Conflict and accommodation in Taisho Japan: The formation of civil rule (bunka seiji) in colonial Korea, 1910--1975.

摘要

Japanese colonial rule in Korea (1910--1945) changed direction in 1919, when the Japanese government instituted civil rule. Mainstream historical interpretations have emphasized the March First Movement as the catalyst for this change. While not denying this important factor, this dissertation explores the vivid background of debate and discussion in Japan during the decade preceding 1919 and shows that the foundation for the policy change had long been laid.;Chapter two discusses the early years of colonial rule in Korea. The shape of rule was not yet clearly established and there existed a window of opportunity for opinion makers to affect governance in the new colony. Writers grappled with how to fit Korea into the empire, but the legal and cultural status of Korea was left unresolved and ambiguous. This chapter asks why an oppressive military rule prevailed in the colony despite popular opinion and what this reveals about the genealogy of power in Imperial Japan.;Chapter three discusses Japanese opinion throughout the 1910s and how Japanese intellectuals defined Japanese identity as international imperial citizens through the prism of the Korean colony.;Chapter four focuses on a prominent liberal thinker, Yoshino Sakuzo, who wrote extensively on the colonies. "Taisho democracy" shaped and was shaped by the experience of colonialism. The contradictions in Yoshino's thought as he tried to reconcile his liberal humanistic views with the realities of empire reflected the compromised nature of liberal thought in Japan.;Chapter five discusses the months after the March First movement and how civil rule was implemented in 1919. Policy was formulated as quickly as it was because of the decade-long background of discussion on rule.;Chapter six turns to Korean opinions that flourished after 1919. It looks at "cultural nationalists," elite Koreans educated at Japanese universities who called for self-strengthening and preparation for self-rule rather than for immediate independence. These thinkers inherited the vocabulary and the ideas---as well as the limitations---of Japanese liberals in the 1910s.;Chapter seven concludes by comparing Japanese imperialism to Western imperialism.