Gender and Law in the Japanese Imperium

Chapter 9: A New Perspective on the“Name-Changing Policy” in Korea

240 chapter 9 A New Perspective on the “Name-Changing Policy” in Korea Matsutani Motokazu The “name-changing policy” (sōshi kaimei) that forced Koreans to adopt Japanese names has been known as the most oppressive Japanese colonial policy in Korea. According to a standard textbook, “the forced assimilation policy of the 1930s reached its apex on the eve of the outbreak of the wider war in the Pacific. . . . A year earlier, however, the Japanese had struck at the most personal, and perhaps the most cherished, source of Korean identity, family and personal names. The Name Order promulgated in late 1939 ‘graciously allowed’ all Koreans to change their names to Japanese-style surnames and given names.”1 This conventional narrative may well represent the collective memory of the Korean people, but it vastly oversimplifies what actually happened in 1939. As Miyata Setsuko and Kim Yŏngdal detailed in their pioneering works, the colonial government did not actually issue a “Name Order” to change Korean names into Japanese style. Instead, it promulgated substantial revisions of the colonial civil laws and extended the Japanese family system into Korea.2 In other words, the name-changing policy was not intended merely to Japanize Korean names, but to transform the Korean family system as a whole. Despite this important discovery , Miyata and Kim did not provide a sufficient account of why the colonial government combined these two distinct policies. They concentrated on the name-changing policy and devoted little attention to the more comprehensive family policy. This essay pays primary attention to family policy, investigating why it was formulated and combined with the name-changing policy. Historically , the family policy agenda was developed in the 1920s as a means FOR PERSONAL USE ONLY New Perspective on the “Name-Changing Policy” in Korea 241 of lessening the importance of lineage in the traditional Korean family system and permitting more adoptions from outside the lineage; the idea of Japanizing Korean names was entirely absent from this plan. The name-changing policy was grafted onto it later, in the context of Japanese assimilation efforts in the 1930s. Because the two policy agendas were merged and became known as the name-changing policy, their significance for the family was obscured and ultimately misperceived. Building upon these new findings, this essay argues that the colonial government ’s priority was the family policy, which was designed to weaken the traditional Korean lineage system and replace it with the Japanese family system, while the naming policy agenda was less important. Revision of the Colonial Family Laws in 1939 In late 1939, the Japanese colonial government issued a set of ordinances (seirei) and orders (sōtokufurei) to revise the Ordinance on Civil Matters in Korea (Chōsen minjirei) and the Ordinance on Korean Household Registration (Chōsen kosekirei) that had defined and governed the Korean family system.3 These orders, hereafter referred to as the “1939 Amendment,” constituted what later came to be known as sōshi kaimei, the name-changing policy. But Ordinance 19, clumsily entitled “On the Partial Revision of the Ordinance on Civil Matters in Korea,” clearly demonstrates the interconnection between the name-changing policy and family policy. Ordinance 19 stipulated several new legal terms and concepts to be added to the current family law (i.e., Chōsen minjirei) and granted them a legal effect. Space does not permit a detailed textual analysis, but the consequential changes were that (1) Koreans were obligated to have a “family name” (shi), which is conceptually differentiated from the Korean “clan name” (sei); (2) the Japanese custom of mukoyōshi, the adoption by parents of a boy who would simultaneously be married to their daughter,4 was introduced to Korea and became practicable for Koreans; (3) the legal prohibition of iseiyōshi—adopting a child who has a different “clan name”—by the Korean customary laws was abolished. Without understanding their social context, it might be difficult to see the significance of these measures, but the 1939 Amendment intended to introduce several Japanese family practices into Korea and change the traditional Korean family system. On the other hand, the obligation to have a “family name” did FOR PERSONAL USE ONLY 242 Matsutani Motokazu not mean that all Koreans were required to change their names into Japanese-style names. The supplementary provision of the ordinance stipulated: The Korean household head is required to make a new family name (shi) and report...