Rewriting the History of Colonialism in South Korea

Abstract

This chapter investigates issues raised in the nationalist master narratives of the colonial past in post-colonial South Korea for example, problems of exploitation, Korea's own potential toward the achievement of modernization, history of resistance, collaboration, and the dichotomous framework of colonial representation. Mapping the history of resistance for the ultimately successful liberation from Japanese colonial rule may succeed in reclaiming masculine power that was stripped away by colonial force. While the history of resistance has been very salient in colonial historiography in post-colonial Korea, the legacy of Korean collaboration with the colonial regime remains a problematic topic for discussion. The theory of colonial modernization is focused more on the economic achievements of colonial development based on official documents, rather than on how the development had an impact on the lives of the colonial subjects and how Koreans coped with the change. Keywords: colonial historiography; colonial regime; Japanese colonial rule; post-colonial South Korea