The industrialization and modernization the Japanese brought to Koreans has continued to be a subject of great controversy between Japan and the two Koreas. According to the Japanese, their main objective was modernizing the Korean society; on the other hand, the two Korean countries claim that Japan derailed their modernization process and exploited them. The vivid memories of Japanese apologists justifying their colonization of Korea and the support the contemporary Westerners gave Japan are still fresh in the minds of the people of North and South Korean. Lee asserts that due to these two divergent positions, the concepts of modernization and industrialization have become tools for describing specific societal phenomena as subjects of symbolic struggles.
Lee further avows that the modernization theory has been considerably discredited within the past two decades and its true meaning has further been relativized. In this regard, if modernity shall not be condemned for all the disastrous consequences it brought through its unrestrained influence, then a better reflection should be employed in examining its achievement and discursive conception. In Lee’s perspective, instead of regarding modernity as an emancipatory project, it should be viewed from an angle of authority and influence, which are focused on “the novel modality of power and domination.” The Koreans were also subjected to the oppressive Japanese rule in their search for modernity. The essay explains extensively, the meaning of the phrase “the novel modality of power” as used by Lee.
Lee’s perspective on the novel modality of power and domination stems from the undemocratic and repressive nature of the Japanese rule. From the superficial perspective, this rule w...
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...ans abandon Nationalism?” Korea Journal 39.2 (1999): 283-341. Print.
Han, Do-Hyun. “Shamanism, Superstition, and the Colonial Government.” The Review of Korean Studies 3.1 (2000): 34-54. Print.
Lee, Chulwoo. “Modernity, Legality and Power in Korea Under Japanese Rule.” Colonial Modernity in Korea. Eds. Gi-Wook Shin and Michael Robinson. New York, NY: Harvard UP, 1999. Print.
Robinson, Michael E. Korea’s Twentieth-Century Odyssey: A Short History. Manoa, HW: University of Hawaii Press, 2007. Print.
Sunae, Pak. “Hostage to My Past.” The Stories of the Korean Comfort Women. Ed. Keith Howard. New York, NY: Cassell, 1995. Print.
Yong-sop, Kim. “The Landlord system and the Agricultural Economy during the Japanese Occupation Period.” Landlords, Peasants and Intellectuals in Modern Korea. Eds. Kie-Chung Pang and Michael Shins. Seoul: Cornell East Asia Series, 2005. Print.
This shows how complex Japanese and Korean interactions with each other are during this time period, because on one hand many people are experiencing extreme racism such as vulgar racism, while here a Japanese person is treating a Korean person with respect and kindness. This shows how nothing is black and white when interacting with people, however it can also be credited for this period of cultural rule and the government’s effort at assimilation with Koreans and Japanese. Kang Pyongju’s experience differs from Ulsu’s experience in which he did not have a close relationship with his business partner, however, the relationship he had with his work was subtle and affective racism where he observed racism and how it disenfranchise him and his people throughout his work. For example, he noticed that now the Bank of Agriculture now decided to let Koreans apply which benefited him and any other Koreans, however it has its flaw when the bank selected more Japanese than Koreans, regardless of how qualified a Korean is. He also noticed that although it appeared as if the salaries for both Japanese and Korean bank managers appeared to be the same, Japanese people received
Written by Margaret K. Pai, the Dreams of Two Yi-min narrates the story of her Korean American family with the main focus on the life journeys of her father and mother, Do In Kwon and Hee Kyung Lee. Much like the majority of the pre-World War II immigrants, the author’s family is marked and characterized by the common perception of the “typical” Asian immigrant status in the early 20th century: low class, lack of English speaking ability, lack of transferable education and skills, and lack of knowledge on the host society’s mainstream networks and institutions (Zhou and Gatewood 120, Zhou 224). Despite living in a foreign land with countless barriers and lack of capital, Kwon lead his wife and children to assimilate culturally, economically, and structurally through his growing entrepreneurship. Lee, on the other hand, devoted herself not only to her husband’s business but also to the Korean American society. By investing her time in the Korean Methodist Church and the efforts of its associated societies, such as the Methodist Ladies Aid Society and the Youngnam Puin Hoe, Lee made a worthy contribution to the emergence and existence of Hawaii’s Korean American community.
Reischauer, Edwin O., and Albert M. Craig. Japan, Tradition & Transformation. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1978. Print.
Although the term “revolution from above” is often used to explain the GHQ’s method of postwar reform in Japan (Dower, 1999: p.69), I argue that a similar motivation was in effect in the U.S.’s efforts to isolate all Japanese descendants in America and subject them to coerced American soci...
The Republic of Korea emerged from Japanese colonialism as a Third World Country. Per capita income was under one hundred dollars, the little infrastructure the Japanese built was located in the North, and income inequality was staggeringly high. The future of the Republic of Korea (hereafter simply “Korea”) looked very bleak, even with United States foreign aid. Yet several decades later Korea had become one of the world’s largest, most modern economies run by a democratic government. The “Miracle on the Han,” the term for Korea’s stunning economic growth in such a short period of time, coincided with the lifting of millions of Koreans out of poverty and the
Fukuoka, Yasunori “Koreans in Japan: Past and Present,” Saitama University Review, vol. 31, no.1, 1996.
This response will focus on the key issue of fragmentation. In his book Korea’s Twentieth-Century Odyssey, Michael E. Robinson wrote “Multiple interest groups resided within the bureaucracy and even divided the royal house” (p. 16). Arguably, Korea’s sovereignty was lost in large part, due to the lack of unity among different groups and faction. It was clear from the readings that some Korean individuals and groups prioritized their self-interests above their own country’s benefit. Nowhere was this most evident then the issue of national security.
...ty for one that better suited its capitalistic tendency. That opportunity came in1868 when the Meiji imperial rule was able to overthrow the Tokugawa regime, setting off a political, economic, social and cultural change that transformed Japan. As Japan embraced modernity with full force, some began to realize the negative impact of modernization on the rural life, social structure and most importantly on its culture, blaming it on the western influence on its modernization. Thus as Japan neared World War II, it embraced a new sense of modernization, one that was separate from westernization, creating a nationalistic and fascist government policy. Japanese society is characteristic of plurality and opposing value systems coexisting. As new ideals and institutions arise, Japan sees itself transforming and changing at the hands of internal and external forces.
This book is pieced together in two different efforts, one which is to understand the latter history of the post-1945 era with its political liberalization and rapid industrialization period, while at the same time centering its entire text on the question of Korean nationalism and the struggle against the countless foreign invasions Korea had to face. The purpose of this book was composed to provide detailed treatment of how modern Korea has developed with the converged efforts of top eastern and western scholars who wanted to construct a fair overview of Korea's complicated history. Also, the writers wanted to create an updated version of Korea's history by covering the contemporary arena up to the 1990's. The ...
By any measure, The Memoirs of Lady Hyegyong, known as Hanjungnok (Records written in silence), is a remarkable piece of Korean literature and an invaluable historical document, in which a Korean woman narrated an event that can be described as the ultimate male power rivalry surrounding a father-son conflict that culminates in her husband’s death. However, the Memoirs were much more than a political and historical murder mystery; writing this memoir was her way of seeking forgiveness. As Haboush pointed out in her informative Introduction, Lady Hyegyong experienced a conflict herself between the demands imposed by the roles that came with her marriage, each of which included both public and private aspects. We see that Lady Hyegyong justified her decision to live as choosing the most public of her duties, and she decided that for her and other members of her family must to be judged fairly, which required an accurate understanding of the her husband’s death. It was also important to understand that Lady Hyegyong had to endure the
The Korean Council for Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan, The Research Association on the Women Drafted for Military Sexual Slavery by Japan, et al., Eds. (1995). The True Stories of the Korean "Comfort Women". London, Casell.
The deeply rooted history of a Confucian paradigm in Korea has for long limited women’s roles and rights. In the male-dominated and patriarchal society, women’s roles remained in the domestic sphere, where they were required to be submissive. However, with the introduction of westernization and modernity in the 1920s, modern generation was rapidly incorporated into colonial modernity. Korean women began to “redefine the Korean female identity” by displaying the “new woman” characteristics, in which some literate women initiated to “enhance their education, determine their own physical appearance, and contribute to the debate about changing gender roles and expectations”(Yoo, p.59) Fearing the threat of the emergence of the “new women” with the potential disturbance to the hegemony, Japanese colonial authorities as well as nationalist reformers veered the direction where the new ideologies of womanhood with modern sensibilities, also contained them within traditional gender boundaries, such as in education and social spheres(Yoo, 60). Park Kyung Won, the main female character in the film Blue Swallow, also lived during this era of the “new women” as well as restrictions under the Japanese colonial rule. In the film Blue Swallow, while her father encouraged her to stay at home for her to fit into the role of the traditional women, Park works as a taxi driver and eventually studies abroad to attend Tachikawa Flight academy, where she becomes the first civilian Korean female pilot. She displays the “new women” image, in which like the other “new women”, she does not conform to the traditional norms of a woman and strives in redefining the Korean female identity. However, her engagement in male-dominated education and profession, “ma...
Korean women were not allowed to be engaged in any sort of jobs. Their job was to be either a daughter, a wife or a mother. Majority of married women had to rely on the support provided by men in their family (Gelb & Palley, 1994). The only way for women to be able to prosper independently is the ability of their own access to economic resources. However, the Confucian ideal of strict sexes made it extremely unlikely for women to be independent regardless of their social statuses. The reading “Mother stake 1” perfectly explain women struggle to be independent in the traditional society, without relying on the men of their family. However, it also explains how women can gain independence as time progresses. For example, Omma abandoning her traditional lifestyle to becoming a manual labor, for the sake of her own independency. Until the late 20th century, women’s position in employment changed significantly due to the movement that seeked for gender equality. Since 1960, Korea rapidly boosted their economic growth from the transformation of an agricultural society to a industrializing nation. Because of this extraordinary economic industrialization of the country, such condition provided women with increased on opportunities of employment (Gelb & Palley, 1994). According to Kim Ae-sil (1990), there were no more than 50,000 womens that were employed in 1963, but by 1989 there’s been an increase over 800,000
...ussions on Japan’s history, we can now understand why Japan’s emperor remains a significant figurehead in modern Japanese society. Finally, due to our examination of Korea’s colonized past; we now have a clearer indication as to the reason behind their modern day divide.