Michael Kim | Yonsei University (original) (raw)

Books by Michael Kim

As a twentieth century phenomenon, mass dictatorship developed its own modern socio-political eng... more As a twentieth century phenomenon, mass dictatorship developed its own modern socio-political engineering system which sought to achieve the self-mobilization of the masses for radical state projects. In this sense, it shares a similar mobilization mechanism with its close cousin, mass democracy. Mass dictatorship requires the modern platform of the public sphere to spread its clarion call for the masses to realize their lofty utopian visions. Far from being a phenomenon that emerged from pre-modern despotic practices, mass dictatorship reflects the global proliferation of quintessential modernist assumptions about the transformability of the individual and society through collective effort. Mass dictatorship therefore utilizes the utmost modern practices to form totalitarian cohesion and to stage public spectacles in the search for extremist solutions to a society's problems. The contributors examine the phenomenon of mass dictatorship along many different lines of inquiry, both theoretical as well as empirical in disparate locations around the globe including Fascist Italy, Nazi Germany, Interwar Austria, Imperial Japan, Colonial Korea, Colonial Taiwan, Stalinist Russia, Maoist China, and North Korea.

Contents:
Mass Dictatorship: A Transnational Formation of Modernity, Lim, Jie-Hyun
Mass Dictatorship and the ‘Modernist State’, Griffin, Roger
Nebulous Nexus: Modernity and Perlustration in Maoist China, Schoenhals, Michael
Staging the Police: Visual Presentation and Everyday Coloniality, Ts’ai, Hui-yu Caroline
Habermas, Fascism, and the Public Sphere, Corner, Paul
Total War Mobilisation and the Transformation of the National Public Sphere in Japan, 1931–45, Kim, Kyu Hyun
Between Liberalism and National Socialism: The Historical Role of Volunteer Firemen Associations in Austria as a Public Sphere, Mizuno, Hiroko
Colonial Publicness as Metaphor, Yun, Hae-dong (Trans. by Kim, Michael.)
The Colonial Public Sphere and the Discursive Mechanism of, Kim, Michael
Models of Selfhood and Subjectivity: The Soviet Case in Historical Perspective, Chatterjee, Choi (et al.)
The End of the Weimar Republic: Individual Agency, Germany’s ‘Old Elites’, and the ‘Crisis of Classical Modernity’, Lambert, Peter
Total, Thus Broken: Chuch’e Sasang and North Korea’s Terrain of Subjectivity, Kim, Cheehyung

Articles by Michael Kim

Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Asian History, 2022

Japan established a protectorate in 1905 and annexed Korea in 1910. The colonial occupation offic... more Japan established a protectorate in 1905 and annexed Korea in 1910. The colonial occupation officially lasted thirty-five years, until the atomic bombs dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima precipitated the end of World War II on August 15, 1945. The Government-General of Korea administrated the colony’s affairs and enforced many laws and regulations from Japan. Yet the Japanese also made significant legal modifications that allowed for stricter censorship and control of the colony. In principle, the Government-General had absolute authority over Korea and was only accountable to the Japanese emperor rather than the Imperial Diet under the Meiji Constitution. However, in practice the Government-General was not completely independent because of the need to file reports and receive financial subsidies from the Imperial Diet.

The considerable autonomy of the Government-General to enact its own legal provisions may be important to keep in mind to understand how colonial Korea was an authoritarian system that operated separately from the Meiji Constitutional order. Korea underwent a major transition from an agrarian society to the beginnings of an industrial society during the colonial period. Many historical accounts tend to portray the colonial administration as an omnipotent force, but the Japanese faced considerable limitations and challenges in ruling the colony. Korea gradually became integrated into an autarkic economic block along with Manchuria that formed the basis for Japan’s East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere. However, political integration remained a controversial topic that was never resolved before 1945. The Japanese enforced numerous policies to mobilize the colonial population for World War II. Yet even as Koreans marched into the battlefront and served labor duty in the factories, basic political rights continued to be denied. Many of today’s tensions between Korea and Japan stem from the unresolved historical controversies from the colonial period.

Business History, 2022

The collective memory inscribed in Korean history books recalls when the Japanese colonial state ... more The collective memory inscribed in Korean history books recalls when the Japanese colonial state requi23sitioned brassware from Korean households during World War II. This study explores the complex mechanism behind these campaigns. Copper was a scarce commodity in the Japanese empire. The colonial brassware industry expanded but struggled due to fluctuating copper prices before the war. To overcome the reluctance of Koreans to part with their brassware, the colonial state had to coordinate various actors across multiple organisations, provide
ceramic replacements, and establish a system of financial payments. The Japanese also ultimately created a ‘brass bureaucracy’ capable of carrying out the sensitive task of removing copper from Korean households. The Korean case reminds us that institutional frameworks are necessary for wartime salvage. Finally, brassware collections also resulted in fundamental changes in Korean society and everyday material culture that require careful analysis.

Asian Studies Review, 2021

At the height of World War II, the Government General of Korea exerted considerable effort to pro... more At the height of World War II, the Government General of Korea
exerted considerable effort to propagandise and mobilise the colonial
population. Films, fictional works, theatrical productions, posters
and exhibits exhorted colonised Koreans to support the war
effort and sacrifice themselves for the Japanese empire. At the same
time, a considerable number of images from the period provided
views of a more mundane everyday life, filled with smiling children
going to school and farmers living an idyllic communal life. Late
colonial publications offer a fascinating visual archive of Korea, and
behind the plethora of everyday images was the spread of amateur
photography. The Japanese colonial state in Korea systematically
and purposefully used amateur photographs to visually “stage”
everyday life, transforming the images into symbolic representations
that legitimated colonisation. In terms of visual politics and
the aims of this special issue, the study of the visual practices of the
colonial period underscores how their influence has persisted long
after liberation in 1945 and continues to affect representations of
Korean society, culture and nationhood even today.

Journal of Korean Religions, 2018

Yun Ch’iho (1864–1945)’s voluminous personal letters and diaries have placed him at the center of... more Yun Ch’iho (1864–1945)’s voluminous personal letters and diaries have placed him at the center of a diverse array of historical studies on modern Korean history. Yun’s diaries can be especially helpful in revealing important aspects of a Christian publishing company called Ch’angmunsa, which began operations in January 1923. Yun’s diary entries yield insights into not only the complexities of the colonial publishing market, but also the entangled history of Korean Christianity during the cultural rule period of the 1920s. The establishment of Ch’angmunsa was part of a broader movement among Korean Christians to achieve more cultural autonomy from the Western missionaries. Korean Christian leaders maintained close relations with the missionaries who spread Christianity in Korea, but they also sought to establish their own basis for Christian cultural production. Through a close reading of Yun’s diary, we can gain a better understanding of the challenges of Christian publishing, the complexities of the Christian Nationalist movement, and the tensions between the missionaries and the Korean Christian leadership in colonial Korea.

Seoul Journal of Korean Studies, 2017

When the Japanese empire annexed Korea, it acquired one of the most lucrative ginseng cultivation... more When the Japanese empire annexed Korea, it acquired one of the most lucrative ginseng cultivation regions in the world. However, efforts to profit from ginseng faltered as Japanese expansion into China in the 1920s and 1930s generated anti-Japanese consumer resistance. The colonial state imposed a state monopoly on its most profitable ginseng product hongsam, or “red ginger.” However, the association of hongsam with Japanese imperialism hampered sales in China, which was its primary export market. The far less profitable ginseng products, on the other hand, were left largely unregulated,and this circumstance allowed private companies to expand alternative markets on their own initiative. In particular, various companies developed derivative manufactured products from ginseng such as extracts, pills, powders, and tonics. Further spurring the appetite for ginseng products during the colonial period was the science of empire that committed considerable resources to biomedical facilities that conducted ginseng research. Private producers appropriated Japan’s imperial science to give legitimacy to their products. Historians who placed an emphasis on hongsam production have largely overlooked the complex factors behind the mass consumption of ginseng during the colonial period. Yet when assessing ginseng’s colonial legacies, we must consider not just the role of the colonial state, but also the role of private producers that pioneered new consumer markets.

Journal of Korean Studies, 2017

The first attempt at spelling reform in South Korea took place in the early 1950s as the Korean W... more The first attempt at spelling reform in South Korea took place in the early 1950s as the Korean War (1950–53) drew to a close. The subsequent Han’gŭl Crisis is often interpreted as an example of the authoritarianism of President Syngman Rhee (Yi Sŭngman), yet the event also represents a clash of generations between the supporters of the Unified Orthography of 1933 and the previous spelling standard. During the han’gŭl simplification debates, the legacies of Chu Sigyŏng (1876–1914) and Pak Sŭngbin (1880–1943) reemerged as their followers continued a contentious linguistic debate that stretched back into the colonial period. The event ended as a victory for the Unified Orthography of 1933, but several ambiguous questions remain for further investigation. Ultimately, behind the claims of “scientific rationalism” in the current han’gŭl spelling are the forgotten memories of linguistic activism and the difficulties in uniting divergent linguistic practices in post-Liberation Korean society.

Seoul Journal of Korean Studies, 2016

Korean historians have long noted the importance of tobacco in colonial finances and highlighted ... more Korean historians have long noted the importance of tobacco in colonial finances and highlighted the economic exploitation of the farmers and laborers involved in the tobacco production system. However, the economic history of tobacco production is far more complex than can be subsumed under the predominant narratives of colonial exploitation. The production of tobacco in colonial Korea has to be understood within the broader context of Japan’s imperial expansion and the regional competition for the East Asian tobacco market in the early twentieth century. British and American Tobacco (BAT) was a formidable presence in the region, which forced the Japanese to concentrate on markets within the Japanese empire. A new period of expansion commenced after the Manchurian Incident in 1931, and the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937 allowed for the rapid growth of the Japanese tobacco industry in Manchuria and China. As Japanese imperial tobacco production expanded in colonial Korea, the commodity had an immense impact on Korean society and culture. Korean consumers constructed new cultural meanings and identities around tobacco that varied considerably depending on one’s social status and position within Korean society. Through a nuanced examination of tobacco’s multifaceted interactions within the Japanese empire, we can better understand many important aspects of colonial Korea’s economy, society and culture.

Journal of Korean Religions, 2016

Western missionaries arrived in Korea decades before the Japanese annexation of 1910, and they es... more Western missionaries arrived in Korea decades before the Japanese annexation of 1910, and they established a major presence before the advent of colonial rule. The missionaries initially clashed with the colonial state over state intervention in their religious affairs. Through a series of confrontations, the missionaries eventually gained key concessions which allowed them to expand their presence in Korea, especially in the cities of Pyongyang and Seoul. The reasons why Christian organizations flourished under Japanese colonial rule are often attributed to their nationalist reputation gained through the March First Movement, but this line of analysis tends to provide an incomplete picture. Through a careful examination of the process by which the Western missionaries became institutionalized in the colonial order through the pursuit of education, medicine, and other forms of “social work,” we may better understand the dynamics between state and religion in colonial Korea

Sungkyun Journal of East Asian Studies, 2016

Chinese laborers migration to colonial Korea became a major issue that resulted in entry restrict... more Chinese laborers migration to colonial Korea became a major issue that resulted in entry restrictions in 1934. During the early years of colonial rule, the Government General of Korea did not actively limit the entry of Chinese laborers and the colonial state was one of the largest employers. However, in the 1930s migration restrictions appeared not only in Korea but also in neighboring Manchuria. The efforts at border control in colonial Korea need to be viewed in conjunction with labor policies in Japan and Manchuria. The restrictions on Chinese labor were ultimately linked to efforts to reconfigure Japan’s new territorial possessions after the Manchurian Incident in 1931 as the region became a space for resolving the intractable social and economic problems of the Japanese empire.

Sai, 2015

Despite the numerous empirical studies on colonial Korea many fundamental questions about Japanes... more Despite the numerous empirical studies on colonial Korea many fundamental questions about Japanese colonialism require further examination. A new approach to understanding Japan’s colonial project is needed to overcome the limits of the colonial exploitation and colonial modernity thesis. A survey of recent works in colonial studies published in the English language can provide some fresh perspectives in this regard. Many of the recent studies on colonial Korea fully engage the historiography of modern Japanese history and provide important theoretical approaches into the questions of historical structure and agency. While not without their limitations, the results provide more complex understanding of the Japanese colonizers and the ambiguities of colonial rule. The arriving at a more comprehensive approach to colonial Korea will require considerable more effort, but the foundations for such an endeavor have finally emerged in the recent English language studies.

목차 1. 최근 북미 한국사연구의 동향과 동아시아사와의 연계성 2. 19세기 제국주의의 성격과 주권문제를 통해서 바라본 세계사의 연계성 3. 세계사와 동아시아사의 관점에... more 목차
1. 최근 북미 한국사연구의 동향과 동아시아사와의 연계성
2. 19세기 제국주의의 성격과 주권문제를 통해서 바라본 세계사의 연계성
3. 세계사와 동아시아사의 관점에서 바라본 한국종교사
4. 역사행위자의 위치에서 바라본 한국사

Recent trends that introduce transnationalism have broadened the horizons of Korean history to in... more Recent trends that introduce transnationalism have broadened the horizons of Korean history to incorporate previously ignored elements such as ethnic diversity, the circulation
of global commodities, and intellectual exchange in the modern era. Despite the inroads that the new transnational histories have made, however, there still remains a need to engage broader philosophical and ethical questions about universalism and particularism in Korean history. Transnational histories without a deep engagement with cosmopolitan values may not be able to overcome the particularistic conceptual boundaries that continue to dominate Korean historical writing. Therefore, a more nuanced reconsideration of the meaning of universalism and cosmopolitanism within the context of Korean history may help to raise important philosophical considerations for overcoming the limits of Korean
nationalist historiography, while allowing for coexistence with the increasing social and cultural diversity in Korean society today.

Manchuria remains a problematic region in modern Korean historiography. The intense interactions ... more Manchuria remains a problematic region in modern Korean historiography. The intense interactions between the Korean peninsula and Manchuria before 1945 often become subsumed into nationalist narratives of anti-Japanese resistance and the suffering of impoverished Korean migrants. While recent Korean historiography on Manchuria has addressed a broader array of historical issues, there is still much more research necessary to understand fully the position of Manchuria in modern Korean history. This study examines the postliberation narratives of Korean returnees from Manchuria during the immediate liberation period and reconnects their collective experiences with some key events of Korea and Manchuria under the Japanese empire. Through a discussion of the large scale Korean migration and economic integration that took place within Manchuria before 1945, the need for a broader historical paradigm becomes apparent. Colonial era historians developed their own historiographical models to explain the interconnections between the two regions. While the colonial historiography need not be rehabilitated for such purposes, there is still a need to conceptualize Manchuria and Korea from a transnational historical framework that can better elucidate the deep interconnections between the two regions before 1945.

The Kyŏngbok Palace has been the site of continual reconstruction ever since the Taewŏ n’gun’s ef... more The Kyŏngbok Palace has been the site of continual reconstruction ever since the Taewŏ n’gun’s efforts in 1865 to the recent unveiling of the new Kwanghwamun in August 2010. No other location in Seoul has undergone so much intense reconstruction efforts at such a prohibitive cost. This study examines the 150 year history of this reconstruction effort and focuses on two key themes that have not been fully examined in previous works on this topic. The first is the interplay between the palace grounds and Korea’s encounter with modernity. Korea’s modern transformation has reconfigured this site multiple times, and there is a need to explore the multiple ways that modernity has imparted visual symbolic significance to this location. The second is the intensity of public debate over this urban site, which heralds the gradual historical emergence of a public culture of commemorations. From this perspective, the palace reconstruction can reveal far more than an effort to display Korean nationalism and past traditions. For the site can offer some important insights into the development of modern Korea’s civil society and public culture.

Sungkyun Journal of East Asian Studies, 2010

One of the unintended consequences of the Wanpaoshan Incident of 1931 was the mass departure of C... more One of the unintended consequences of the Wanpaoshan Incident of 1931 was the mass departure of Chinese residents from colonial Korea. When hundreds of Chinese were either killed or injured in the aftermath of the Wanpaoshan Incident, many fled Korea and abandoned their businesses. The sudden departure of so many Chinese then triggered a collapse of retail outlets for imported goods and a financial crisis in colonial Korea. A system of credit risk-sharing to finance the distribution of imported goods had emerged through the Chinese commercial network, but the sudden inability to collect payments after the ethnic riots spread financial instability throughout the colonial economy. The capital shortage that followed affected not just the Chinese community, but also Japanese and Korean small to medium-sized businesses that had difficulties finding low-interest loans. This study examines the crucial role of the Chinese commercial network in colonial Korea and discusses their impact on the colonial retail and finance sectors.

There is little evidence that remains today of the vibrant commercial publishing of the late Chos... more There is little evidence that remains today of the vibrant commercial publishing of the late Chosŏn period. However, the various publication efforts of Western missionaries in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries provide important insights into this otherwise litte-understood area. The missionaries made every effort to have a clear understanding of the language and print culture of Korea, so that they could operate a profitable enterprise. Western missionaries learned through trial and error that the cash market in Chosŏn for printed books was considerable and that effective distribution could have an immense impact on book sales. The distribution of Christian literature reached levels that could only be found in a few places around the world. The records left behind from their considerable publishing efforts provide a rare glimpse into the scope of the late Chosŏn period and early colonial period print markets. The distribution of Christian texts can provide valuable regional data about where books could achieve the highest circulation. The ratio of Chinese character books versus vernacular books also provide important information about the reading abilities of Koreans at the time. Missionaries encountered considerable social prejudices against the vernacular script. Books published in the vernacular were associated with vulgar content in the minds of Korean readers in the late Chosŏn period, but the efforts of missionaries may have helped to systemize and elevate the perceived value of the native script.

Korean literary critics and authors active in the 1930s evoked a sense of crisis and despair abou... more Korean literary critics and authors active in the 1930s evoked a sense of crisis and despair about the state of Korean literature. The financial foundations of Korean literary production throughout most of the early colonial period were tenuous, and there was a strong sense that colonial readers were indifferent to Korean literature or had a strong preference for foreign literature. By the late 1930s, however, the state of literary production in colonial Korea had changed dramatically. Professional writers were able to make a living from their manuscripts, and the volume of literary output reached unprecedented levels. Significant capital flowed into cultural production, and Korean authors increasingly participated in a transnational literary field that stretched throughout the Japanese Empire. Yet just as the market for Korean literary works achieved capitalist levels of production, the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937 triggered wartime controls of the publication industry. During this last phase of the colonial order, Korean writers began to reconceptualize Korean literature into National Literature, which was written in Japanese and intended for an expansive audience that resided throughout the Japanese empire. The literary history of late colonial period would ultimately raise fundamental questions about what constituted Korean literature and literary authorship within the rapidly expanding transnational media market of the Japanese Empire. This article examines this complex relationship between the dynamics of literary markets and changing conceptions of Korean literature during the colonial period.

Colonial Korea underwent a major transformation as the Japanese Empire mobilised the colonial pop... more Colonial Korea underwent a major transformation as the Japanese Empire mobilised the colonial population to aid its expansion into the Asian mainland during the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–45). This article examines the development of colonial print culture and the use of visual images to generate support for Japanese colonial rule.The Japanese colonisers did not undertake their wartime mobilisation alone, for Japan’s spectacular military victories encouraged prominent Korean collaborators to join in the war effort. This analysis of the visual representations from late colonial Korea provides a glimpse into the internal logic and symbolic universe of Korean collaborators and discusses the techniques of mobilisation that were deployed in a bid to achieve hegemony in colonial Korea

Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Asian History, 2022

Business History, 2022

Asian Studies Review, 2021

Journal of Korean Religions, 2018

Seoul Journal of Korean Studies, 2017

Journal of Korean Studies, 2017

Seoul Journal of Korean Studies, 2016

Journal of Korean Religions, 2016

Sungkyun Journal of East Asian Studies, 2016

Sai, 2015

Sungkyun Journal of East Asian Studies, 2010

Numerous journal and newspapers served as an important conduit for the introduction of modernizat... more Numerous journal and newspapers served as an important conduit for the introduction of modernization theory to Korea. This study considers the impact of modernization theory in postwar South Korean intellectual history through an examination of a major journal Sasanggye (1953-1970). Even though Sasanggye was a vocal critic of authoritarian rule, the journal often expressed ideas about development that were highly compatible with the emergence of an interventionist developmental state. By exploring the potential links between the spread of modernization theory and the emergence of an intellectual consensus on the need for state-led industrialization, this study attempts to provide a broader understanding of postwar Korean intellectual history.

Rethinking Japanese Colonial Rule from Taiwan and Korea, 2021

Mass Dictatorship: Collusion and Evasion in Everyday Life, 2016

Japanese colonial bureaucrats in Korea made frequent references to ‘industrial warriors’ and anno... more Japanese colonial bureaucrats in Korea made frequent references to ‘industrial warriors’ and announced special material provisions and awarded medals to Korean workers during WWII. The Japanese hoped to solve the empire-wide labour shortage through the mobilisation of workers, and the paise given to labour heroes was a part of this broader campaign. The Japanese used both coercion and material incentives for their mobilisation. A careful focus on the theme of ‘industrial warriors’ can be useful in highlighting the complexities of the mobilisation system. The fact that so many Korean workers had been mobilised so far away from their homes meant that the Japanese had to pay special attention managing their 'leisure time'. In essence, they had to devise a way of keeping the Korean workers preoccupied and entertained when they were outside the factories and mines. Therefore, behind the rhetoric of the ‘industrial warriors’ was an attempt to restructure everyday life and introduced a more totalistic conception of industrial labour management under a ‘rationalised’ modernity.

The idea that a strong state was necessary to solve the riddle of development has a long history ... more The idea that a strong state was necessary to solve the riddle of development has a long history that can be traced back to European origins. Many intellectuals believed that capitalism needed to be combined with socialism as the drive for capital accumulation moved beyond the borders of Europe. The end of World War II placed development at the forefront of the agenda of newly decolonized states. The emergence of an identity among the nations as ‘developed’ and ‘underdeveloped’ greatly shaped the framework of world politics. In this way, the concept of development ultimately became an identity that manifest itself in various developmental practices that struggled to find the optimal pathway to achieve economic growth.

The issue of collaboration strikes at the heart of the question of ‘voluntarism’ in mass dictator... more The issue of collaboration strikes at the heart of the question of ‘voluntarism’ in mass dictatorship. We may view colonial collaboration as a particular form of collective reinvention and modern governmentality, where dominated subjects are encouraged to internalize social norms and regulate their everyday conduct in the hopes of satisfying the demands of the colonizers. Postliberation regimes attempted to punish collaborators, but they could not overcome the ambiguities of historical memory and the difficulties in defining certain actions as crimes against the nation. Ultimately, the ability of collaborators to detach themselves from the consequences of their everyday conduct provided support for mass dictatorships around the world.

The Government General of Korea took over a decade after seizing control of Korea to promulgate t... more The Government General of Korea took over a decade after seizing control of Korea to promulgate the Census Ordinance in 1921 along with the first compilation of the colonial census registry or koseki. Koreans during the previous Choson dynasty did take a census, but the data only clearly recorded the head of household. The 1921 registry was not comprehensive as many Koreans had left the country or never voluntarily identified themselves during the colonial period. Thus the transition from the household registry system of the Choson dynasty to the colonial koseki took several decades and the process was not complete by the end of colonial rule in 1945. Today, the unregistered Korean returnees from the former Soviet Union or China still remain a perplexing problem, because the Republic of Korea refuses to grant resident rights to these ethnic Koreans who cannot produce the proper documentation.

This study examines the complex dynamics behind the emergence of the colonial koseki and the subsequent social and legal interactions that surrounded the registration process in colonial Korea. A fascinating social history can be discovered in the instances of multiple fictitious names that appear on the colonial koseki and the attempts by the colonial state to clear up the legal confusion triggered by an inability to register all the Koreans. The colonial registration process took on a new dimension once the Second Sino-Japanese War broke out in 1937, when a sudden necessity to register all Koreans for military and labor conscription arose. Thus, understanding the process by which the colonial koseki took shape is important in understanding both the complexities of colonial society as well as the subsequent issue of who is or is not a constituent member of South Korean society today.

The Japanese often explained that they could not implement certain policies in Korea because of t... more The Japanese often explained that they could not implement certain policies in Korea because of the low mindo or cultural and economic level of the Korean population. This denigrating term then became internalised among Korean participants in the colonial public sphere, and they often expressed views that the Korean public was backward and not able to fully express its collective political will. However, Korean pundits did not accept their fate quietly and a critical public debate developed within the limits of the dominant colonial rationality, especially over the perceived failures of colonial policy. The discourse of mindo changed rapidly with the outbreak of World War II, as Koreans would later claim that their level of civilisation had finally become high enough to achieve equality with the Japanese. Political pressure for colonial reforms continued to build even during the height of World War II and assumed a different character under the particular circumstances of wartime mobilisation. Through an examination of the trajectory of mindo, we may gain insights into the ‘alternative rationalities’ of the colonial order that shaped the colonial public sphere.

Yun Hae-dong's essay discusses a long-running debate among mostly historians in Japan concerning ... more Yun Hae-dong's essay discusses a long-running debate among mostly historians in Japan concerning the presence or absence of the public sphere in colonial Korea. Rather than accept the problematic assumptions behind a Habermasian public sphere, Yun offers the concept of ‘publicness’ as a suitable substitute for analysing the multiple dimensions of colonialism. A public sphere in the civic society sense could not, and did not, exist under colonialism, he argues. However, this does not mean that colonised subjects lacked a sense of publicness that ultimately served both the interests of the colonial state as well as offered opportunities for Korean appropriations. Therefore, Yun explores alternative venues for discovering notions of ‘publicness’ in colonial Korea and highlights several neglected aspects of the period for further consideration.

Wars in the twentieth century have had a somewhat paradoxical effect on gender politics around th... more Wars in the twentieth century have had a somewhat paradoxical effect on gender politics around the world. During periods of intense warfare, women are often thrust into new social roles as they increasingly assume public duties and enter the workforce to replace the men dispatched to the battlefront. The history of gender politics in colonial Korea (1910-45) after the outbreak of the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937-45), in many respects, paralleled wartime developments found elsewhere. Korean women were called upon to display their loyalty to the Japanese Emperor by entering the workforce and fulfilling their obligations as mothers and wives of Korean soldiers drafted into the Imperial Japanese Army. Korean women were also encouraged to participate actively in patriotic neighborhood associations (aegukban) dedicated to supporting the home front while the men were away on military and labor duty. The male-dominated public discourse of the late colonial period reinforced patriarchal gender roles, yet the women who participated in the wartime mobilisation were not necessarily acting in a passive manner. New venues for female agency in Korean society would emerge as a consequence of the war, and the numerous examples from the late colonial period may be particularly revealing sources for understanding the significance of this major shift in gender relations.

In diesem Band werden Möglichkeiten einer Geschichtsschreibung jenseits des Eurozentrismus aufgez... more In diesem Band werden Möglichkeiten einer Geschichtsschreibung jenseits des Eurozentrismus aufgezeigt und neue Sichtweisen auf Kolonialismen erprobt. Die Autorinnen und Autoren bieten ein umfassendes Spektrum theoretischer Konzeptionen und historischer Einzelstudien zur globalen Kolonialgeschichte, so etwa zu China, Korea, Nordamerika, dem Deutschen Reich, dem Habsburgerreich oder Russland.

Inhalt
I. Vorweg: Fragen und Konzepte
Einleitung: Kolonialgeschichten – Regionale Perspektiven
auf ein globales Phanomen
Claudia Kraft/Alf Ludtke/Jurgen Martschukat. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Zwischen Metropole und Kolonie:
Ein Forschungsprogramm neu denken
Ann Laura Stoler/Frederick Cooper. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Kolonialgeschichtliche Probleme und kolonialhistorische Konzepte
Wolfgang Reinhard. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 67
II. Europaische Kolonialdiskurse und -praktiken
Die so genannte ≫Grose griechische Kolonisation≪
und die Konstruktion einer ehrwurdigen Herkunft
Douwe Yntema . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
Erinnerungspolitik in der postkolonialen Republik –
Frankreich und das koloniale Erbe
Daniel Mollenhauer. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
Mission und Kolonialismus – Mission als Kolonialismus
Anmerkungen zu einer Wahlverwandtschaft
Thoralf Klein. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 142
Platze an der Sonne? Europaische Visualisierungen
kolonialer Realitaten um 1900
Jens Jager. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 162
6 Inhalt
III. Europa und Asien – von West nach Ost
Kolonialismus. Imperialismus. Nationalsozialismus?
Chancen und Grenzen eines neuen Paradigmas
Birthe Kundrus . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187
Imperiale, koloniale und postkoloniale Blicke
auf die Peripherien des Habsburgerreiches
Anna Veronika Wendland. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 211
Geographien imperialer Identitat: Russland
im 18. und 19. Jahrhundert
Mark Bassin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 236
War Qing-China ein koloniales Empire?
Peter Perdue. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 259
Die Erfahrung der Stadt und die Konstruktion
kolonialer Subjektivitat: Alltagsleben in Seoul, 1910–1945
Michael Kim. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 282
IV. Nordamerika
Kulturtransfer und Empire: Britisches Vorbild und
US-amerikanische Kolonialherrschaft auf den Philippinen
im fruhen 20. Jahrhundert
Frank Schumacher. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 306
Mrs. Wilkins tanzt: ≫Rasse≪, Kolonialismus und
≫Popular Culture≪ auf der Weltausstellung von St. Louis, 1904
James Gilbert. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 328
≫Anti-Amerikanismus≪ in der arabischen Welt:
Interpretation einer jungen Geschichte
Ussama Makdisi. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 361
Autorinnen und Autoren. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 392

Pacific Affairs, 2022

The International Impact of Colonial Rule in Korea, edited by Yong-Chool Ha, brings together nota... more The International Impact of Colonial Rule in Korea, edited by Yong-Chool Ha, brings together notable experts to reflect on the international implications of Japanese colonialism. Japan became a global power through its successes in the Sino-Japanese War (1894-1895) and the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905). Yet the historical impact of Japan's conquest of Korea has received little academic attention. The book addresses this gap in the scholarship by pointing out that while Korea may not have existed "legally" on the international stage, international relations remained important considerations for the colony.

Women throughout much of Korean history have left behind little evidence in the historical archiv... more Women throughout much of Korean history have left behind little evidence in the historical archives. The copious volumes of historical documents from the premodern period occasionally hint at the presence of women, but only a handful of sources, like petitions and letters, allow us to reconstruct their lives. Ji-Eun Lee addresses this dearth of women's voices in Korean history in Women Pre-scripted: Forging Modern Roles through Korean Print through an examination of the discourse on " New Women " as Koreans discussed the issues of modernity, enlightenment, and nation for the first time within the print media in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. By gathering together a wide range of materials such as cartoons, literary works, and editorials, the author contributes many insights into the construction of modern Korean womanhood. The first chapter of Women Pre-scripted starts with a discussion of female readership during the Chosŏn Dynasty (1392-1910). A succinct overview of the secondary research on female participation in the book culture of Chosŏn highlights the difficulties in determining the extent of female writing and literacy. The general lack of conclusive evidence calls into question some of the claims that tend to link vernacular fiction and the han'gŭl script to women. The ambiguity of women's participation in reading and authorship in the premodern era makes it hard for us to draw firm conclusions about how Korean women understood their gender relations. Therefore, the careful literature review allows us to appreciate the intellectual contribution of Women Pre-scripted, which provides a nuanced analysis of the historical period when the first writings on women and by women appeared in the modern media. The second and third chapters introduce several representative periodicals such as The Independent newspaper and Korea's first women's journals Kajŏng chapchi to show how women's roles became " prescribed " with modern knowledge that was " appropriate, " while critiquing those aspects of modernity found to be problematic. The initial male-dominated discourse of The Independent offers few discussions outside the topics of a woman's role in the family and women's education. In a sense, male guidance regarding a woman's role restricted women to the home during this initial period. Ji-Eun Lee draws attention to the writings of Yun Chŏng-wŏn (1894-?) in the journal T'aegŭk hakpo, because she is the first known female contributor in the modern media. Yun's writings differ from The Independent's discourse on womanhood, because she establishes a clear role for women in public life. While women were encouraged to take an active role outside the home, at the same time the new women's journals like Kajŏng chapchi, written mostly by men, emphasized the importance of practical knowledge and domesticity for women. The images of womanhood that emerge from this period are mired in contradictions, as women were called upon to construct a " home " for Korea's male patriots while also taking a limited part in the public life beyond the confines of traditional gender roles. Chapters 4 and 5 examine in detail two women's journals from the colonial period, Sinyŏja and Sinyŏsŏng, and discuss their importance in fostering the emerging discourse on " New Women. " These two chapters highlight the importance of literary forms like confessions and letters in establishing an emerging female agency in the print media. Sinyŏja was particularly important because it was a journal edited by a woman and featured mostly female writers. This new space for imagining the role of Korean women was not without its limits, and the most successful women's publication during the 1920s, Sinyŏsŏng, was predominantly produced by men and had few developments that could be viewed in a progressive light. Ji-Eun Lee's analysis emphasizes the problematic assumptions within these journals and provides a broader historical framework for understanding how modern womanhood emerged from these women's publications.