Shin Chaeho
This conception started to emerge among Korean intellectuals after the Japanese-imposed Protectorate of 1905, when the Japanese were trying to persuade Koreans that both nations were of the same racial stock. The notion of the Korean "minjok" was first made popular by essayist and historian Shin Chaeho in his "New Reading of History" (1908), a history of Korea from the mythical times of Dangun to the fall of Balhae in 926 CE. Shin portrayed the "minjok" as a warlike race that had fought bravely to preserve Korean identity, had later declined, and now needed to be reinvigorated. During the period of Japanese rule (1910–1945), this belief in the uniqueness of the Korean "minjok" gave an impetus for resisting Japanese assimilation policies and historical scholarship.