A Thorn in Imperial Japan's Side: The Shifting Politics of Protestant Christianity in Colonial Korea

Abstract

Historians have highlighted the deep connection between imperial ideologies and Christian evangelism that undergirded Western colonialism. This intimate relationship between church and state was far more complicated in colonial Korea because Japan maintained non‐Christian religious traditions, yet Japanese colonial authorities still needed the collaboration of Korean Protestant communities to meet the material and ideological demands of Japan's imperial enterprise. This article examines how Western missionaries and Korean evangelicals engaged with colonial rule — that engagement reflected the fluid nature of religious culture in colonial Korea and changed as imperial Japan faced internal and external challenges. Initially, many Protestant churches remained politically neutral to appease the Japanese regime but some supported anti‐Japanese activities, prompting the Government‐General of Korea (GGK) to try to prevent Protestant churches from becoming loci for rebellion against its rule. The GGK switched from “military rule” to a less harsh “cultural rule” in the 1920s, which motivated Protestants to adopt an uneasy coexistence with colonial authorities. In the 1930s–1940s, the GGK hardened its stance on religion and insisted on peninsula‐wide observance of State Shintō; some Protestants acquiesced to the authorities, but others bravely refused to worship Shintō deities, a ritual that contravened Christian strictures against idolatry.