Paper short abstract:

This paper compares changes in attitudes toward death and burial practices between the Japanese mainland, Korea and Taiwan under Japanese rule. It is emphasized that Japan used burial policies to align the Korean and Taiwanese family system to the Japanese one in order to prepare for assimilation.

Paper long abstract:

The modernization process after the Meiji Restoration was as thorough as to even concern funerary practices. Fire burial and public cemeteries were (re-)introduced and spread through the country and also pushed onto colonial territories. Before Korea opened its ports, the perception of death and dying as well as customs in burial practice had been thoroughly Confucian. Because of the sacred nature of one's ancestors bones, earth burial grave sites tended to be close to the house or on designated "sacred mountains" and had a guardian function for the bereaved. Taiwan shared these Confucian values of interment and ancestor worship, furthermore reburial practices were commonplace.

Such customs were not necessarily challenged by the Christian missionaries who were active in the respective territories. Similar attitudes and the common practice of earth burials ensured quick successes for missionary work - even though Christianity forbid ancestor rituals, they were often tolerated. However, practices and customs were heavily challenged by the Japanese colonial authorities, who used the "merits of modernization", such as improving hygiene to prevent contagious disease etc. as pretexts to reform burial practices. Such policies ultimately aimed at curbing the influence of Confucian thought and folk customs that authorities perceived as obstacles to colonial rule. Thus, the Japanese policies, while meeting non-acceptance even in the homeland, were used as a tool to put a more efficient system of funerary practice into place that aimed at changing the cultural mindset of the colonized in order to facilitate colonization and prepare for assimilation.

Today, ancestor rituals are still common in both Koreas, and also Taiwan kept its distinct burial culture. Still, influences of the changes made by Japan remain traceable. The conceptional changes that occurred during colonial rule and resulting anthropological problems have to be tackled in order to gain a proper understanding of Korean and Taiwanese history during Japanese rule in general. Therefore, an assessment of the meaning and impact of Japanese policies in everyday colonial life and how the Japanese policies were dealt with after the end of colonial rule is required.