The Japanese colonial government ruled in South Korea before 1945 brought impact whereas a huge gap of wealth occurred between Koreans who collaborated well with the rule and those who didn’t. These collaborator known as Chinilpa (친일파), a term used to issue Korean people of the pro-Japanese clique during the Japanese rule era. After gaining independence for both Korea, Chinilpa maintained a rise of social status and dominated the upper position of Korean Society such as mayors, chief justice, prosecutors, chiefs of army, navy, and air force, even provincial governors. In September 1948, the anti-Collaboration Act was issued at the National Assembly. Yet, the act failed to be legitimate as the phenomenon splurges a debate among people whether punishing for their wrongdoing with their colonizer in the past.  

Seoul in the 1960s (source: Business Insider)

The appointment of a pro-Japanese collaborator in the past—Syngman Rhee—as a president did support collaborators not to be punished. Rhee accused the Anti-Collaboration Act as a way to persecute innocent people. Punishing Chinilpa was seen as a threat to not only political stability but also economic stability. This refers to the fact that Chinilpa does bring significant impact towards South Korea’s nation-building. As Chinilpa succeeded in becoming a powerful group of people that distributed both governmental and non-governmental from the past-Japanese assets, many scholars admit these collaborators as the origins of South Korea’s chaebol today. Samsung is one of South Korea’s largest companies where the founder—Lee Byung Chul—had a transactional relation with Japan. The starting company considered lifting the nation’s economy from the 1950s towards leading heavy industry in the 1980s. Moreover, these pro-Japanese collaborators were regarded as a victim of the Japanese annexation, not a war criminal. Thus, it can not be persecuted like those who served during Japan’s colonial regime.

Apart from the economic benefits gained from these pro-Japanese collaborators, the existence of Chinilpa also considered affecting South Korea’s delayed democratization. As a nation that built in the process of escaping military dictatorship from colonization, democratization in South Korea was seen as very important to overcome such political turmoil. In this case, the newly established South Korean government under Syngman Rhee failed to prosecute pro-Japanese collaborators due to many hindrances along the legislation process. The Anti-Collaboration Act Committee attacked by high-ranking police officers and mass-demonstration was likely to get banned. Public statements were limited in order to maintain Rhee’s power in his position.

During Rhee’s administration, Sungmo Yang (2014) revealed that pro-Japanese collaborators make up a quarter of the National Assembly, dominating in the aspect of economy, justice, media, culture, even religion. High-officers South Koreans during Rhee’s reign had all served in the Japanese colonial government and were involved in the implementation of colonial rule in Korea. Even though the US supported Rhee to become a president for his anti-Communism ideology, Rhee’s supporters were far from reflecting democracy values. Many offensive attempts have occured in order to sustain Rhee’s power, including the Yeosu-Suncheon incident that happened in 1948. As a consequence, the significant democratization process in South Korea happened as late as the 1980s, which in fact could have occured since the 1950s.

Based on the US Military Government’ rule, prosecuting local collaborators should get rid in order to create a democratic nation-state filled with justice. These pro-Japanese collaborators should also be considered as traitors because of their past-wrongdoings for taking advantage from postcolonial damages in South Korea. Punishing the collaborators is seen to (1) eradicate Japanese colonial legacy (2) improve South Korea’s democratization process much faster and (3) improve the distribution of Japan’s property among citizens in order to cut benefits only to business elites related to Japan in the past. Besides, there is a huge demand and public sentiment for the prosecution of Japanese collaborators as a requirement to establish an independent nation-state under democratic values.

So, what could we conclude?

The emergence of implementing modern democracy in South Korea after the US’ meddling became an important issue to hold on. The existence of Chinilpa or pro-Japanese collaborators was a huge legacy of Japanese colonial rule. Their role upon South Korea’s nation-building process sparks a debate among people whether punishment would be a better choice. The on-going scandals about corruption and nepotism surrounded among these collaborators is a threat towards South Korea’s democratization. On the other hand, the economic growth derived by these collaborators from Japan’s past assets and knowledge becomes a stepping stone towards chaebol today.  Therefore, many efforts have been made to balance the existence of these pro-Japanese collaborators in South Korea such as creating a nonviolent horizontal power transfers between opposition parties, increasing checks and balance among state institutions, and establishing workers law to support equal benefit between the so-called pro-Japanese collaborators and ‘colonial victims’ in South Korea today.

Interesting, right?