07.1.2008 | 11:53 pm | Military, Korea
I cannot find the same article online but there was an interesting article (for me) in today’s Korean Herald.
Military fatigues cause confusion at protests over U.S. beef imports.
“The Defense Ministry briefly got entangled yesterday in a public rumpus over U.S. beef imports after it said it was moving to crack down on protesters wearing military uniforms, but hurriedly backtracked amid a backlash.”
All Korean males who underwent the military service here keep military uniforms for reserve training and in case they are mobilized as active-duty soldiers. ‘Military uniforms,’ is a symbol of national unity and sacrifice of young lives to their home country. Now, young Korean males wear them at protests on the issue of US beef import. I would like to figure out WHY they want to do that and what it means from a sociological perspective.
A side note on today’s news:
I have never encountered other medias that refer to the OECD (i.e. rich countries) as the major standard for everything as the South Korean news media does. Someone should study this phenomenon.
Korea’s Gender Wage Gap Biggest in OECD
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06.16.2008 | 5:44 pm | History, Japan
Since I read about this comic book at asahi.com, I have been curious about it. I bought and read it as I came back to Japan to visit my parents.
Himaruya Hidekaz, Hetalia: Axis Power, Gentosha, 2008
The author started to post the cartoons online while he was studying design in NY. He became interested in the stereotypes based on the nationality, and in this cartoon, each country (mostly European but including the US, Canada, Japan, China and Korea) is literally personified, and interacts with each other in the form of young males. The cartoon soon became popular online, and 100,000 copies were sold in the first month of the publication.
I have mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand, it probably serves as an accessible media of ‘world history’ for the younger generation. You do not learn a lot about historical facts from the cartoon, but its cute drawings and anecdotes might spark the reader’s curiosity in history.
On the other hand, the idea that a single person embodies a nation is uncomfortable for those who study history like me. Over-simplification is anathema for historians, and the idea of this cartoon sits at the opposite end from what historians usually prefer.
Many of the descriptions are disturbing, too. This volume, as subtitled as “Axis Power,” devotes many pages to interactions among Germany, Japan and Italy. Germany is depicted as a masculine, disciplined, efficient military general, and Japan is a young, reserved, yet technologically competent prince (probably the emperor), while Italy is a cute and friendly but weak and useless boy which blindly follows Germany. All these characteristics are no doubt problematic and alarming in our eyes— Interwar Germany without Hitler? Quiet and rational Japan and Emotional Korea? Today’s stereotypes casted over WWII? There are so many disturbing elements in this comic book.
This cartoon deals with the problem of gendering the nations in a curious way. Just like many other Japanese cartoons, some of the characters, although they are all male, show a great deal of femininity and metro-sexuality. Actually it is hard to tell their sex from the drawings. The author could almost ignore the gender problem by following the Japanese way of cartooning.
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06.1.2008 | 8:08 pm | Travel, Taiwan, My Grad School Life
Since I finished my semester around May 10th, I have been going back and forth between NY and DC until May 28th, when I finally packed and left NY for my summer Asia trip. My first stop was Los Angeles. Believe it or not, this is my first time, as far as I can recall, coming to this city. I was invited to a graduate conference at UCLA, and it was great to hang out with people I had made friends with at the grad conference that Columbia had back in February. The conference was interesting, and hopefully I did not bore the audience too much with my presentation.
There were a number of professors who supportively attended the conference as discussants and audience. When I had a chance to have conversations with these professors in person, since I was the only student from Columbia, let alone the only student who is officially enrolled in the “international and global history” PhD track, they asked me a lot about the program. They (China historians/literature professors) told me that history departments are still organized based on nation-state compartments, and the institution is hard to change. 
I was surprised to hear that Japan historians are the most resistant to the trans-national/global history trend, since my advisers in NY are radically pro-transnational (although I wasn’t surprised to hear the old generation of Korea historians are against it). Apparently, among Japanese and Korean history professors, there is a fear that Chinese history is absorbing Japan and Korea in the name of ‘global.’ The UCLA professors asked me how I would market myself when I do job-hunting. I could not care less about the labels I would use — whatever convenient for the occasion. I am even not totally sure whether I am a ‘historian’ or a ‘historical social scientist’ or ‘political historian’ or something else.
The Los Angeles airport was a bit of mess. At least where my gate was. It was under some sort of renovation, and people needed to wait in bizarre space with lots of silver pipes and bulbs. It felt like I was in a refugee crowd in a sci-fi movie.
I just flew into Taiwan this morning, and am staying with my fiends, here. Taiwan is as fascinating as ever. I had Guangdong rice porriage (less then 2 bucks) and a huge cup of ice coffee with half sugar (1 dollar) this morning. I love this island. (The Pic: an emergency exit on the airport bus that I took. It successfully conveys that it really is an emergency exit.)
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05.21.2008 | 12:09 am | History, Research, Military, Japan, Korea, Academic
I have finished my first draft on this topic, and I think the bibliography might be useful to others as well.
Official Documents
I used the Japanese government’s (the Government General in Korea and Chosengun) documents mostly as primary sources.
- Chōsengun, Chōsenjin Shiganhei Seido ni Kansuru Iken (The Opinions Concerning the Korean Volunteer System), June 1937, available at: http://www.koreanhistory.or.kr/.
- Chōsengun, Chōsenjin Shiganhei Seido Jisshi Yōkō, (The Regulations on the Implementation of the Volunteer Solder Program for Koreans), November 1937, available at: http://www.koreanhistory.or.kr/.
- Chōsengun, Chōsenjin Shiganhei Seido ni Kansuru ken Kaitō (The Response Regarding the Volunteer Soldier System), November 1937, available at: http://www.koreanhistory.or.kr/.
- Chōsengun, Chōsen Shisō Undō Gaikyō in Miyata Setsuko eds. Jūgonen Sensō Gokuhi Shiryōshū: Chōsen Shisō Undō Gaikyō (Collection of Top Secret Documents of the Fifteen Year War: The Situation of Ideological Movements in Korea) Fuji Shuppan: Tokyo, 1991.
- Chōsen Sōtokufu Teikokugikai Setsumei Shiryō (Documents of the Explanations from the Government-General in Korea to the Japanese Imperial Parliament), Fuji Shuppan: Tokyo, 1994. Vol. 1.
- Tokko Gaiji Geppo 1936-1938
Publications
Many books discuss the 1938 volunteer program and the 1943/44 conscription policy together. The most oft-cited book that separated the two is:
- Miyata, Setsuko 宮田節子. Chōsen Minshū to ‘Kōminka’ Seisaku 朝鮮民衆と「皇民化」政策(Korean Masses and Kōminka Policy), Miraisha; Tokyo, 1985.
Miyata examines Korean people’s reactions to the 1937 Sino-Japanese war, the 1938 Korean Volunteer Soldier program and the 1944 universal military draft system through police/army records on rumors, thought crimes and ‘dangerous’ activities of Korean people. She presents great details of these records and subtle differences in expressions, etc. My major problem with her work is that she presumes the ‘rational’ masses who “knew the real nature of the volunteer program,” and the cruel yet desperate Japanese gov/army which had always been “craving Korean human resources as ‘military manpower.” It seems to me very teleological.
- Palmer, Brandon. Japan’s Mobilization of Koreans for War, 1937-1945. Diss. to University of Hawaii, 2005.
Compared to Miyata, Palmer is more cautious about teleology in understanding the Japanese colonial government’s motivations. He also gives a nice summary of available sources in the first chapter regarding the Kominka mobilization. The big theme for him is James Scott’s “weapons of the weak.” The research part of his dissertation was very very useful for me, but I think we need a little more complex theory of ‘agency’ in understanding the place of ‘colonial subjects.’
- Fujitani, Takashi. “Right to Kill, Right to Make Live: Koreans as Japanese and Japanese as Americans During WWII,” Representations, Summer 2007:99, pp.13-39.
I found Fujitani’s article at the last minute, and it was helpful in theorizing my findings. He draws upon Foucault’s ‘governmentality’ and ‘biopower’ to understand the Japanese government’s logic of power. By showing that the increase in the social welfare and control over health and bodies of the Korean population went together with the recruitment of Korean soldiers, he argues that the Japanese government expanded its governmentality over its colonies. It partially supports my argument, but the article was difficult to cite since it inevitably drags me into these Foucauldian jargons, which I am trying my best to limit the usage of.
I did not have enough time to explore Korean publications on the issue but one of the few I read is:
- Ch’oe, Yuri. Ilche Malggi Simminchi Jibechŏngch’aek Yŏngu (A Study on Japanese colonial policy in the late imperialism), Kukhak Ch’aryowon: Seoul, 1997.
Ch’oe devotes a lot of pages to analyzing subtle changes in the Kominka slogans and concepts between the Governments-General, but I cannot help wondering how honest/serious these governors were in expressing their *real* thoughts through slogans and speeches. In other words, I am not sure of how important it was for them to make subtle differences in their expressions.
- Chou, Wan-yao. “The Kōminka Movement in Taiwan and Korea: Comparisons and Interpretations” in Duus, Mayers and Peattie, The Japanese Wartime Empire, 1931-1945, Princeton University Press, 1996.
Chou basically shows the Kominka movement was all about ‘ethnic’ conversion. This is a very classic point of view, and it nicely represents the standard literature on Kominka for good and bad. I had my classmates read this chapter before my presentation of my paper, and it was probably funny for them to see Chou’s serious argument on the ’substantial differences’ between Korea and Taiwan, since the class had been comparing a wide variety of ‘colonialism’s of the twentieth century across the world.
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05.9.2008 | 10:11 pm | Research, History, Korea, Academic
I have posted some of the findings on school strikes during Kominka at Frog in a Well -Korea (here). This is actually a part of one of my papers. I could not spend too much time on this one, but it always feels like the richness of the historical documents can somehow compensate my lack of depth in analysis.
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04.24.2008 | 11:34 am | My Grad School Life
I am in the middle of writing seminar papers, and for some obscure reason, I am wholeheartedly trying to meet one of my new-year resolutions, which is to write a paper that is truly publishable. (Not necessarily to publish it but to try to write high quality papers.)
Libraries, books, articles and primary sources are, of course, the integral part of my research. But the further I go, the more impressed and grateful I am with my professors’ help. Obviously, they are incredibly smart, knowledgeable and passionate about scholarship. They can understand and even re-articulate my points from my mumbles and confusing explanations about my research.
The thing is, I feel very lucky to have them as my teachers, but at the same time, it is very hard to foresee myself doing that job in the future. It is intimidating and even scary at this stage to think about it.
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04.19.2008 | 5:39 am | Feminism, Japan
Diet product advertisements are everywhere. As summer approaches, we see them even more often. These are the ones I found on Facebook recently:
Now. Let’s compare them with what I found at Mixi (a popular social networking site in Japan).
Left: I am guessing that the right is “before” and the left is “after”? (or both are “after”?)
Right: it says “Do you have a GAP between your INNER THIGHS?”
Please understand why I am scared of visiting Japan every summer.
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04.11.2008 | 10:58 pm | History, Academic, My Grad School Life
Did anyone read Morris-Suzuki’s “Exodus to North Korea” yet? I read it in a seminar on modern Korean history. She discovers from Red Cross archives in Geneva the well-calculated scheme (mostly by Japanese leaders) behind the repatriation of Koreans (including Japanese women married Koreans and lost nationality) to North Korea in the late 1950s. The information she presents is interesting (and she is good at presenting it as a shocking fact), and she documents the course of her research in a dramatic and literary way so that readers can enjoy it as a political thriller.
North Korea is a hot topic, and Japanese people are hungry for whatever information available because we have little access to the voice of people there. The topic that she deals with can easily stir emotions, and it is obvious that she wanted to convey her own emotion to the reader.
There are many problems that come from the fact that she over-determines the meaning of each piece of information that she encounters (e.g. She over-emphasizes the deceptive nature of North Korean propaganda in the 50s, etc), and projects the information we have now but unknown to those in the 50s. But besides the problem of teleology, I have an issue in that the fact that those people are still alive somehow allows the author to be more emotional.
If you have ever done historical research with primary sources, you probably know how adventurous and emotional a journey of historical investigation is. Human drama is everywhere. I have been reading some thought police records from the 1930s in Korea and Japan, and I am emotionally committed to the drama of each person I read about in these records. But almost all of them are dead by know. No one can ever speak to them, and researchers like me can only try to imagine their lives from very limited records. How could their lives during wartime mobilization be less dramatic than those who repatriated themselves to North Korea in the 1950s? Not only me, I bet, but every single historian has a similar experience, but tries to overcome her emotions since you might lose a sight of important things if you succumb to your personal feelings.
Reading Morris-Suzuki’s new book, I felt that it is a bit unfair for my people (that I’m reading about) in the 1930s.
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04.8.2008 | 2:48 pm | Research, History, Military, Japan, Korea
Sorry for the long interval. I had to submit a proposal on this topic and my blogging could not catch up with my research.
I was going to blog about some interesting stuff I found in the primary sources. I was reading monthly Japanese High Police reports (特高月報, 特高外事月報) between 1936-1938 on domestic affairs to see how Koreans in Japan were reacting to the issue of military recruitment in Korea. These reports repeatedly show the pleas and movements that demanded the implementation of military conscription program in Korea. No wonder the Japanese government regarded themselves as bestowing ‘the right’ for Koreans to serve in the Japanese Army. This is an example: There is one crime report of identity fraud by a Korean guy in 1937. He wanted to serve in the military so he studied hard while working as a newspaper delivery boy. However, he realized that he needed to be in the Japanese household registry system in order to apply to the Army. He forged a certificate that showed that a Japanese couple that he knew had adopted him as their son. He got into a division of the Army, but the fraud he committed was soon revealed, and the guy was sued by the couple.
Some information was irrelevant to this time of my research but I might want to come back for further research.
- Koreans and Drugs: There’s a section called “在京麻薬中毒者救護会不良幹部の検挙状況” in the May 1936 issue. Apparently, the number of drug users among Koreans in Japan was increasing, and there were some institutions that aimed to help them out. This section reports that the police arrested the officers in these institutions for abusing the patients, using them for theft, and earning profits by smuggling drugs etc. There is always a section on drugs in the annual Korean Government-General reports, too. It might be a good place to look at how the Korean/Japanese underground society was involved in drug smuggling and/or how the Japanese government defined its authority over citizens’ bodies in conjuncture of the history of medicine and public health… Maybe.
- Koreans fighting Seinendan, Fujinkai etc over 廃品回収業: The September 1938 issue reports a growing unease among Koreans who were losing their jobs as recycling/garbage collectors because local organizations like women’s groups, youth groups and reservist groups engaged in the same activity. I didn’t realize this kind of social consequence that these volunteer activities would cause.
- Koreans suing their wives for not living together: The May 1938 issue reports a legal case in which a Korean husband sued his wife in Korea for not living together with him in Japan. It was hard for Korean males to bring their wives with them if they were judged as “financially incapable of supporting families” at their entry into Japan. This particular Korean couple took advantage of the Japanese legal system so that the wife could acquire an official resident permit. Similar cases followed this example (see the October 1938 issue).
- Korean ‘Bad Youth:’ ．．．最近朝鮮人少年はその生育、環境、風俗、言語ないし特殊心理状態状態に於いて内地人少年と差異あるを以て．．．朝鮮人少年を主としたる保護施設団体を特設するの要ありと。。。 says the November 1938 issue. Very interesting to see what difference they made between the reformatories for Japanese children and those for Korean ones.
- Fear after 2.26: The February 1936 issue reports that, seeing the sudden incidence of 2.26 and the martial law that followed, many Koreans expressed a great fear, remembering the aftermath of the Kanto Great Earthquake when many Koreans met lynches and violence. Some got ready for evacuation as well.
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