The Review of Korean Studies
- Apply for Authority
- P-ISSN1229-0076
- E-ISSN2773-9351
- SCOPUS, ESCI
ISSN : 1229-0076
Negotiating Imagined Imperial Kinship: Affects and Comfort Letters of Korean Children
- Downloaded
- Viewed
Abstract
This paper examines the 1944 publication, To My Soldier Brother 徴兵の兄さんへ, a collection of “comfort letters” written by Korean elementary school students addressed to an anonymous group of “Soldier Brothers.” Like shrine visits and memorization of military songs, letter-writing was a performance of allegiance demanded upon the colonized that revealed imperial investment in articulating an imagined kinship between Korean subjects and imperial soldiers. Through a close reading of its highly prescribed contents that converge on the Korean pledge of loyalty to and overflowing gratitude for the Emperor, this paper shows how Korean children negotiated their membership in the empire and what emotions were generated in their writings. Although their ultimate goal was full membership within the imperial kinship, the Korean children wholly recognized and registered their place in the empire as hantŏjin first, and then expressed their desire to become Japanese, naichijin.
- keywords
- kŏminka, Korean children’s kokugo writing, imonbun, imperial kinship, gendered membership, affect
Reference
An, T’aeyun. 2006. Sikmin chŏngch’i wa mosŏng: Ch’ong dongwŏn ch’eje wa mosŏng ŭi hyŏnsil 식민정치와 모성: 총동원 체제와 모성의 현실 [The Politics of Motherhood in Colonial Korea]. Seoul: Hanggukhaksul chŏngbo.
Ching, Leo, T. S. 2001. Becoming Japanese: Colonial Taiwan and the Politics of Identity Formation. Berkeley: University of California Press.
Chŏn, Ponggwan. 2005. “Hwangguk wimun chakkadan ŭi pukchungguk sich’al kwa Im Haksu ŭi Chŏnsŏn Sijip” [A Study on the Writers Association for Consoling Japanese Army and Im, Hak-Su’s the Collection of Poems on the Battle Line]. Ŏmun nonch’ong che 42: 315-47.
Fujitani, Takashi. 2011. Race for Empire: Koreans as Japanese and Japanese as Americans during World War II. Berkeley: University of California Press.
GFA (The Green Flag Association). 1944. Chôhei no nîsan e 徴兵の兄さんへ[To My Solider Brother]. Soldier Brothers.
Goodwin, Jeff, Jasper M. James, and Francesca Polletta, eds. 2001. “Introduction:Why Emotions Matter.” In Passionate Politics: Emotions and Social Movements, 2-24. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Gregg, Melissa, and Gregory J. Seigworth, eds. 2010. The Affect Theory Reader, Durham: Duke University Press.
Kawamura, Minato. 1994. Umi wo watatta nihongo 海を渡った日本語 [Japanese that Crossed the Sea: the “National Language” Classes in the Colonies]. Tokyo: Seidosha.
Kawamura, Minato. 2000. Sakubun no naka no dainihonteikoku 作文のなかの大日本帝国 [The Japanese Empire in School Compositions]. Tokyo: Iwanami shoten.
Lee, Helen J. S. 2010. “The Imperial Classroom and Its Borders.” Journal of Japanology 30: 7-25.
Lee, Helen J. S. 2013. “Dying as Daughter of the Empire.” Positions: East Asia Critique 21(1): 73-93.
Mitsui, Takashi. 2013. “Chungil chŏnjaeng sigi ihu Chosŏn ch’ongdokpu ŭi ŏnŏ chŏngch’aek kwa Chosŏn sahoe: Ilbonŏ pogŭb munje rŭl chungsim ŭro” 청일전쟁 시기 이후 총독부의 언어 정책과 조선 사회: 일본어보급문제를 중심으로 [On Language Policies and Korean Society in the Japan-China War Period: Through the Discourse of Japanese Language Policies]. Hallim Ilbonhak [Hallym Journal of Japanese Studies] 23: 67-97.
Miyada, Setsuko. 1997. Chosŏn minjung kwa hwangminhwa chŏngch’aek 조선민중과 황민화 정책 [The Korean People and the Policies of Imperialization]. Translated by Yi Hyŏngryang. Seoul: Ilchokak.
Rhee, Young Hee. 1988. Yŏkchŏng: Na ŭi ch’ŏngnyŏn sidae 역정: 나의 청년시대[The Course of Life: My Youth Days ]. Seoul: Ch’angjak kwa pip’yŏnsa.
Yi, Yŏn suk. 1996. Kokugo to iu shiso 국어라는 사상 [The Idea of ‘National Language’]. Translated by Ko yŏnguk and Im kyŏnghwa. Seoul: Somyŏng publishing.
- Downloaded
- Viewed
- 0KCI Citations
- 0WOS Citations