October 19, 2007
Kristine Dennehy (Cal. State Fullerton)
Censorship and the Monitoring of Ethnic Korean Education in Occupied Japan
This talk will examine the activities of ethnic Korean activis
ts and educators in the immediate postwar years in Japan.
It is based on an examination of local ethnic Korean newspapers and journal articles, all of which were censored by the SCAP authorities between 1946 and 1949. While the dynamics of the Cold War are clearly evident in the markings of the American censors, the writings and sentiments of ethnic Koreans add another element of nationalist rhetoric to this struggle that was dominated by the United States and the Soviet Union. These publications devoted particular attention to historically informed critiques of the recently defeated Japanese empire and calls for a unified Korean homeland. Both of these issues were also at the center of the educational agenda of ethnic Korean schools in cities like Kobe and Tokyo, as well as more provincial cities throughout Japan. An examination of these publications reveals how ethnic Koreans in Japan contributed to a transnational dialogue and negotiation over these highly contested issues such as evaluations of Japan's recent imperial past and the prospects for a unified Korea.
Kristine Dennehy (Cal. State Fullerton)
Censorship and the Monitoring of Ethnic Korean Education in Occupied Japan
This talk will examine the activities of ethnic Korean activis
ts and educators in the immediate postwar years in Japan. It is based on an examination of local ethnic Korean newspapers and journal articles, all of which were censored by the SCAP authorities between 1946 and 1949. While the dynamics of the Cold War are clearly evident in the markings of the American censors, the writings and sentiments of ethnic Koreans add another element of nationalist rhetoric to this struggle that was dominated by the United States and the Soviet Union. These publications devoted particular attention to historically informed critiques of the recently defeated Japanese empire and calls for a unified Korean homeland. Both of these issues were also at the center of the educational agenda of ethnic Korean schools in cities like Kobe and Tokyo, as well as more provincial cities throughout Japan. An examination of these publications reveals how ethnic Koreans in Japan contributed to a transnational dialogue and negotiation over these highly contested issues such as evaluations of Japan's recent imperial past and the prospects for a unified Korea.
Discussant: Marlene Mayo (University of Maryland )
