International Impact of Colonial Rule in Korea, 1910-1945

In recent years, discussion of the colonial period in Korea has centered mostly on the degree of exploitation or development that took place domestically, while international aspects have been relatively neglected. Colonial discourse, such as characterization of Korea as a “hermit nation,” was promulgated around the world by Japan and haunts us today. The colonization of Korea also transformed Japan and has had long-term consequences for post–World War II Northeast Asia as a whole.Through sections that explore Japan’s images of Korea, colonial Koreans’ perceptions of foreign societies and foreign relations, and international perceptions of colonial Korea, the essays in this volume show the broad influence of Japanese colonialism not simply on the Korean peninsula, but on how the world understood Japan and how Japan understood itself. When initially incorporated into the Japanese empire, Korea seemed lost to Japan’s designs, yet Korean resistance to colonial rule, along with later international fear of Japanese expansion, led the world to rethink the importance of Korea as a future sovereign nation.

[A]n original addition to the scholarship on colonial Korea., Given that the interpretation of Korean history during the Japanese colonial period has been colored far more by domestic and international political rather than academic concerns, this book, which broadens the scope of the historical discussion of Japanese colonialism into the international context, is a valuable addition to the field., [This] volume makes a compelling case for the importance of the “Korea issue” on the international stage.

Yong Chool-Ha is the Korea Foundation Professor of Korean Social Science at the University of Washington. The contributors are Sang Sook Jeon, Hakjoon Kim, Daeyeol Ku, Sergey O. Kurbanov, Jung Hwan Lee, Yumi Moon, Andre Schmid, Naoko Shimazu, and Kezhi Sun.