The Japanese, Korean war, and propaganda agenda
Popular at this time among Korean Soldiers, were Arirangs such as this:
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Many stars in the deep sky--Many crimes in the life of man.
Ariran is the mountain of sorrow
And the path to Ariran has no returning....
Oh, twenty million countrymen -- where are you now?
Alive are only three thousand li of mountains and rivers....
Now I am an exile crossing the Yalu River
And the mountains and rivers of three thousand li are also lost.
Ariran, Ariran, Arari O!
Crossing the hills of Ariran.
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Arirang, arirang, arariyo.
Friends, wake up from your shallow dream.
The crimson sun is rising over Arirang Hill,
With two arms stretched wide.
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The crimson sun in the last refrain is in reference to the Japanese and their reach into Korean at this time.
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The fields are wrecked, and will become roads,
The houses are destroyed for parking lots.
Arirang arirang arariyo,
Let me cross the Arirang pass.
Although there are twelve hills of Arirang
How many mountains of barley were there?
The hill crossed in pursuit of life,
Hill of the tears of peasants bound for North Jiandao.
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It won't do to hate faraway Japan,
I will die of longing for my bride.
It only carries us [away], will not send us back.
The rendezvous ship, the ship from hell.
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Don't deter those who go,
When they return you will be happier.
Arirang arirang, don't you cry.
On the Arirang hill the flag blazes.
In the 1930s and 1940s, precisely the time when assimilationist pressures in colonial Korea were intensifying, Japanese songsmiths, singers, and recording companies released "Arirang" renditions in prodigious quantities, sometimes in collaboration with Korean performers (Atkins, E. T. (2007). There were several popular song artists i Japan that made renditions of their own. Chanteuse Awaya Noriko (1907-99), Ch'ae Kyu-yop (1906-49), and the first Japanese "Arirang" credited to Saijo Yaso in July 1931. Despite the fact that folk songs from all around the world were heavily pouring into Japan at this time, the Korean Arirang was the most well known and the most popular. In one album there could be up to seven different renditions. Recordings, broadcasts, and live performances, in both Japanese and Korean, saturated the markets, stages, and airwaves of both countries throughout the 1930s (Atkins, E. T. (2007). A popular example of a Japanese Arirang is this:
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An Ik-t'ae's "Arirang Hill" (1935)
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Arirang arirang arariyo,
Arirang Arirang Hill there you go.
If I should follow you over the hill,
My heart's desires would be fulfilled.
[Refrain]
Heaven so blue has many a star,
Human lives have many a tale.
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The Japanese Arirang at this time is very different from that of the Korean renditions. Most of the documented hangil arirang songs, which, for obvious reasons, circulated only in oral form until they were collected and published by Korean folklorists after the 1945 liberation (Atkins, E. T. (2007). These songs were meant to inspire Koreans at this time to rise against Japanese imperialism and fight for the nation they so loved. For Koreans this was a song from home that symbolized their struggles with their loss of sovereignty.
It was used to combat the rise in popularity of Western pop music in 1956 when the government set up plans to raise awareness of traditional music. At this time it was introduced to Korean schools as a means of teaching children the Arirang in school programs as a way to help spread the Korean influence as a means of propaganda.
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