thesis will be a detailed account of Japanese-Korean relations from prehistory to the present. It will describe the good relations between the Japanese Archipelago and the Korean Peninsula until the 7th century AD and why they changed for the worse as ideas of Japan’s superiority began to permeate society. Attention will be drawn to the various elements that contributed to this belief throughout history as well as the events that were partly caused by this belief, culminating in the annexation of Korea in 1910 and colonial rule until 1945. The thesis will then describe the effect the events caused by this notion of superiority have had on Japan’s modern relations with the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea and the Republic of Korea, or North Korea and South Korea respectively