KOREA

Historical Information taken from: Our World Today: People, Places, and Issues. Glencoe/McGraw Hill, 2002.

North Korean Flag

Cherry TreeRose of Sharon Tree

Japanese Empire Flag

South Korean FlagJapanese Flag

KANJI

“From the 100s B.C. until the early A.D. 300s, neighboring China ruled Korea. When Chinese control ended, separate Korean Kingdoms arose throughout the peninsula” (200).

“From A.D. 668 to 935, a single kingdom called Silla united much of the peninsula … Silla rulers built one of the world’s earliest astronomical observatories in the A.D. 600s” (200).

Observatory

Hangul첨성대

Hanja瞻星臺

Revised RomanizationCheomseongdae

“In 1910, the Japanese conquered Korea and made it part of their empire. They governed the peninsula until the end of World War II in 1945” (201).

Japan’s Imperial Reach“Japan seizes Korea and much of Manchuria in 1905, after defeating Russia in the Russo-Japanese War. In 1931, Japan invades and claims the rest of Manchuria. Japan invades China in 1937, marching into French Indochina by 1940. In Europe, Adolf Hitler’s armies now occupy much of central Europe, including France. The world is at war.”

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Japan’s Imperial Reach“In a surprise attack on December 7, 1941, Japan devastates much of the U.S. Navy's Pacific fleet at Pearl Harbor, Hawai'i. The United States declares war on Japan. By 1942, at the height of its wartime success, Japan will have massed over five million troops, expanding its empire to include the Philippines and much of the Southwest Pacific.”

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“After World War II, troops from the Communist Soviet Union took over the northern half of Korea. American troops occupied the southern half” (201).