Historicizing “Korean Criminality”: Colonial Criminality in Twentieth Century Japan
Journal Title: International Journal of Korean History - Year 2017, Vol 22, Issue 1
Abstract
In the context of Japanese colonialism, this article examines the discourse of colonial criminality that came to epistemologically position the Korean colonial subject as criminal and therefore necessitating domination, surveillance and punishment. The discourse of colonial criminality stemmed from Japan's late nineteenth century epistemological commitment to imperialism and concomitant knowledge of law and the legality of colonial subjects. Through an analysis that historicizes the “criminal Korean” (futei senjin) epithet in the prewar and the emergence of <i>yami</i> as a signifier of Korean economic criminality throughout the 1940s, this article illustrates how the racialization of Koreans in Japan was both framed in terms of crime and subversion, and how that criminality functioned as a justification for postcolonial legalized exclusion and discrimination.
Authors and Affiliations
Joel Matthews
Keywords
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- EP ID EP26444
- DOI https://doi.org/10.22372/ijkh.2017.22.1.11
- Views 311
- Downloads 12
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