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11. Images of the North in Occupied Korea, 1905–1945
- University of Washington Press
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11 Images of the North in occupied Korea, 1905–1945 mark e. caprio Images that the Japanese created of Korea following Japan’s annexation of the peninsula from 1910 initially presented the territory as a single homogeneous region, rather than as a territory comprised of diverse regions. The Japanese government characterized residents as “Korean” with little consideration for regional uniqueness. This characterization followed a similar practice employed by Meiji Japan to define other peripheral territories annexed from the late nineteenth century, including the Ryukyu Kingdom (Okinawa), Ezo (Hokkaido), and Taiwan. It reversed a Tokugawa-era trend that had divided domains (han) and peripheral areas such as the Ryukyu Islands and Ezo into smaller territories.1 The practice further coincided with Meiji-era policy that consolidated multiple domains into a single prefecture. In Korea’s case, the Japanese developed an expansive vocabulary to promote the Korean peninsula as a homogeneous zone—the hantō (peninsula), its people as senjin (Korean people), and their union as naisen (Japan and Korea). Occasionally, however, distinctions emerged as Japanese began traveling to different parts of the peninsula. Magazines that published travel experiences described these adventures as trips to hokusen (northern Korea) or to nansen (southern Korea). Informants identified characteristics of the landscape , people, and culture in their writing. Japanese migration to Korea provided a second factor which also encouraged regional definition. Their initial concentration in the south promoted discussion that contributed to the formation of a northern image by questioning why the north was so unappealing to Japanese. Japanese expansion into the Asian continent in the late 1930s increased the value of, and subsequently Japanese interest in, Korea’s north- Mark E. Caprio 296 ern provinces primarily due to their proximity to the war Japan was fighting in northeast China. Japanese images of Korea as a collection of regions, rather than as a single homogeneous region thus emerged as a process that depended highly on Japan’s realization of the northern Koreans’ attributes to the empire. This realization encouraged speculation as to how these Koreans differed from people of the south and why these differences came into existence, despite the lingering Japanese official view of the Korean peninsula as a single region in and of itself. This chapter examines the Japanese development of this northern image as a practical response to the changing conditions within the Japanese Empire and the forces that threatened its frontiers. Though influenced by negative social Darwinist-driven doctrine and traditional Korean images of northern Korea and its residents, the perilous challenge brought by conflict on the Chinese mainland forced the Japanese to emphasize the importance of the area’s natural attributes and the need to nurture strong cooperative ties with the northern Koreans. JApAN AND REgIoNAl IDENTITy During the Age of Empire (1875–1914) much of the world was imperially consolidated by a small number of colonial powers.2 A number of nations absorbed smaller kingdoms that existed within their traditional borders to form larger nation-states. These nations also added territories along their peripheries to strengthen their national security. The French example is illustrative . From the 1870s, France initiated two processes: to “make French” the peoples of its southern provinces and to assimilate tribes in its Algerian colony . Both methods promised to assimilate residents as French men and women.3 The theoretical conclusion to accomplishing this was their de-regionalization and their incorporation into the nation as French with no cultural distinction. Also at this time, forces in contemporary Italy, Germany, and Japan initiated similar processes to geographically, politically, and culturally consolidate peoples and territories into greater nation-states. They also extended their sovereignty over neighboring territories with the stated—but less frequently pursued—intention to assimilate the residents as imperial subjects.4 An important task facing nation-building efforts was the central government felling regional divides to create an “imagined community” of citizens [18.206.76.45] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 16:39 GMT) Images of the North in occupied Korea 297 equal in status and stature. This required replacing regional distinctions such as local dialects, customs, and mannerisms with unified national counterparts . The state created national institutions—the most important being compulsory education—to engage its constituents in this rather intense process of de-regionalization. It also devised ways to remind its subjects of their national allegiance in the form of national holidays, memorials, songs, and symbols.5 The state’s efforts to integrate people under its jurisdiction met with mixed results; regionalism often was strengthened by...