Abstract Owen Lattimore was an early student of frontiers in East Asia, and this paper takes as its point of departure Lattimore’s collection of books and articles relating to Koreans in Manchuria, and the border between Manchuria (then Manchukuo) and Korea. The paper indicates the depth of dependency that Lattimore and others had on Germanlanguage…
Abstract The Korean peninsula, like Taiwan (1895–1945), was one of Japan’s colonies in the first half of the twentieth century (1910–1945). The end of World War II brought an opportunity to be independent, but the different ideologies of the Capitalist Bloc and the Soviet Bloc generated the Cold War. The Korean War (1950–1953) was the…
Introduction Emerging as an independent nation in 1948, South Korea went through a difficult phase of political development shifting from a martial and authoritarian regime toward a liberal–democratic one. The April Revolution in 1960, the May 16 coup in 1961, the October Yusin in 1972, the Kwangju Uprising in 1980, and the June Democratic Uprising…
Abstract Building on past analysis by its author of North Korea’s history of developmental approach and environmental engagement, this paper encounters the field of pomiculture (or orchard development and apple farming) in the light of another key text authored by Kim Il-sung, 1963’s “Let Us Make Better Use of Mountains and Rivers.” At this time…
Abstract From the mid-1960s to the late 1980s, Seoul and Pyongyang sought to gain international recognition as the sole government on the Korean peninsula. Africa, the site of many newly independent nations during the Cold War, became the primary battleground for this inter- Korean competition. Focusing on North Korean-African relations, this article examines several African…
Abstract GiCheon (氣天) is one of many contemporary South Korean mind-body disciplines focused on physical and moral self-cultivation. Utilizing a series of interviews with the adherents of this movement, this paper examines their individual experience and understanding of GiCheon praxis in the new social and political context, revealing the mechanisms of self-construction in modern and…
Abstract Islam was reintroduced into South Korea during the Korean War due to the participation of the Turkish army. In its more than 50 years’ development process, the achievements of Korean Islam include the establishment of legal Islamic organizations, the construction of mosques all over the country, pilgrimage to Mecca, translation of the Koran into…
Abstract Throughout the history of post-1945 Korea, evangelical Protestants in South Korea reinforced their political, economic, and cultural ascendancy over the country with extensive economic and administrative supports from the US government as well as missionaries from that country. This paper will examine in what ways Korean evangelical Protestantism gained hegemonic power in nation-building… Members…
Abstract This article deals with the First Korean Nationality Act which was spurred by the US Army Military Government in Korea (USAMGIK) and enacted by the first Korean Congress. Although there seemed to be a debate on the Nationality Act before Korea was colonized by Japan, the boundary of “Korean” citizenship was cultural and self-evident.…
Abstract This article aims to explore the Japanese colonial government’s efforts to promote mass movements in Korea which rose suddenly and showed remarkable growth throughout the 1930s. It focuses on two Governor-Generals and the directors of the Education Bureau who created the Social Indoctrination movements under Governor-General Ugaki Kazushige in the early 1930s and the…