Before 1910, Korea was known for "books and caligraphy". It tells us that Korea traditionally showed the respect for education, since books and caligraphy symbolize education and scholarship in North East countries like Korea, China and Japan. It implies that Korea placed great importance on education. It was a part of its long cultural tradition. But that tradition in Korea was rapidly deteriorated during the Japanese colonial period. Korea had a hardship in getting their education under the Japanese ruling. The reason for this is that Japan never wanted most Korean people to learn higher than elementary education in any sense. Under the Japanese ruling, however, many Koreans had tried hard to overcome this hardship and their political turmoils through education. The political, social and religious leaders made great efforts to establish many regular schools and institutes for education on their own. They built schools and started indigenous education as a part of the independent movements; a patriotic enlightening movement from 1910 on, young men's and women's movement for self enhancement and national development, labour solidarity, farmer's movement in 1920s, rural education, Christian Sunday School movements in 1930s, and egalitarianism in politics, economics, and education in 1940s, and so on.