This study coered the influences of Japanese colonial policies atheletic education in Korean girls' secondary schools, and atheletic activities related to external competitions during the period of 1911-1945. This study, aimed at providing materials f...
This study coered the influences of Japanese colonial policies atheletic education in Korean girls' secondary schools, and atheletic activities related to external competitions during the period of 1911-1945. This study, aimed at providing materials for studies on Korean Women's atheletic history, was based on a comparative analysis of several facts focused on the aim of atheletic courses, operation, frequency, attirement, and atheletic activities in girls' secondary schools during the colonial period.
The following findings were investigated:
First, girls' atheletic educations during the colonial period were deeply influenced by Japanese colonial policies, and emphasized on military purposes. With all the concrete presentations of aims and activities, they didn't prove effectively.
Second, the emphasis on abstension, gymnastics, mental health, and women's heal th was due to Japanese imperial and military purposes. And the instructions of judo, fencing, and archery were intended for the assimilation of Koreans to the Japanese. Training was the top priority, and aesthetic and emotional sides were ignored. There was no the oretical basis to bring about educational deffects. Meanwhile cahges in confucian ideas allowed more modern clothing for women. Dynamic beauty, instead of statical beauty, was newly praised, which constituted a favorable mood to the improvement of women's health position.
Third, various extracurricular atheletic activities were aimed at raising the level of physical fitness of whole students, rather than training a small number of atheletes. Women's atheletic activities were vitalized beyond the school boundaries, as various atheletic games were introduced to the public, and atheletic competitions were held for the promotion of public physical fitness. People got more interested in women's atheletics on the occasion of the "National Women's Tennis Competition" sponsered by Dong-Ah Daily.
In addition, the nationalistic spirit in this period pressed the importance of women's atheletics as a step toward women's bigger role in society, and a basis of national health.
Although its contribution to women's status and national health are undeniable, it was a part of colonial policies, and should have been impossible to carry out independently.
Despite the significant development of women's atheletics, the oppressive colonial policies precluded the presence of true atheletics either in school courses or in atheletic competitions.