Cultivating Settler Colonial Space in Korea: Public Works and the Urban Environment under Japanese Rule

Japanese colonial rule in Korea was built as much on the domination and exploitation of the Korean landscape as it was on the harsh control of the Korean population. By one estimation, Japan expended $8 billion USD on public works programs over the 35 years it occupied Korea between the years 1910-1945. 3 In rural areas, Japanese colonizers laid railways, improved rural highways, built dams, and constructed ports in order to spur industrial development, facilitate commerce, and promote trade. Better communications would also accelerate troop movements in times of emergency. In urban areas, such as Seoul, Pusan, and Pyongyang, Japanese engineers paved streets, installed sidewalks, buried water and sewer pipes, and erected Western-style buildings in order to sanitize the city, improve everyday life, and construct urban spaces designed to impress Korean residents and encourage them to acquiesce and assimilate to Japanese rule.