I just became away of Park Yu-ha's book via the NYT's article, but I could not find any scholarly reviews in English. My question is for Korea specialists here, and particularly since Yu-ha does not appear to be an historian.
Is this a rigorous historical study? What are its strengths and weaknesses compared to the existing literature? Is this an extension of the debates on colonial modernity in Korea?
She based most of it off of previous testimony and one source who passed away recently, a recording of whom she plays around 35:00 here:
Her motivations seem to be almost all related to current political divisions between Japan and Korea, and their internal divisions between right and left wing groups. Her thesis is that the history has been simplified and distorted for political purposes, and I don't find that hard to believe (I haven't read the book though). As such I don't think it adds much history, just some reinterpretation.