In the Wikipedia entry “Korea Under Japanese Rule” the contributor writes:

In the late 19th century and early 20th century, various Western countries were competing for influence, trade, and territory in East Asia while Japan sought to join the modern colonial powers. Securing colonies depended on naval power, which required bases and fuel stations. The newly modernised Meiji government of Japan regarded Korea, then in China's sphere of influence, as an essential bulwark against colonization by the Western powers.^{[citation needed]} The Japanese government initially sought to separate Korea from China and make Korea a Japanese satellite in order to further their security and national interests.^[1] Imperial Japan prohibited an old social system of the Joseon Dynasty and also introduced capitalism and western culture to Korea.

Although Westerners will probaly chalk it up to the follies of war, this occupation of Korea (and China and other Eastern countries) has far deeper, darker ramificatons for those occupied and exploited. Documentary filmmaker Anthony Gilmore explores the terrible ordeal that many outside Korea (and even many younger Koreans) do not not know about: Forced sexual slavery by the Japanese Army of 200,000 young Korean women, many of them teenagers, during World War II.

In “Behind Forgotten Eyes” (Nameless Films and The Enigma Factory) Gilmore lets the women who are still alive tell their story in a simple and direct way while giving voice to the Japanese soldiers who used and abused them. Having lived and worked in Asia for several years, I know a bit about the history and the culture; Why painful things are not talked about, why it’s difficult to aplogize. The most emotionally devastating part of the documentary is the beginning where the these ‘comfort women’, now quiet advanced in age, speak about why they were silent for all these years and why they are speaking out now. Narrated by television show  Lost's Yun-Jin Kim, Gilmore utilizes simple Korean-style animation that powerfully drives home the fact that many of these women were almost children when they were forced into sexual slavery and degredation.