Colonial Korean Research Articles

Proletarian Melodrama: Censorship, Popularization, and Consumerism in Colonial Korea

This article introduces the 1933 novel After the Doll’s House by Ch’ae Mansik as an example of how revolutionary messages were presented through melodramatic narratives in colonial Korean proletarian literature. Between 1928 and 1930, several members of the Korea Artista Proleta Federacio (KAPF), most notably Kim Kijin, insisted that melodrama—a narrative form widely distributed in popular newspapers—could circumvent censorship to introduce revolutionary representations to the public. Although few proletarian authors initially agreed with Kim’s approach, many proletarian novels, especially those serialized in newspapers such as After the Doll’s House, adopted key elements from melodrama. Accordingly, this article explores how modern melodrama in colonial Korea as imported from Japan and Europe was uniquely adapted and transformed to deliver Marxist messages through localized literary symbols and tropes, despite strict censorship under the Government-General of Korea and the commercial demands of the publication market. After the Doll’s House thereby evidences how melodramatic narrative in colonial Korean proletarian literature was an effective strategy for expressing radical ideas within the restrictions of colonial rule as well as for creating a hybrid literary form under oppressive social conditions.

A Tune of Two Cities

In the worst of times, the best of tunes. Or so might say singer Kim Hae-song (1910–195?), whose 1938 hit recording “Flowery Seoul” (“Kkot sŏul”) arguably offered more than a mere tongue-in-cheek retort to Fujiyama Ichirō’s (1911–1993) own 1936 “Tokyo Rhapsody” (“Tōkyō rapusodi”) by crooning in the Korean language over Koga Masao's (1904–1978) original composition. While both vocalists posture competitively with regard to the modern merits of their respective metropolises, the dark timbre of geopolitics dampens the otherwise playful interaction between these two popular songs, one by an imperial Japanese citizen, the other a colonial Korean subject. This article traces interwar popular music's regional, linguistic, and affective transposability to consider how the exceptional textual and melodic identity between Kim's and Fujiyama's respective city songs belies a more fundamental interpellation of Korean subjects into the transregional logic of Japanese Empire.

Naeseon Ilche and Nazi medievalism: making nation, history, and film

ABSTRACT The present study aims to compare the cinematic propaganda of colonial Korea and Nazi Germany, revealing how the two countries used film to construct narratives of nationalism. Furthermore, this study will aid our recognition and understanding of the similarities and differences between victims and aggressors in spreading nationalist propaganda. Despite the similarities between the colonial Korean and Nazi German film industries in spreading nationalist propaganda, there are significant differences between these two countries’ ways of promoting national values: the colonial Koreans adopted transcolonial nationhood (i.e. the strategy of integrating nations), whereas the Nazis excluded minorities, such as Jews. Therefore, dichotomous evaluations of the victim and the aggressor are inconsistent with existing standard interpretations. Colonial Korea, generally known as having experienced the trauma of colonization, also engaged in cinematic fabrication and the weaponization of history, as Nazi Germany did. Propaganda films in both colonial Korea and Nazi Germany played a significant role in reconstructing their national identities. Regarding the cinematic reinvention of these national identities, we should eschew the artificial dichotomy between victims and aggressors.

Gender Politics at Home and Abroad: Protestant Modernity in Colonial-Era Korea

Gender Politics at Home and Abroad: Protestant Modernity in Colonial-Era Korea

Cattle, Viral Invasions, and State-Society Relations in a Colonial Korean Borderland

Abstract For early twentieth-century Koreans, one of the most feared invaders to breach the country’s northern border with China was the tiny viral pathogen Rinderpest morbillivirus (rinderpest, or cattle plague). This study examines the social consequences of rinderpest outbreaks along the colonial Sino-Korean border and the methods undertaken by the Japanese Government-General of Korea to control viral “invasions” from Manchuria. Rinderpest prevention primarily functioned as an extension of the colonial police. Despite universal fears of rinderpest’s ravages, which devastated a rural economy dependent on animal labor, colonized Koreans exhibited wide-ranging reactions to the heavy-handed methods adopted by imperial officials to fight the disease. Korean responses included outright resistance such as cross-border cattle smuggling, attacking veterinary officials, or protests against livestock travel bans, as well as varying degrees of cooperation. Moving chronologically from before the beginning of formal colonial rule in 1910 until the 1930s, this article strives to explain how a modern veterinary regime was implemented and negotiated in the northern colonial Korean borderland. Such a view is essential for understanding not only Korea’s colonial past but also Korean responses to infectious disease “invasions” in the present day.

Belatedness and innovation: Korean modernism

AbstractIf Japanese modernists, as Eric Hayot argues, conceived modernism and modernity as originating in the West, colonial Korean artists inevitably apprehended modernism from a double remove, through the mediation of Japanese literature and language. While they self‐consciously sought to develop a distinctive Korean modernist poetics (one not prefigured by Japanese modernism), the sense of belatedness remained inescapable among Korean modernist practitioners. With the ‘expansionism’ of the new modernist studies, as is well known, there has been substantial critical work to challenge and reject the belatedness and derivativeness attributed to ‘peripheral’ modernities and modernisms. However, to properly appreciate the singularity of Korean modernism, and its expressive efforts to place its colonial modernity in a global context, it is necessary to confront how these modernists understood, figured, and rearticulated their sense of belatedness. Taking a cue from Michaela Bronstein, I attend to the uses Korean modernists made of Western (and Japanese) modernisms and how these engagements enact the aesthetic and critical force of belatedness. Ultimately, I contend, Korean modernism's self‐reflexive, intertextual stagings of belatedness generate stylistic innovation, enabling writers to situate themselves within global modernism and disclose the fraudulence of colonial modernization and its imposition of second‐hand forms.

아시아태평양전쟁기 부산형무소의 수형자 동원

Colonial Korean prisons mobilized the labor force of about one million prisoners nationwide, including the Hainan Island of China, during the war at the end of the war. The purpose of this study is to specifically investigate the reality of a specific region through the case of mobilization of prisoners nationwide. Therefore, Busan was selected as the subject of the case study. The materials used were military data from National Institute for Defense Study, data from the Japanese Cabinet for prison law revision, data from the Justice Department of the Japanese Government-General of Korea, and organized data(1984) from the Pusan Prison, as well as newspaper and magazine articles at the time. Through the above materials, I have summarized the patterns in which prisoners under the wartime system were mobilized into two patterns. That is the production of munitions in the factories of each prison and the work outside the ward. In Busan, the production and transportation of munitions and military facilities were concentrated for the war with the United States at the end of the war. As a result, inmates in Busan Prison were mobilized on a large scale to produce munitions in factories within the prison, to expand Busan city area, or to build an airport. This was a wartime labor mobilization that was different from the existing normal prison work. In this process, many victims have occurred since 1944, but prisoners continued to work like this for 3-4 years before liberation.

아시아태평양전쟁기 부산형무소의 수형자 동원

Colonial Korean prisons mobilized the labor force of about one million prisoners nationwide, including the Hainan Island of China, during the war at the end of the war. The purpose of this study is to specifically investigate the reality of a specific region through the case of mobilization of prisoners nationwide. Therefore, Busan was selected as the subject of the case study. The materials used were military data from National Institute for Defense Study, data from the Japanese Cabinet for prison law revision, data from the Justice Department of the Japanese Government-General of Korea, and organized data(1984) from the Pusan Prison, as well as newspaper and magazine articles at the time. Through the above materials, I have summarized the patterns in which prisoners under the wartime system were mobilized into two patterns. That is the production of munitions in the factories of each prison and the work outside the ward. In Busan, the production and transportation of munitions and military facilities were concentrated for the war with the United States at the end of the war. As a result, inmates in Busan Prison were mobilized on a large scale to produce munitions in factories within the prison, to expand Busan city area, or to build an airport. This was a wartime labor mobilization that was different from the existing normal prison work. In this process, many victims have occurred since 1944, but prisoners continued to work like this for 3-4 years before liberation.

The Emergence and Development of Hygienic Masks in Colonial Korea.

This paper examines the social life of masks in colonial Korea with a focus on their use in hygienic practices. It argues that masks first appeared in the disease control scene in late 1919 when the Governor-General of Korea belatedly introduced preventative measures against the Spanish Influenza pandemic. Since then, the central and regional hygiene authorities had begun to encourage colonial Koreans to wear masks whenever respiratory disease epidemics transpired. Simultaneously, Korean doctors and news reporters framed mask-wearing as something needed for family hygiene, particularly for trans-seasonal child health care, and advised colonial Korean women to manage and wear masks. This paper also reveals that the primary type of masks used in colonial society was black-colored Japanese respirators. Its design was the main point of contention in the debates on the effectiveness of masks against disease infection. Finally, it also highlights that the wide support of using masks by medical doctors and authorities was not based on scientific evidence but on empirical rules they developed through the pandemic and epidemics. The mask-usage practice would be challenged only when South Korean doctors reframed it as a "Japanese custom not grounded on science" at the height of postcolonial nationalism and the raised concern about the artifact's usefulness during the Hong Kong Influenza pandemic of 1968.

『총동원』을 통해 살펴본 전시체제기 ‘국민’ 형성 기획의 특징과 성격

This article analyzes the ‘Korean Federation for Total Mobilization of National Spirit(國民精神總動員朝鮮聯盟)’ and its organ ‘General Mobilization(總動員).’ Among the process, in particular, it focuses on the method and characteristics of making ‘National People’ in the wartime period. The ‘Korean Federation for Total Mobilization of National Spirit,’ a wartime mobilizing organization, which was launched in July 1938, focused on the administrative and spiritual systematization of Korea by mobilizing its administrative power. Therefore the Federation made efforts to attract Korean people into the wartime mobilization system by applying external pressure such as mobilizing laws, administrative bodies, and bureaucrats. However, this method of external pressure faced opposition and rejection from them. To their response, the Federation simultaneously tried to gain control of the inner world of Korean people via non-compulsory and cultural means, such as the official organ General Mobilization. These movements were aimed to encourage colonial Korean people to participate the war actively as members of the Imperial Japan and to reduce their antipathy toward wartime mobilization through non-forced means. In particular, General Mobilization was published to promote the wartime mobilization policy to the expanded patriots, and accordingly, the Federation wanted to recruit women, senior citizens and students who were staying outside the existing wartime mobilization policy.

1920년대 중반 코민테른과 민족통일전선-1926년 3월 결정서에서 1927년 4월 결정서까지-

This article traces the interaction between the Comintern and the Korean communists during the Japanese colonial rule focusing on the series of communication regarding the Jeonguhoe Manifesto. The leadership of the Comintern which proclaimed by the decision titled “the Resolution on the Korean Question,” had an absolute impact on the Korean communists. The course of actions taken by the Korean communists was circumscribed by the Comintern’s supreme control. The Korean communists, on the other hand, had some leeway for autonomy because the Comintern’s order did not prescribe a blow-by-blow strategy for the struggle. This process of communication between the Comintern and the Korean communists can be summarized as “announced by the Comintern -> interpreted by the colonial Korean communists -> approved by the Comintern.” This article argues that the Korean communists’ interpretation of the March 1926 “Resolution on the Korean Question” crystalized into the Jeonguhoe Manifesto. Furthermore, the April 1927 “Resolution on the Korean Question” demonstrated the Comintern’s approval on and addendums to the Jeonguhoe Manifesto. From this perspective, the Jeonguhoe Manifesto, which has been understood as an eccentric discussion raised by Ahn Gwangchon and his group, should be regarded as a part of the aforementioned communication process.

KisaengPerformers and the New Media in Colonial Korea

AbstractKisaeng, who had been hereditary female performers in pre-twentieth-century Korea, became modern professional performers during Korea’s colonial period (1910–45). Among them, some talented kisaeng attained high status in modern media as vocal performers, even while the general reputation of kisaeng steadily declined in the colonial period. These kisaeng performers who sought artistic success in the new media occupied two categories. One was yŏryu myŏngch’ang (female master vocalists), who excelled at Korean traditional music, and the other was kisaeng kasu (kisaeng singers), who specialized in modern popular music. Despite their shared social and cultural roots, these kisaeng performers have rarely been examined together in recent scholarship, which has tended to adhere to the disciplinary distinction between traditional and popular music. By examining the activities of yŏryu myŏngch’ang and kisaeng kasu in the same frame, this article demonstrates the ways in which both groups of kisaeng performers, rather than simply being transmitters of Chosŏn music culture, contributed to the modern diversification of music in colonial Korea. It further shows that these kisaeng, who were accomplished artistically, sought wealth and recognition as modern professionals in the colonial Korean music market.

A Journey through Colonial Korea：Iwaya Sazanami’s Experiences in Korea

Iwaya Sazanami (1870-1933) was a prominent figure in modern Japanese children’s literature. He traveled to the colonial Korean peninsula eight times in his life, the main purpose of these journeys being to give oral presentations of fairy tales to children in Korea. He energetically traveled throughout the country, including Keizyo (Seoul), Pyongyang, Kaesong, Wonsan and Busan.Regarding Sazanami’s visits to Korea, there have been excellent studies by Kim Sung-yeon(2010) and Otake Kiyomi(2008). However, previous studies have mainly focused on Sazanami as a children’s author and oral storyteller, and analysis of his literary works, political thought and ideology outside of this framework has not always been sufficient.Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to clarify what kind of experiences Sazanami had in Korea under Japanese rule, and the essence of the literature, political thought, and political ideology he formed there.This is important because he was a committed imperialist and colonialist with close ties to Saito Makoto and other officials in the Korean Governor-General’s Office. In the haiku he wrote in Korea, we can see a kind of “Japanese-style Orientalism” through which a writer from an imperialist state that was one of the first to modernize in Asia discovers and grows to love the pre-modern cultural customs and manners of its colonies.

The Return Home and Prospect of the Colonial Korean Youth : Focusing on Lee Kwang-su's Soil

The Return Home and Prospect of the Colonial Korean Youth : Focusing on Lee Kwang-su's Soil

식민지 조선인 일본어작가가 ‘소비’되는 방식들

식민지 조선인 일본어작가가 ‘소비’되는 방식들

Between ideology and entertainment: Gyeongseong (Seoul) cinemas under the colonial rule between 1934 and 1942

ABSTRACTUntil the mid 1930s, cinemas in the Bukchon (northern village) district of Gyeongseong (currently Seoul) such as Danseongsa, Jeil Theater, Joseon Theater and Woomigwan dominated the exhibition in Seoul under the Japanese colonial rule. During the colonial era, first or re-run theatres were dedicated to show foreign films, which both colonial Korean and Japanese audiences loved the most. This is in contrast to the situation in Japan, where its domestic films predominated. However, with more acute political conflicts emerged in the region, the Japanese authorities sought to control the colonial Joseon (Korean) film market by restricting the number of screenings and the availability of foreign films. The Motion Picture Control Regulations is seen as the first Japanese ‘screen quota’ in Korea; the Red and White distribution system was established in May 1942 in order to provide screens with domestically produced (both imperial Japanese and colonial Korean) films. Colonial screens were simply not capable of projecting imperial ideology, as it was heavily profit-driven. A conflict between the colonial Korean and imperial Japanese systems drove the industry during this period and in this article, I will examine the transition of the colonial policies on film screenings and challenges arising from the exhibition sector.

Yoo Chijin's Strategy to Popularize Singeuk in Colonial Korea: The Story of Chunhyang and Porgy

Dorothy and DuBose Heyward's Porgy was performed in colonial Korea in 1937. This paper explains the process of performing Porgy, in connection with the strategy to popularize the singeuk (new drama) by Yoo Chijin, a playwright and director who argued that one could popularize singeuk by promoting performance of colonial Korean dramas. Yoo's strategy encountered great difficulties because of opposition by members of the Research Association of Theatrical Art and strict Japanese censorship. Yoo tried to overcome these problems pertaining to realistic plays such as Slums and The Cow; however, his efforts were in vain. Therefore, Yoo undertook a new strategy of adapting the traditional The Story of Chunhyang, a play of "romanticism based on realism," which bypassed censorship by expressing the reality of the era metaphorically and amused the audience of the grand theatre with songs and dances. Porgy's songs and dances influenced The Story of Chunhyang. Although the audience responded favorably to The Story of Chunhyang, critics found fault with the fact that Yoo was a playwright who followed the practices of commercial theatre. Yoo tried to refute their criticism by producing Porgy, a performance of "romanticism on the basis of realism." He argued that The Story of Chunhyang reflected the latest theatre trends in the United States.

Racializing Chōsenjin: Science and Biological Speculations in Colonial Korea

Recent literature on the history of medicine in colonial Korea has revealed that Japanese medical scientists studied Korean bodies to expose racial differences between the Japanese and Koreans and justify Japanese colonial rule. Previous scholars, however, have focused mainly on finding a connection between colonial medical research and eugenics. This article attempts to consider things as yet underinvestigated, in particular, the way in which medical research on Koreans emerged and was intertwined with Japanese colonialism in other ways, separate from contemporary eugenics projects. The article examines the emergence and development of what we now considered as “racial sciences”—physical anthropology, serological anthropology, and human genetics—with regard to the biological characteristics of Koreans. In doing so, it argues that biological speculations on Koreans originated as a subdiscipline of Japanese origin studies and resonated with a newly emerging type of colonial racism in colonial Korea—inclusionary racism. The article also presents the colonial scientific enterprise’s conclusion that Koreans were biologically heterogeneous, contradicting colonial Korean intellectuals’ assertion about Korean ethnic homogeneity. The use of Korean ethnic homogeneity as an ideological basis for nation building by two Korean governments meant that postcolonial Korean scientists had to seek a way to reconcile the colonial era’s “scientific conclusion” (biological heterogeneity) with the postcolonial era’s “politically approved” conceptualization (biological homogeneity). Therefore, regardless of whether it was trying to refute, appropriate, or revitalize the colonial legacy, biological research on Koreans in the postcolonial period was carried out under the framework that had been constructed by colonial racial sciences.

식민지 조선인의 제1차 세계대전 인식과 3･1운동

식민지 조선인의 제1차 세계대전 인식과 3･1운동

1930년대 전반기 일제의 고등보통학교 역사교과서 검인정제도와 조선사 교육의 특성

This article discuss about specificity of Japanese imperialism’s censor system for an history textbook and Korean history education in the first half of the 1930’s. The Japanese imperialism applied inner-Japan education system to colonial Korean middle school after the secondary Korean education ordinance in 1922. This ordinance was part of the Japanese assimilation policy to colonial Korean citizen. But it was not worked. Because colonial Korean’s state of affairs were not same with Japanese. So consequently the Japanese Government-General of Korea censored middle school textbook itself.BR In these circumstances, the Japanese board of education amended curriculums in 1931. This education amendment was ideological groundwork to invading china and protect Japan from communism. Specificity of the education amendment was reinforcement history education, also decrease part of the Korean history in textbook. BR However, it was opposed to the Japanese board of education’s thought. Japanese board of education wanted to make friendly relationships between Korean-Japanese by education. Because these reasons, the Japanese Government-General of Korea should change their education curriculum plan.BR The Japanese Government-General of Korea tried to make high probability for censored textbook by expansion of using censored textbook and convenience of using history textbook. On the one hand, the Japanese Government-General of Korea wanted to publishing of textbook in 1935, but it could not cause of the new education amendment in 1937. Also only the Japanese Government-General of Korea’s censor system was stood.BR Differences of the position between the Japanese Government-General of Korea and the Japanese board of education was based on concerns of interpretation about Korean history in the textbook. It meant they had different method and contents for history education to educate the Japanese imperial spirits.