Contradictions in Korean Colonial Education
Journal Title: International Journal of Korean History - Year 2010, Vol 15, Issue 1
Abstract
The primary purpose of this paper is to examine both the ideological and sociological function of Japanese colonial education in Korea, and its implications in identity formation in the colony and to some extent in the metropole. That is, through education, the Japanese attempted to create docile bodies and docile minds in a colony considered to be simultaneously separate from and integral to “the interior.” A survey of the textbooks the Japanese Government General commissioned for use in schools in colonial Korea illuminates a basic contradiction in Japanese colonial policy. On the one hand, the texts exhibit a progressive assimilationist impulse to incorporate Koreans into the Japanese empire, and to inculcate modern ways and sensibilities for administrative efficiency. On the other hand, textbook lessons exhibit a more subtle theme of differentiation, of implicit subordination of Korean subjects to Westernized Japanese overlords. Through colonial education, Japanese officials tried to construct an image of the metropole as modern, civilized, and enlightened; in other words, everything Korea was not. But even with Japan’s partial success in developing Korea and the similarities between the two countries, they argued that due to historical circumstances and the innate nature of the people, Korea would remain a step behind its colonizer. Being an imperial subject in Korea denoted an entirely new meaning - a meaning filled with tension and contradiction.
Authors and Affiliations
Leighanne Yuh
Keywords
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