Books in the Korean Studies of the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies series

Michael Edson Robinson is professor of East Asian languages and cultures at Indiana University.

Building Ships, Building a Nation examines the rise and fall, during the rule of Park Chung Hee (1961-79), of the combative labor union at the Korea Shipbuilding and Engineering Corporation (KSEC), which was Korea's largest shipyard until Hyundai appeared on the scene in the early 1970s. Drawing on the union's extraordinary and extensive archive, Hwasook Nam focuses on the perceptions, attitudes, and discourses of the mostly male heavy-industry workers at the shipyard and on the historical and sociopolitical sources of their militancy. Inspired by legacies of labor activism from the colonial and immediate postcolonial periods, KSEC union workers fought for equality, dignity, and a voice for labor as they struggled to secure a living wage that would support families.The standard view of the South Korean labor movement sees little connection between the immediate postwar era and the period since the 1970s and largely denies positive legacies coming from the period of Japanese colonialism in Korea. Contrary to this conventional view, Nam charts the importance of these historical legacies and argues that the massive mobilization of workers in the postwar years, even though it ended in defeat, had a major impact on the labor movement in the following decades.

Following its introduction to Korea in the late 19th century, Protestantism grew rapidly both in numbers of followers and its influence, and remained a dominating social and political force throughout the 20th century. Park charts this stunning growth and examines the shifting political associations of Korean Protestantism.Chung-shin Park is professor of Christian studies at Soongsil University, Seoul.

Seventeenth-century Korea was a country in crisis - successive invasions by Hideyoshi and the Manchus had rocked the Choson dynasty (1392-1910), which was already weakened by maladministration, internecine bureaucratic factionalism, unfair taxation, concentration of wealth, military problems, and other ills. Yu Hyongwon (1622-1673; pen name, Pan'gye), a recluse scholar, responded to this time of chaos and uncertainty by writing his modestly titled Pan'gye surok (The Jottings of Pan'gye), a virtual encyclopedia of Confucian statecraft, designed to support his plan for a revived and reformed Korean system of government. Although Yu was ignored in his own time by all but a few admirers and disciples, his ideas became prominent by the mid-eighteenth century as discussions were under way to solve problems in taxation, military service, and commercial activity. Yu has been viewed by Korean and Japanese scholars as a forerunner of modernization, but in Confucian Statecraft and Korean Institutions James B. Palais challenges this view, demonstrating that Yu was instead an outstanding example of the premodern tradition. Palais uses Yu Hyongwon's mammoth, pivotal text to examine the development and shape of the major institutions of Choson dynasty Korea. He has included a thorough treatment of the many Chinese classical and historical texts that Yu used as well as the available Korean primary sources and Korean and Japanese secondary scholarship. Palais traces the history of each of Yu's subjects from the beginning of the dynasty and pursues developments through the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. He stresses both the classical and the historical roots of Yu's reform ideas and analyzes thenature and degree of proto-capitalistic changes, such as the use of metallic currency, the introduction of wage labor into the agrarian economy, the development of unregulated commercial activity, and the appearance of industries with more differentiation of labor.

Clark Sorensen presents a description of the economic and ecological organization of rural Korean domestic groups and an analysis of their adaption to the changes brought about by Korea's rapid industrialization.Still one of the only book-length studies of rural, peasant Korean households, Over the Mountains Are Mountains shows how the industrialization of Korea led neither to the proletarianization of the peasants nor to a fundamental change in the structure of rural families, but rather to strategic changes in patterns of migration, labor allocation, and residence.

Following its introduction to Korea in the late nineteenth century, Protestantism grew rapidly both in numbers of followers and in influence, and remained a dominating social and political force throughout the twentieth century. In Protestantism and Politics in Korea, Chung-shin Park charts this stunning growth and examines the shifting political associations of Korean Protestantism.Elsewhere in Asia, evangelical Protestant missionaries failed to have much social and political impact, being perceived as little more than agents of Western imperialism. But in Korea the church became a locus of national resistance to Japanese colonization in the fifty years preceding 1945. Missionaries and local adherents steadily gained popular support as they became identified with progressive political reforms.After World War II and the division of the Korean peninsula, however, most Protestant institutions in South Korea were conscripted into the fight against communism. In addition, they became involved in the postwar push for rapid economic development. These alliances led to increasing political conservatism, so that mainstream Korean Protestantism eventually became a stalwart defender of the authoritarian status quo. A small liberal minority remained politically active, supporting social and human rights causes throughout the 1960s and 1970s, laying the foundation for mass protests and gradual democratic liberalization in the 1980s. Park documents the theological evolution of Korean Protestantism from early fundamentalism to more liberal doctrines and shows how this evolution was reflected in the political landscape.

From the late nineteenth century, Japan sought to incorporate the Korean Peninsula into its expanding empire. Japan took control of Korea in 1910 and ruled it until the end of World War II. During this colonial period, Japan advertised as a national goal the assimilation of Koreans into the Japanese state. It never achieved that goal. Mark Caprio here examines why Japan's assimilation efforts failed. Utilizing government documents, personal travel accounts, diaries, newspapers, and works of fiction, he uncovers plenty of evidence for the potential for assimilation but very few practical initiatives to implement the policy.Japan's early history of colonial rule included tactics used with peoples such as the Ainu and Ryukyuan that tended more toward obliterating those cultures than to incorporating the people as equal Japanese citizens. Following the annexation of Taiwan in 1895, Japanese policymakers turned to European imperialist models, especially those of France and England, in developing strengthening its plan for assimilation policies. But, although Japanese used rhetoric that embraced assimilation, Japanese people themselves, from the top levels of government down, considered Koreans inferior and gave them few political rights. Segregation was built into everyday life. Japanese maintained separate communities in Korea, children were schooled in two separate and unequal systems, there was relatively limited intermarriage, and prejudice was ingrained. Under these circumstances, many Koreans resisted assimilation. By not actively promoting Korean-Japanese integration on the ground, Japan's rhetoric of assimilation remained just that.

Examines the rise and fall, during the rule of Park Chung Hee (1961-79), of the combative labor union at the Korea Shipbuilding and Engineering Corporation (KSEC), which was Korea's largest shipyard until Hyundai appeared on the scene in the early 1970s. This work focuses on the perceptions, attitudes, and discourses of the heavy-industry workers.

Carter J. Eckert is Yoon Se Young Professor of Korean History at Harvard University.

Presents and analyzes inquest records that tell the stories of ordinary Korean people under the Choson court (1392-1910). This book offers an account of the vibrant, multifaceted societal and legal cultures of early modern Korea.

An extended, objective analysis of the exploitation of the thousands of young Korean men who served in Japan's military and auxiliary occupations

The Choson state (13921910) is typically portrayed as a rigid society because of its hereditary status system, slavery, and Confucian gender norms. However, The Emotions of Justice reveals a surprisingly complex picture of a judicial system that operated in a contradictory fashion by discriminating against subjects while simultaneously minimizing such discrimination. Jisoo Kim contends that the states recognition of won, or the sense of being wronged, permitted subjects of different genders or statuses to interact in the legal realm and in doing so illuminates the intersection of law, emotions, and gender in premodern Korea.

Imperial tombs, Buddhist architecture, palaces, and art treasures in Korea and Japan have attracted scholars, collectors, and conservators - and millions of tourists. This book highlights how the forces of modernity, nationalism, colonialism, and globalization have contributed to the birth of museums, field disciplines, and tourist industries.

Presents and analyzes inquest records that tell the stories of ordinary Korean people under the Choson court (1392-1910). This book offers an account of the vibrant, multifaceted societal and legal cultures of early modern Korea.

By studying the early splits within Korean nationalism, Michael Robinson shows that the issues faced by Korean nationalists during the Japanese colonial period were complex and enduring. In doing so, Robinson, in this classic text, provides a new context with which to analyze the difficult issues of political identity and national unity that remain central to contemporary Korean politics.

According to conventional interpretations, the Japanese annexation of Korea in 1910 destroyed a budding native capitalist economy on the peninsula and blocked the development of a Korean capitalist class until 1945. In this expansive and provocative study, now available in paperback, Carter J. Eckert challenges the standard view and argues that Japanese imperialism, while politically oppressive, was also the catalyst and cradle of modern Korean industrial development. Ancient ties to China were replaced by new ones to Japan - ties that have continued to shape the South Korean political economy down to the present day.Eckert explores a wide range of themes, including the roots of capitalist development in Korea, the origins of the modern business elite, the nature of Japanese colonial policy and the Japanese colonial state, the relationship between the colonial government and the Korean economic elite, and the nature of Korean collaboration. He conveys a clear sense of the human complexity, archival richness, and intellectual challenge of the historical period. His documentation is thorough; his arguments are compelling and often strikingly innovative.

Examines how peasants responded to these events, and to their own economic and political circumstances, with protests that shaped the course of postwar revolution in the north and reform in the south.

A landmark study offering an interpretation of the history of traditional Korea.

Seventeenth-century Korea was a country in crisissuccessive invasions by Hideyoshi and the Manchus had rocked the Chosn dynasty (1392-1910), which already was weakened by maladministration, internecine bureaucratic factionalism, unfair taxation, concentration of wealth, military problems, and other ills. Yu Hyngwn (16221673, pen name, Pangye), a recluse scholar, responded to this time of chaos and uncertainty by writing his modestly titled Pangye surok (The Jottings of Pangye), a virtual encyclopedia of Confucian statecraft, designed to support his plan for a revived and reformed Korean system of government.Although Yu was ignored in his own time by all but a few admirers and disciples, his ideas became prominent by the mid-eighteenth century as discussions were underway to solve problems in taxation, military service, and commercial activity. Yu has been viewed by Korean and Japanese scholars as a forerunner of modernization, but in Confucian Statecraft and Korean Institutions James B. Palais challenges this view, demonstrating that Yu was instead an outstanding example of the premodern tradition.Palais uses Yu Hyngwns mammoth, pivotal text to examine the development and shape of the major institutions of Chosn dynasty Korea. He has included a thorough treatment of the many Chinese classical and historical texts that Yu used as well as the available Korean primary sources and Korean and Japanese secondary scholarship. Palais traces the history of each of Yus subjects from the beginning of the dynasty and pursues developments through the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. He stresses both the classical and historical roots of Yus reform ideas and analyzes the nature and degree of proto-capitalistic changes, such as the use of metallic currency, the introduction of wage labor into the agrarian economy, the development of unregulated commercial activity, and the appearance of industries with more differentiation of labor.Because it contains much comparative material, Confucian Statecraft and Korean Institutions will be of interest to scholars of China and Japan, as well as to Korea specialists. It also has much to say to scholars of agrarian society, slavery, landholding systems, bureaucracy, and developing economies.Winner of the John Whitney Hall Book Prize, sponsored by the Association for Asian Studies

Fighting for the Enemy explores the participation of Koreans in the Japanese military and supporting industries before and during World War II, first through voluntary enlistment and eventually through conscription. Contrary to popular belief among Korean nationalists, this involvement was not entirely coerced. Brandon Palmer examines this ambiguous situation in the context of Japan's long-term colonial effort to assimilate Koreans into Japanese sociopolitical life and documents the many ways Koreans-short of openly resisting-avoided full cooperation with Japanese war efforts.Much media attention has been given to Japan's exploitation of "e;comfort women"e; in Korea and elsewhere in East Asia during the colonial period, but, until now, there has been no extended, objective analysis of the exploitation of the thousands of young Korean men who served in Japan's military and auxiliary occupations.

"A William Sangki and Nanhee Min Hahn book."