This paper examines the relationship between colonial experience and subsequent economic
development in Korea by closely looking at the process of economic growth during
the 1960s, when the Korean economy began to grow rapidly. Five aspects of colonial
legacy are usually identified as responsible for the take-off: an infrastructure of
communications and transportation, an industrial base, the strong state, accumulation
of high-quality human capital, and nationalism. However, most of the material capital
inherited from colonization had been destroyed by the Korean War, or not fully functional
due to lack of operating personnel and to the division of the country into the
North and the South. The remaining are indeed regarded as major factors for rapid economic
growth by many students of Korean development, but are only marginally related
to the colonial experience. In addition to these factors, the favorable international
environment since World War II and Confucian values were crucial for the growth of
Korea’s export-oriented economy. Thus, if the Japanese colonial legacy had anything to
do with the economic growth of modern Korea, it was “construction by destruction” or
“contribution by negation.”