Center for Korean Studies

This presentation will argue for the importance of performativity in understanding the “imperial subjectification” (my transliteration of J: kominka; K: hwangminhwa) of colonized Koreans during the Asia-Pacific War (1937-45).In particular, I will show how late colonial power on the peninsula operated around an inter-related set of public performances – performances aimed at convincing official and non-official actors alike of the viability and efficacy of Japanese imperialism.The first part of this presentation will employ the concept of colonial governmentality to analyze one set of these performances: the production of official statistics quantifying (although not necessarily qualifying) ceremonial practices.As I will demonstrate, tracking the number of “loyal” Korean subjects who passed through the gates of Shinto shrines or Exposition grounds became a central concern of officials in convincing bureaucratic audiences that “imperial subjectification” was somehow succeeding.The second part of this presentation will investigate the micro-practices that these statistics aimed to enumerate, but could not necessarily ensure corresponded to the ideology of “imperial subjectification.”Using examples from shrine and exposition visits, I will show that these public performances constituted the burden of convincing their official audiences that, as individual subjects of the Emperor, they were willing to live and die on his behalf.