In the process of colonizing the Korean Peninsula, Japan was acutely aware of the evaluations from the leading imperial powers of the West.
Japan sought to promote and justify its rule, policies, and outcomes to these Western powers. Within this framework, the “Japanese-English Parallel Text” was created, involving the translation of Japanese texts into English.
A particularly unique example of the “Japanese-English Parallel Text” is the 1925 publication of the Chōsen shashin-chō (Korean Photo Album).
This album, intended for distribution to the increasing number of Western inspection groups in the 1920s, includes explanations of the photographs in both Japanese and English. Through the Chōsen shashin-chō, Japan aimed to contrast the “modern civilization” they had achieved with the perceived backwardness of Korea, thereby legitimizing their colonial rule not only to Koreans and Japanese but also to Western readers.
The album also emphasizes the assimilation policy, a cornerstone of Japan’s colonial governance. Notably, there is a discrepancy between the Japanese and English texts in explaining this policy. A comparison of the Japanese and English descriptions of the cherry blossoms in Ui-dong reveals that the Japanese text provides a detailed explanation that Hong Yangho transplanted these blossoms from Japan during the Joseon Dynasty.
In contrast, the English text simply states that the blossoms originated from Japan, without mentioning Hong Yang-ho. This discrepancy arises because the Japanese text, intended for Korean and Japanese audiences, needed to use Hong Yang-ho to establish the legitimacy and inevitability of the assimilation policy, thereby persuading and convincing the readers.
Conversely, in the English text, the proper noun “Hong Yang-ho” does not serve any function, and there is no need to emphasize the inevitability of the assimilation policy to Western readers, who were less concerned with these nuances compared to Korean and Japanese readers.