American Influence On Korean Literature

Even though some people criticize that the invention of Korean alphabet has resulted most of the Koreans unable to understand the official documents and historical records that are written in Chinese before the 1400s, the research shows that the invention of Hangul has brought cultural and intellectual independence to Korea, because it instigated changes to the existing hierarchical system, served as means of resistance to Japanese colonial government, and was used as a tool for true Korean literature and brought higher level of education and literacy to all citizens.
It is needless to say that the original motivation for King Sejong to invent Hangul was to benefit his subjects. In Hunmin Jeongeum, King Sejong noted that “國之語音 異乎中國 與文字 不相流通,”

Using Hangul was “really exceptional and reformative in the social atmosphere at that time,” and it took long time for the idea to be realized. At first, Chinese characters were established as writings for the ruling class while Hangul was provided to common people, since the ruling classes were afraid of losing their authorities and privileges. However, as many nobles slowly realize the convenience of hangul, they began to use hangul while they were writing documents criticizing the government, in order to avoid exposure of their identity. These actions eventually led commoners to find out the unreasonable privileges that nobles had held before and protested about it. Furthermore, they were able to read and gain more knowledge on farming and medicine, thus their standards of living steadily grew as well. Everyone began to have equal standings before the law, and feudal system gradually disappeared as more and more people began to use

In 1939, Japan’s Imperial Decree 19 on Korean Civil Affairs (“勅令第19号「朝鮮民事改正令」”) announced the cultural assimilation of the Korean people, and Koreans were forced to adopt Japanese names while giving up their Korean names. Moreover, all schools were banned to teach Koreans or Chinese to the students. Koreans were panting for the freedom, and finally after 497 years to the invention of Hangul, one student named Taejun Kim, found Hunmin Jeongeum and brought it to his teacher Heongpil Jeong, who had bought it from him. Heongpil Jeong decided to fight against Japanese imperialism by spreading the usage of Hangul to the Koreans and gave copies of Hunmin Jeongeum secretly to people. This brought significant influences to later independent activists, whom started to use Hangul to claim their sovereignty against the Japanese government. Hangul possessed the advantage of unifying Koreans and had an important rule in resisting colonial