The Japanese colonial view controversially attributed the Korean penchant for white clothing to mourning.

The practice was persistently maintained and defended; it survived at least 25 pre-colonial and over 100 Japanese colonial era regulations and prohibitions.

The Korean ethnonationalist terms paegŭiminjok (백의민족; 白衣民族; baeguiminjok) and paegŭidongpo (백의동포; 白衣同胞; baeguidongpo), both roughly meaning white-clothed people, were coined to promote a distinct Korean identity, primarily as a reaction to Japanese assimilationist policies.

The Japanese art critic Yanagi Sōetsu wrote in 1922 of the practice:[2] While China and especially Japan are using so many different colors in their dresses, there is no such trend in the neighboring country, Joseon.

There are many countries and nations in the world, but none are like Joseon.For some period of time in the Chinese Song dynasty (960–1279), the average person was restricted to only wearing white clothing.

The earliest known mention[5] of the practice is in the Chinese text Records of the Three Kingdoms, and dates to the third century CE.

It reported that people of the Korean state Buyeo (2nd century BCE – 494 CE) primarily wore white.

The Korean preference for the color white is found in art, myth, legend, folklore, clothing, food, and more.

[10] The American physician Horace N. Allen wrote in 1889 that he viewed the practice as having its origins in mourning:[11] The custom of wearing white so extensively as they do has also been accounted for by tradition.

Mourning is a serious business in Korea, for on the death of a father the son must lay aside his gay robes and clothe himself in unbleached cotton of a very coarse texture... For three years he must wear this guise and must do no work... Should a king die, the whole nation would be compelled to don this mourning garb, or rather they would be compelled to dress in white... Once during a period of ten years, three kings died, necessitating a constant change of dress on the part of the people and a great outlay of money...

The result of this period was the development of wearing minbok or other traditional Korean clothing as a symbol of resisting foreign influence.

[17] In 1906, the Korean government, at the advice of the Japanese Resident-General of Korea issued a ban on white clothing during wintertime, but this order was largely ignored.

[7] Beginning in 1910, increasing numbers of grade schools began requiring that students wear black uniforms.

[21] Others noted that the time required for the clothes' upkeep hurt economic productivity, and that the labor particularly burdened women, who did the household's laundry.

[7] According to a 1990 tally by scholar Nam Yun-Suk, between 1898 and 1919, there were fifteen policies enacted to either ban or discourage the exclusive wearing of white clothes.

[23] The scholar Hyung Gu Lynn argued that the clothes became a symbol of low social status by the 1920s.

Magazines and newspapers displayed pictures of business owners in western-style suits, while factory workers wore white clothing.

In 1935, the colonial government decided it wished to replicate the success of the rural efforts in the cities, and began stepping up their enforcement of the policies there.

[31] Police officers and public officials would spray or stamp ink on offenders, who were also often denied services like food rations and education.

During the rally, officials warned Koreans that their white clothes would make them highly-visible targets for bombers, and advised them to start wearing color.

[32] Although Korea was liberated in 1945, it was immediately divided and placed under the rule of the Soviet Union and of the United States.

Reunification efforts, including North Korea's invasion of the South in the 1950–1953 Korean War, failed.

[7] In black markets, Koreans traded and highly valued U.S. military clothes, which they inconspicuously dyed other colors in order to avoid detection.

[35] In the 1980s, South Korean democratic movements adopted the clothes as a symbol of democracy, pro-reunification sentiment, and anti-Americanism.

Koreans adopted and kept it, in spite of the fact that Japan ended up abandoning it in the short term to accommodate the assimilation of its non-Japanese colonial subjects.