Japanese occupation of Korea

Korea under Japanese rule 日本統治時代の朝鮮 Nippon Tōchi-jidai no Chōsen 일제강점기 (日帝強佔期) Ilje gangjeomgi
Annexed dependency of the Empire of Japan
← 1910–1945 →   →   →
Flag Seal of the Government-General of Korea
Anthem "Kimigayo"
Korea as part of the Empire of Japan in 1939.
Capital		Keijōa
Government		Japanese hierarchy
Emperor
•	1910–1912 (first)	Meiji
•	1926–1945 (last)	Shōwa
Governor-General of Korea
•	1910–16 (first)	Terauchi Masatake
•	1944–45 (last)	Nobuyuki Abe
Historical era		Empire of Japan
•	Japanese protectorate	17 November 1905
•	Annexation treaty signed	22 August 1910
•	Annexation by Japan	29 August 1910
•	March 1st Movement	1 March 1919
•	Sōshi-kaimei order	1939
•	Surrender of Japan	15 August 1945
Today part of		North Korea  South Korea

Korea under Japanese rule began with the end of the Joseon dynastic monarchy in Korea in 1910 and ended at the conclusion of World War II in 1945. Japanese rule of Korea was the outcome of a process that began with the Japan–Korea Treaty of 1876, whereby a complex coalition of Meiji government, military, and business officials sought to integrate Korea both politically and economically into the Empire of Japan. A major stepping-stone towards Japanese occupation of Korea was the Japan–Korea Treaty of 1905, in which the then-Empire of Korea was declared a protectorate of Japan. The annexation of Korea by Japan was set up in the Japan–Korea Treaty of 1910, which was never actually signed by the Korean regent, Gojong.

Imperial Japanese rule over Korea ended in 1945, when American and Soviet forces captured the peninsula. In 1965 the unequal treaties between Joseon-ruled Korea and Imperial Japan, especially those of 1905 and 1910, were declared "already null and void" at the time of their promulgation (i.e. "dead on arrival", implicitly a declaration of their illegality) by the Treaty on Basic Relations between Japan and South Korea.

Japanese administration of the Korean Peninsula was directed through the General Government. After the Japanese withdrawal from the Korean Peninsula followed by the Japanese surrender to Allied forces at the end of the Second World War, Korea returned to self-government, albeit under two separate governments and economic systems backed (in the north) by the USSR and (in the south) by the United States.