During the Japanese occupation of Korea many atrocities were committed against the Korean people including forcing name changes to all Japanese names, forced prostitution, etc. However one involved the Japanese driving iron stakes into many of the mountaintops of the countryside. What was that all about?

These stakes disrupted the pungsu (cousin to the better known "feng-shui") forces important in Korean culture.

Pungsu "is a unique and comprehensive system of evaluating the landscape in selecting auspicious places for graves, houses, temples or cities and other settlements."

http://ieas.berkeley.edu/events/z2002.11.01.html

That answer is so close that I guess I will have to accept it. I seriously did not expect an answer since I already knew there would not be a web reference specifically for this, I happened to learn it while visiting the National War Memorial in Seoul some years back. The Korean belief of San-shin which is worship of the mountain spirits is central to many ancient and modern Korean beliefs see here http://www2.gol.com/users/coynerhm/mountain_spirits_still_watching.htm. When the Japanese drove the stakes into the mountain tops they were trying to damage the psyche of Koreans by demonstrating that they could kill the mountain spirit. Koreans believed that life sprang from the mountain spirit and the Korean culture was doomed by these spikes. Good answer though fuse.