Radio Dayz in 1930s.

The film “Radio Dayz”, by Ha Ki-Ho, depicts the story of a radio station in Kyung Sung (Seoul) during Japanese colonial period. Radio was the only powerful tool to communicate with others or to announce updates to people easily in this time. During colonial period, I think that Japan used Radio as “the extensive information control system that served Japan’s propaganda and cultural assimilation programs” (Robinson, 52) because they “recognized immediately the potential of broadcasting to further the long-range goals of spreading Japanese language use and Japanese cultural values.” (Robinson, 52). For instance in the movie, the boss of Kyung Sung Radio Station asks Lloyd to make a drama, emphasizing that the it must contain the greatness of Japanese emperor and the high status of Japanese Empire. Also, before Lloyd and the writer produces the final episode, the boss tells them to finish with Japanese nationalism. I think that this is the reason why Japan tried to indoctrinate Japanese nationalism to Koreans who listened to this radio shows.

On the other hand, the boss of Taegukdang “K” is a secret agent who works on independence movement against Japanese imperialism. He also finds a letter from America that Americans can hear Kyung Sung broadcasting in the United States, and K thinks that he can use a radio to send the signal to all the independence fighters to start to move for their independence fight. K succeeds to intercept the wave, but he gets fired by Japanese wave inspector. However, Lloyd succeeds to make signals when he broadcasts the last episode of a voice drama series called “The flame of love.” Since people easily gather up in front of the radio to hear the voice drama, I thought that radio could bring people to gather up and make them to participate in the independence movement if they tell them that they need more people in their fight.

Overall, on the Japanese perspective, the radio was the one of the most powerful tools to interrupt the independence movement and to propagate Japanese culture and their language to indoctrinate their grandiose Japanese imperialism to Koreans who listened to the radio. Furthermore, the movie shows that the independence fighters also used the radio as their signals to other fighters who are in Manchuria.