The Proletarian Gamble: Korean Workers in Interwar Japan

Abstract

This tour de force of a monograph presents a theoretical analysis of the circumstances of Korean laborers in Japan during the interwar years, using as its pivot-point the antiquated term, ‘proletariat’. The substance of the volume is composed of six chapters, including an extremely thoughtful Introduction and Epilogue by the author himself. In this review, I will discuss briefly the overall content of the text, while also touching upon its framework. In the course of examining Korean laborers who migrated to Japan during the interwar years as proletariats, Kawashima repeatedly emphasizes his understanding of two key words: ‘contingency’ and ‘surplus population’. According to Kawashima, contingency, an intrinsic component of political, social and economic environments, and a surplus population of laborers were both indispensable conditions for capitalist commodity economies. These two conditions of contingency and a surplus population were, in a sense, unique to Koreans during the colonial era, but they were also universal problems confronted by laborers everywhere. The most notable feature of this project is that it reconfigures the framework of the proletariat through an investigation into the correlation between the dual nature of Korean laborers as both generic proletariats and as colonial subjects in the Japanese empire.