Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-lj6df Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T05:12:15.870Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Colonial State, Migration, and Diasporic Nationhood in Korea

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 December 2013

Jaeeun Kim
Jaeeun Kim*
Affiliation:
George Mason University
*
jaeeun1121@gmail.com
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Studies of European colonialism have long documented how colonial states served as incubators of nationhood, yet the literature has limited its analytic scope largely to the encounters and ethnic mixings that took place within the territorial boundaries of colonies. This article examines a hitherto understudied phenomenon, the colonial state's trans-border engagement with its subjects who left the territorial unit of the colony and its impact on the contested development of diasporic nationhood. My empirical focus is the shifting trajectories of the classification struggles over Korean migrants in Manchuria during Japan's occupation of Korea. I identify the tumultuous and uneven development of specific legal, organizational, and bureaucratic infrastructures that helped the colonial state extend its trans-border reach and define and identify these migrants as “its own,” often against suspicion, sabotage, hostility, and resistance on the part of other states, indigenous populations, or migrants themselves. I argue that the colonial state's extensive and intensive transborder engagement provided a critical institutional scaffolding for the imagined community of the Korean nation, which came to be conceived as transcending the geographical boundary of the colony. This article contributes to the comparative studies of empire, migration, diaspora, and nationhood formation by challenging the prevalent sedentary bias of the existing literature, by elucidating the critical infrastructural underpinning of the formation of diasporic nationhood, and by extending the horizon of comparison to the political dynamics and long-term ramifications engendered by the migration of, not only metropolitan settlers, but also colonial subjects, within and beyond the ambit of the empire.

Type
Research Article
Information
Comparative Studies in Society and History , Volume 56 , Issue 1 , January 2014 , pp. 34 - 66
Copyright
Copyright © Society for the Comparative Study of Society and History 2013 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

References23

Amith, Sunil S. 2011. Migration and Diaspora in Modern Asia. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Anderson, Benedict. 1991. Imagined Communities: Reflections on the Origin and Spread of Nationalism. New York: Verso.Google Scholar
Appiah, Kwame A. 1993. In My Father's House: Africa in the Philosophy of Culture. London: Methuen.Google Scholar
Bates, Crispin, ed. 2001. Community, Empire, and Migration: South Asians in Diaspora. New York: Palgrave.Google Scholar
Bennett, Tom W. 2004. Customary Law in South Africa. Lansdowne: Juta and Company Ltd.Google Scholar
Benton, Lauren. 1999. Colonial Law and Cultural Difference: Jurisdictional Politics and the Formation of the Colonial State. Comparative Studies in Society and History 41, 3: 563–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brooks, Barbara. 2000. Japan's Imperial Diplomacy: Consuls, Treaty Ports, and War in China, 1895–1938. Honolulu: University of Hawaìi Press.Google Scholar
Breuilly, John. 1993. Nationalism and the State. Manchester, UK: Manchester University Press.Google Scholar
Brubaker, Rogers. 2004. Ethnicity without Groups. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Caplan, Jane and Torpey, John, eds. 2001. Documenting Individual Identity: The Development of State Practices in the Modern World. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Caprio, Mark E. 2009. Japanese Assimilation Policies in Colonial Korea, 1910–1945. Seattle: University of Washington Press.Google Scholar
Chaeman Chosŏnin Munje (The problem of Koreans in Manchuria). 1927. Tonga ilbo, 30 Nov.Google Scholar
Chapman, David. 2011. Geographies of Self and Other: Mapping Japan through the Koseki. Asia-Pacific Journal 9, 29, 2 (18 July). At: www.japanfocus.org/-David-Chapman/3565.Google Scholar
Chatterjee, Partha. 1993. The Nation and Its Fragments: Colonial and Postcolonial Histories. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Chen, Edward I-te. 1984. The Attempt to Integrate the Empire: Legal Perspectives. In Myers, Ramon H. and Peattie, Mark R., eds., The Japanese Colonial Empire, 1895–1945. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 240–74.Google Scholar
Cho, Gyu Tae. 1981. Minjŏkbue Natanan Yŏja Irŭm Yŏngu (A philological study of the women's name in Min-Jŏk Bu). Yŏsŏngmunje Yŏngu 10: 297–306.Google Scholar
Cho, Yŏl. 1933. Zaiman Chōsenjin no Tōmen Yōkyū (The urgent demand from Koreans in Manchuria). Zenman Chōsenjin Minkai Rengōkai Kaibō 6: 12–13.Google Scholar
Choate, Mark I. 2008. Emigrant Nation: The Making of Italy Abroad. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Ch'oech'angho P'isalgwa Kando Chumin Daehoe (The murder of Choi Chang-ho and the Kando resident rally). 1923. Kaebyŏk 33: 85–87.Google Scholar
Chungguk Chosŏnjok Ch'ŏngnyŏn Hakhoe (Society of Korean Chinese youths in academia). 1992. Chungguk Chosŏnjok Imin Sillok (Oral history of Korean Chinese migration). Yanji, China: Yŏnbyŏn Inmin Ch'ulp'ansa.Google Scholar
Cohen, Robin. 1997. Global Diasporas: An Introduction. Seattle: University of Washington Press.Google Scholar
Cohn, Bernard S. 1996. Colonialism and Its Forms of Knowledge: The British in India. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Duara, Prasenjit. 2003. Sovereignty and Authenticity: Manchukuo and the East Asian Modern. New York: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers.Google Scholar
DuBois, Thomas D. 2010. Inauthentic Sovereignty: Law and Legal Institutions in Manchukuo. Journal of Asian Studies 69, 3: 749–70.Google Scholar
Duncan, John. 1998. Proto-Nationalism in Premodern Korea. In Lee, Sang-oak and Park, Duk-soo, eds., Perspectives on Korea. Sydney: Wild Peony Press, 198–221.Google Scholar
Elkins, Caroline and Pedersen, Susan, eds. 2005. Settler Colonialism in the Twentieth Century: Projects, Practices, Legacies. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Elliott, Mark C. 2000. The Limits of Tartary: Manchuria in Imperial and National Geographies. Journal of Asian Studies 59, 3: 603–46.Google Scholar
Endō, Masataka. 2010. Kindai Nihon no Shokuminchi Tōchi ni okeru Kokuseki to Koseki: Manshū, Chōsen, Taiwan (The nationality and the family registration in Japan's colonial rule). Tokyo: Akashi Shoten.Google Scholar
Esselstrom, Erik. 2009. Crossing Empire's Edge: Foreign Ministry Police and Japanese Expansionism in Northeast Asia. Honolulu: University of Hawaìi Press.Google Scholar
Fitzgerald, David. 2009. A Nation of Emigrants: How Mexico Manages Its Migration. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Fujitani, Takashi. 2011. Race for Empire: Koreans as Japanese and Japanese as Americans during World War II. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Gabaccia, Donna R. and Hoerder, Dirk, eds. 2011. Connecting Seas and Connected Ocean Rims: Indian, Atlantic, and Pacific Oceans and China Seas Migrations from the 1830s to the 1930s. Boston: Brill.Google Scholar
Gabaccia, Donna R. and Ottanelli, Fraser M., eds. 2005. Italian Workers of the World: Labor Migration and the Formation of Multiethnic States. Champaign: University of Illinois Press.Google Scholar
Glick Schiller, Nina. 2005. Long Distance Nationalism. In Ember, Melvin, Ember, Carol R., and Skoggard, Ian, eds., Encyclopedia of Diasporas: Immigrant and Refugee Cultures around the World. New York: Kluwer Academic/Plenum Publishers, 570–79.Google Scholar
Go, Julian. 2009. The ‘New’ Sociology of Empire and Colonialism. Sociology Compass 3: 1–14.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gottschang, Thomas and Lary, Diana. 2000. Swallows and Settlers: The Great Migration from North China to Manchuria. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar
Green, Nancy L. and Weil, François, eds. 2007. Citizenship and Those Who Leave: The Politics of Emigration and Expatriation. Champaign: University of Illinois Press.Google Scholar
Han, Suk-Jung. 1995. Puppet Sovereignty: The State Effect of Manchukuo, from 1932 to 1936. PhD diss., Dept. of Sociology, University of Chicago.Google Scholar
Harper, Marjory and Constantine, Stephen. 2010. Migration and Empire. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Hirschman, Albert O. 1970. Exit, Voice, and Loyalty: Responses to Decline in Firms, Organizations, and States. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Hoerder, Dirk. 2002. Cultures in Contact: World Migrations in the Second Millennium. Durham: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Hoffman, Katherine E. 2010. Berber Law by French Means: Customary Courts in the Moroccan Hinterlands, 1930–1956. Comparative Studies in Society and History 52, 4: 851–80.Google Scholar
Horiguchi, Noriko. 2011. Women Adrift: The Literature of Japan's Imperial Body. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
Hwang, Kyung Moon. 2004. Citizenship, Social Equality, and Government Reform: Changes in the Household Registration System in Korea, 1894–1910. Modern Asian Studies 38, 2: 355–87.Google Scholar
Hwang, Kyung Moon. 2007. Nation, State and the Modern Transformation of Korean Social Structure in the Early Twentieth Century. History Compass 5, 2: 330–46.Google Scholar
Jung, Jong-Hyun. 2007. Ttakchibon Taejung Sosŏre Natanan ‘Manju’ P'yosang (The representations about Manchuria shown in ‘Ddakjibon’ popular novels). Hanguk Munhak Yŏngu 33: 53–94.Google Scholar
Kantō Kyokukogai Minkaikyō ken Kantō Hunchun Minkai Rengōkai Shikko Iinchō Ch'oe Ch'ungju no Kyūso (Imploration of Ch'oe Ch'ungju, chair of the Korean Association in Yanji and chair of the Executive Committee of the Federation of Korean Associations in Hunchun). 1971 [1930]. In Saitō Makoto Bunsho: Chosen Sotoku Jidai Kankei Shiryo 11: 287.Google Scholar
Kawashima, Ken C. 2009. The Proletarian Gamble: Korean Workers in Interwar Japan. Durham: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Kim, Jaeeun. 2011. Colonial Migration and Transborder Membership Politics in Twentieth-Century Korea. PhD diss., Dept. of Sociology, University of California at Los Angeles.Google Scholar
Kim, Kihoon. 1992. Japanese Policy for Korean Rural Immigration to Manchukuk, 1932–1945. PhD diss., Dept. of History, University of Hawaìi at Manoa.Google Scholar
Kim, Man-sŏn. 1989. “Ijung Kukchŏk” (Dual Nationality), “Kwigukcha” (Repatriates). In Im Sŏ-ha, Kim Mansŏn, Chi Ha-ryŏn Sŏnjip. Seoul, Korea: Samsŏng Ch'ulp'ansa. (Stories originally published in 1948).Google Scholar
Kim, Marie Seong-Hak. 2007. Law and Custom under the Chosŏn Dynasty and Colonial Korea: A Comparative Perspective. Journal of Asian Studies 66, 4: 1067–97.Google Scholar
Kim, Richard S. 2011. The Quest for Statehood: Korean Immigrant Nationalism and U.S. Sovereignty, 1905–1945. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Kim, Seonmin. 2006. Borders and Crossings: Trade, Diplomacy, and Ginseng between Qing China and Choson Korea. PhD diss., Dept. of History, Duke University.Google Scholar
Kim, Tae-kook. 2002. Manjujiyŏk ‘Chosŏnin Minhoe’ Yŏngu (On study about pro-Japanese Korean People's Association of Manchuria). PhD diss., Dept. of Korean History, Kookmin University, Seoul.Google Scholar
Kim, Ŭiyong. 1935. Chōsen Shisōkai Kaiko: Zaiman Chōsenin Shidōmondai (Reflections on the world of thoughts in Korea: The question of the guidance of Koreans in Manchuria). Zenman Chōsenjin Minkai Rengōkai Kaibō 27: 3–4.Google Scholar
Kwon, Taesan. 1933. Zaiman Chōsenjin Mondaini Kanshite (On the problems of Koreans in Manchuria). n.p.: Mansen Kenkyūsha.Google Scholar
Lee, Hyun-Jeong. 2009. Reimagining the Nation in Manchuria: The Representation of Peasant Collectivity in Chinese and Korean Discourses on the Wanbaoshan Incident (1931). PhD diss., Dept. of East Asian Languages and Civilizations, University of Chicago.Google Scholar
Lie, John. 2004. Modern Peoplehood. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Lie, John. 2008. Zainichi (Koreans in Japan): Diasporic Nationalism and Postcolonial Identity. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Liu, Binghu. 2002. Chaeman Haninŭi Kukchŏk Munje Yŏngu, 1881–1911 (A study on the issues of nationality concerning Korean people in Manchu Territory, 1881–1911). PhD diss., Dept. of History, Chung-ang University, Seoul.Google Scholar
Longman, Timothy. 2001. Identity Cards, Ethnic Self-Perception, and Genocide in Rwanda. In Caplan, Jane and Torpey, John, eds., Documenting Individual Identity: The Development of State Practices in the Modern World. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 345–57.Google Scholar
Loveman, Mara. 2005. The Modern State and the Primitive Accumulation of Symbolic Power. American Journal of Sociology 110, 6: 1651–83.Google Scholar
Lynn, Hyung Gu. 2005. Malthusian Dreams, Colonial Imaginary: The Oriental Development Company and Japanese Emigration to Korea. In Elkins, Caroline and Pedersen, Susan, eds., Settler Colonialism in the Twentieth Century: Projects, Practices, Legacies. New York: Routledge, 25–40.Google Scholar
Mamdani, Mahmood. 1996. Citizen and Subject: Contemporary Africa and the Legacy of Late Colonialism. Princeton: Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Mann, Michael. 1986. The Sources of Social Power: A History of Power from the Beginning to A.D. 1760, Volume 1. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Manshū no Chōsenjin Shidō Hōan (Guidelines for the treatment of Koreans in Manchuria). 1933. Issued by the Kwantung Army in December.Google Scholar
McKeown, Adam M. 2008. Melancholy Order: Asian Migration and the Globalization of Borders. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Miyata, Setsuko, Kim, Yŏng-dal, and Yang, T'ae-ho. 1992. Sōshi Kaimei (The Japanization of Korean names). Tokyo: Akashi Shoten.Google Scholar
Mizuno, Naoki. 2008. Ch'angssi Kaemyŏng: Ilbonŭi Chosŏn Chibaewa Irŭmŭi Chŏngch'ihak (The Japanization of Korean names: Japanese imperialism and the politics of names). T'ae-jŏng, Seon, trans. Seoul: Sanch'ŏrŏm.Google Scholar
Mullaney, Thomas S. 2011. Coming to Terms with the Nation: Ethnic Classification in Modern China. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Noiriel, Gérard. 1996. The French Melting Pot: Immigration, Citizenship, and National Identity. de Laforcade, Geoffroy, trans. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
Noiriel, Gérard. 2001. The Identification of the Citizen: The Birth of Republican Civil Status in France. In Caplan, Jane and Torpey, John, eds., Documenting Individual Identity: The Development of State Practices in the Modern World. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 28–48.Google Scholar
Northrup, David. 1995. Indentured Labor in the Age of Imperialism, 1834–1922. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Oguma, Eiji. 2002. A Genealogy of “Japanese Self-Images.” Askew, David, trans. Melbourne: Transpacific Press.Google Scholar
Oh, Changhyun and Ryu, Sang Yun. 2009. Tamyŏng Sahoeesŏ Ilmyŏng Sahoero: Chŏllabukdo Sunch'anggun Han Maŭrŭi Chokpowa Hojŏkpurŭl T'onghae Pon Irŭm Kijae Kwansŭbŭi Pyŏnhwa (From multiple names to a single name). Hanguk Munhwa Illyuhak 42, 2: 107–44.Google Scholar
Ooms, Herman. 1998. Tokugawa Ideology: Early Constructs, 1570–1680. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press.Google Scholar
Palais, James B. 1996. Confucian Statecraft and Korean Institutions: Yu Hyŏngwŏn and the Late Chosŏn Dynasty. Seattle: University of Washington Press.Google Scholar
Park, Alyssa. 2009. Borderland Beyond: Korean Migrants and the Creation of a Modern Boundary between Korea and Russia, 1860–1937. PhD diss., Dept. of History, Columbia University.Google Scholar
Park, Hyun Ok. 2005. Two Dreams in One Bed: Empire, Social life, and the Origins of the North Korean Revolution in Manchuria. Durham: Duke University Press.Google Scholar
Piao, Jinhai. 2005. Manju Sabyŏnhu Iljeŭi Chaeman Chosŏnin Kyoyuk Chŏngch'aek Yŏngu (A study of the educational policies towards Korean residents in Manchuria after the Manchurian incident). Dongbang Hakchi 130: 239–77.Google Scholar
Robertson, Craig. 2009. A Documentary Regime of Verification: The Emergence of the U.S. Passport and the Archival Problematization of Identity. Cultural Studies 23, 3: 329–54.Google Scholar
Sadiq, Kamal. 2008. Paper Citizens: How Illegal Immigrants Acquire Citizenship in Developing Countries. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Saengjon'gwŏne Kwanhan Chawich'aek (A measure of self-defense for survival). 1927. Tonga ilbo, 9 Dec.Google Scholar
Schmid, Andre. 2002. Korea between Empires: 1895–1919. New York: Columbia University Press.Google Scholar
Scott, James C. 1998. Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed. New Haven: Yale University Press.Google Scholar
Scott, James C., Tehranian, John, and Mathias, Jeremy. 2002. The Production of Legal Identities Proper to States: The Case of the Permanent Family Surname. Comparative Studies in Society and History 44, 1: 4–44.Google Scholar
Seo, Ho Chul. 2006. 1890–1930 nyŏndae Chumin Tŭngnok Chedowa Kŭndaejŏk T'ongch'isŏngŭi Hyŏngsŏng: Hojŏk Chedoŭi Pyŏnyonggwa ‘Naemu Haengjŏngŭl Chungsimŭro (Registration of people and emergence of governmentality in Korea, 1890s to 1930s). PhD diss., Dept. of Sociology, Seoul National University.Google Scholar
Shin, Gi-Wook. 2006. Ethnic Nationalism in Korea: Genealogy, Politics, and Legacy. Stanford: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Sin, Gyu Seob. 2002. Teikoku Nihon no Minjoku Seikoku to Zaiman Chōsenjin (The nationality policies of the Japanese Empire and Koreans in Manchuria). PhD diss., Dept. of Humanities, Tokyo Provincial University.Google Scholar
Son, Chunil. 2001. Haebang Chŏn Tongbuk Chosŏnjok T'oji Kwan'gye Yŏngu (A study of the land relations of Koreans in northeast China before liberation). Jilin, China: Kilim Inmin Ch'ulp'ansa.Google Scholar
Steinmetz, George. 2007. The Devil's Handwriting: Precoloniality and the German Colonial State in Qingdao, Samoa, and Southwest Africa. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Stoler, Ann L. 1992. Sexual Affronts and Racial Frontiers: European Identities and the Cultural Politics of Exclusion in Colonial Southeast Asia. Comparative Studies in Society and History 34, 3: 514–51.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stoler, Ann L. 2002. Carnal Knowledge and Imperial Power: Race and the Intimate in Colonial Rule. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
Tamanoi, Mariko Asano. 2000. Knowledge, Power, and Racial Classification: The ‘Japanese’ in ‘Manchuria.’ Journal of Asian Studies 59, 2: 248–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tamanoi, Mariko Asano. 2005. Crossed Histories: Manchuria in the Age of Empire. Honolulu: University of Hawaìi Press.Google Scholar
Tanaka, Ryūichi. 2004. Nitteino ‘Manchukuo’ Tōchito Zaiman Chosenjin Mondai: Gozokukyōwato Naisenittaino Sōkoku (Japan's governance of Manchukuo and the problem of Koreans in Manchuria: The incompatibility between Gozokukyōwa and Naisenittai). Manju Yŏngu 1, 1: 89–108.Google Scholar
Torpey, John. 2000. The Invention of the Passport: Surveillance, Citizenship, and the State. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Uchida, Jun. 2011. Brokers of Empire: Japanese Settler Colonialism in Korea, 1876–1945. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Vail, Leroy, ed. 1989. The Creation of Tribalism in Southern Africa. Berkeley: University of California Press.Google Scholar
van der Veer, Peter, ed. 1995. Nation and Migration: The Politics of Space in the South Asian Diaspora. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
Wang, Gungwu. 2002. The Chinese Overseas: From Earthbound China to the Quest for Autonomy. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Watt, Lori. 2009. When Empire Comes Home: Repatriation and Reintegration in Postwar Japan. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.Google Scholar
Weiner, Michael. 1994. Race and Migration in Imperial Japan. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Winichakul, Thongchai. 1994. Siam Mapped: A History of the Geo-body of a Nation. Honolulu: University of Hawaìi Press.Google Scholar
Yamamuro, Shin'ichi. 2006. Manchuria: Under Japanese Domination. Fogel, Joshua A., trans. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press.Google Scholar
Yang, Hyunah. 1998. Envisioning Feminist Jurisprudence in Korean Family Law at the Crossroads of Tradition/Modernity. PhD diss., Dept. of Sociology, New School for Social Research.Google Scholar
Yoon, Hwy Tak. 2001. Manjugugŭi ‘2dŭng Kuk(Kong)min,’ Kŭ Silsanggwa Hŏsang (The second nation of ‘Manchukuo’, with special reference to the national identity of Koreans in Manchuria). Yŏksa Hakpo 169: 139–71.Google Scholar
Yoon, Hwy Tak. 2012. ‘Minjok Hyŏphwaŭi Hŏsang: Manjuguk Kyŏngcharŭi Minjok Kusŏnggua Minjok Mosun (The illusion of the “Cooperation and Harmony of Ethnic Groups”: Ethnic composition and conflict within the Manchukuo police). Tongyang Sahak Yŏngu 119: 227–63.Google Scholar
Young, Crawford. 1976. The Politics of Cultural Pluralism. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.Google Scholar
Young, Robert. 1995. Colonial Desire: Hybridity in Theory, Culture and Race. New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Zolberg, Aristide R. 2003. The Archaeology of ‘Remote Control.’ In Fahmeir, Andreas, Faron, Oliver, and Weil, Patrick, eds., Migration Control in the Old Atlantic World: The Evolution of State Practices in Europe and the United States from the French Revolution to the Interwar Period. Oxford: Berghahn Books, 195–222.Google Scholar