Organizer/Chair: Helen Lee, Yonsei University
This panel investigates the women of the Kōminka era of
imperial Japan (1937–1945). The locus for this examination is colonial
Korea contextualized within the Empire; the primary subject of inquiry
is women, both Japanese and Korean, of a wide range of age groups—from
elementary school children and high school girls to childbearing wives
and child-rearing mothers. The sweeping mobilization of all women and
the increasing collaboration between Japanese and Koreans under Kōminka
meant a thorough incorporation of all female bodies into Imperial projects. By examining the specificities of state apparatuses of mobilization, along with women’s writings, all four presenters argue how women’s intimate involvement with Kōminka
satisfied political goals—including those of the self-serving. Puja
Kim’s paper discusses how the imperial state came to recognize the
importance of educating Korean female children in the late 1930s,
through a curriculum that nourished Japanese mannerisms and lifestyle.
Taeyoon Ahn shows how Japanese schoolgirls carved out a political
position within the discourse of imperial women by developing an image
of a “big sister” vis-à-vis their Korean counterparts. Helen Lee
examines how reproductive health was presented as one of the key
concerns for future mothers, and how it in turn provided a platform on
which both Japanese and Korean women collaborated (though aiming at
incongruous political purposes). Through a comparative study Reiko
Hirose argues how the Patriotic Women’s Association of Korea was the
most noticeably active branch throughout the imperial territories,
documenting Japan’s tumultuous colonial governance in Korea.
Making of Imperial Women in Korean Girls: The Elementary School Curriculum under Kōminka
Puja Kim, Tokyo University of Foreign Studies
This paper examines the elementary school education of Korean girls
during wartime Japan (1937—1945). The curriculum for colonial education
had been instituted during the early phase of the colonial
administration of Korea, but it carried little significance due to the
low rate of Korean female children entering elementary school. This
trend dramatically changed in the late 1930s. The colonial
administration recognized the urgency to educate Korean girls in order
to mobilize them in support of the war effort. Koreans, though for a
different reason, also saw the need to send their children to
elementary school—primarily to ensure better employment opportunities.
By analyzing elementary school textbooks and documents released by
the colonial government of Korea, this paper addresses areas of the
curriculum that were stressed upon female students. For example, the
1939 state guidelines emphasized home economics—including cooking
Japanese meals and sewing—and provided cleaning instructions for the
Japanese-style tatami rooms. Ethics was another core area of
emphasis to foster loyalty and virtue in female pupils. In other words,
the curriculum was intended to inculcate the Japanese lifestyle and
values in Korean girls. Educating Korean girls also had larger
implications—they were expected to “Japanize” their homes as daughters
and as future mothers, fulfilling the role of the imperial women.
Playing ‘Imperial Sisters’
Taeyoon Ahn, Ewha Womans University
This paper explores the ways in which Japanese and Korean schoolgirls constructed their self-identity as Imperial subjects (kōmin or shinmin)
of the Japanese Empire during the Pacific War (1941-1945) in colonial
Korea. To the colonial government both Japanese and Korean women were
crucial resources to serve Imperial goals. The monthly women's magazine
New Woman (Shinjosei), published in the early 1940s,
featured numerous articles authored by both Korean and Japanese
schoolgirls, documenting their overflowing devotion and tireless
loyalty to the Empire. Distinctively characteristic in these articles
is the rhetoric that constructs Japanese schoolgirls as "big sisters"
who shoulder the responsibility to "lead and enlighten" Korean
schoolgirls. Investigating the ways in which wartime Japan created the
category of “schoolgirls,” this paper demonstrates how the Japanese
schoolgirls themselves attempted to negotiate their position within the
increasingly militarized empire. The rhetoric of sisterhood was one of
the central venues that enabled Japanese schoolgirls to define their
place vis-à-vis their Korean counterparts within the discourse of
“imperial women.”
Birthing Imperial Children: The Womb Improvement Project in Colonial Korea
Helen Lee, Yonsei University
By the early 1940s, women’s health was no longer a personal matter
in Imperial Japan; it was an issue of national policy and a duty of the
citizenry. A growing emphasis on healthy bodies resulted in a
modification of the discourse regarding the “ideal mother” of the
1920s—the ryōsai kenbo, the good wife, the wise mother. The new “ideal mother” in the 1940s was the kenbo,
the “healthy mother”, who was capable of giving birth to healthy
children. Despite a notable reduction in advertisements for women’s
vanity items in the print media, the marketing of products related to
women’s reproductive health actually persisted with greater vigor
throughout the early 1940s. From ointments for scarred nipples and
supplements intended to prevent miscarriages to recruitment
announcements for midwives, advertisements for wide range of woman’s
products and services peppered the print media.
In colonial Korea, Japanese and Korean women collaborated to promote
a variety of campaigns devoted to improving the health of “the womb,” a
womb claimed by the Imperial state. Through an examination of women’s
magazines and propaganda texts published in colonial Korea, this paper
argues how the issue of reproductive health anchored the collaboration
between Japanese and Korean women. A careful reading of these sources,
which were published under heightened censorship, further reveals how
this seemingly potent ground for Japan-Korea collaboration generated
responses that suggest variegated meanings and purposes for
participation.
Warriors on the Home Front
Hirose Reiko, Hokkaido Information University
Armed Imperial soldiers went to the front in order to secure and
expand the territorial borders of Japan’s empire; equally armed, in
ideological armor, were the women who backed the Imperial state’s
agenda from home. Launched in 1901 in the home islands, the Patriotic
Women’s Association was one of the most active organizations that
carried out concrete actions in service of the Empire. Its twin Korean
organization was founded in 1906, with the ostensible goal of bringing
Japan and Korea into harmony, the
naisen yūwa, by promoting collaborative work with Korean women.
This paper examines some of the critical tasks of the Patriotic
Women’s Association of Korea (Association hereafter), in order to
discern its strategic importance within the empire. The Association’s
activities can be divided into three broad categories. In times of need
Association members promoted campaigns to collect cash and household
items, such as copperware, to support the ongoing war effort. From
mending military uniforms to farming, the labors of the Association’s
women were harnessed to clothe and feed the Japanese people.
Community support programs were perhaps the most noteworthy activity of
the Association, through which they visited, commiserated with, and
even policed widows or other remaining family members of the military.
In other words, the Association functioned as a civilian organ for
providing cheerleading and surveillance in colonial Korea. The Korean
branch ranked at the top in organizing assembly meetings that brought
thousands of Association members together to reinforce their collective
will to serve the imperial goals—a testament to Korea’s geopolitical
importance within the Empire.
Discussant: Leslie Winston, Waseda University