For years now, historians of science and technology in Korea have shied away from the late nineteenth to early twentieth century largely to avoid dealing with the implications of the Japanese colonial period as it relates to Korea's modernization and modernity. This is in no small part a consequence of the shortage of primary sources on this topic from the Taehan Empire period (1897–1910) and the predominance of Japanese sources for the colonial era (1910–1945), which would lead anyone to the cursory conclusion that modern science and technology emerged in Korea through the singular efforts of the Japanese.
It is no wonder then that Kim Kŭnbae undertook the momentous task of documenting this period in a book that covers what is essentially a gaping hole in our knowledge of science and technology in Korea between the years 1897 and 1945. Admittedly discouraged by the lack of sources and affected by personal feelings towards the colonial past, Kim expresses his reluctance to examine this period of which he writes, “The topic of my doctoral dissertation initially dealt with Korean science in the post-liberation period. This was because it seemed that the kaehwa (Enlightenment) period was heavily steeped in tradition while the colonial period had no real emotional pull for me. However, I soon came up against two problems, namely, the complete lack of sources and the poverty of understanding on the period immediately preceding it” (7).
