Japanese Colonial Education in Korea 1910-1945 - Ph.D. Russell A. Vacante

Japanese Colonial Education in Korea 1910-1945 (eBook)

An Oral History

Ph.D. Russell A. Vacante (Autor)

eBook Download: EPUB

2023 | 1. Auflage
192 Seiten
Bookbaby (Verlag)
978-1-6678-9340-2 (ISBN)

This study delves into the impact of Japanese colonial education on Korean students. Through oral histories from seven individuals who experienced colonial education from primary school to college, the study examines how formal education influenced their attitudes towards Japan's colonial rule.

This study investigates the impact of Japanese colonial education in Korea. It examines how formalcolonial education affected the attitudes and behavior of Korean students towards Japan's colonialdomination of Korea. The lived experience of Koreans who attended school during the colonial era,beginning with primary school and ending with college graduation, forms the focus of this study. The seven individuals presented in this oral history project tell of their colonial educational experienceand how they believe this experience affected their attitudes toward Japanese colonialism. Theiraccount of this experience provides us with insight into the sociopolitical tension, at the personal level,created by Japanese colonial education. This study also provides fresh insight into the relationship thateducational achievement has to nationalism. In order to gain a perspective on colonial education from the bottom up, questions such as thefollowing were posited: (1) what motivated Koreans to attend government schools, (2) what were thesocio-economic backgrounds of students who received a colonial education, and (3) what impact didcolonial formal education have on student political consciousness. To gather this and other informationthat goes beyond that contained in established colonial literature the interviews were conducted withinthe framework of the following three questions: (1) did students' attitudes change according to thelength of time they spent in school, (2) what influence did the family have on student political attitudesand what affect did colonial schools have in changing those attitudes, and (3) did the type of educationa student received, i.e., academic or vocational, affect his perception of colonialism. These threecategories were established less to get answers to specific questions than to derive a dense biographicaldiscussion and narrative that then could be analyzed in depth. This study does not make a general statement about Japanese colonialism or colonial education inKorea. It does provide keen insight into the lived colonial educational experience of Koreans and theeffects that such an experience had on their attitudes and behavior.

METHODOLOGY

ORAL HISTORY

The research methodology I used to study Japanese colonial education in Korea was oral history. The decision to employ personal interviews to investigate the impact of colonial formal education upon Koreans did not come easily or quickly. The first two years of my three and a half year research project in the Republic of Korea elapsed prior to my deciding on oral history as a research methodology. These years, for the most part, were spent learning Korean customs and language, making friends, and establishing contacts, as well as exploring various issues of importance in Korean society that had the potential of becoming a focus of study.

During much of this two-year period the subject of Korean-Japanese past and present relationships was often the topic of conversation among Korean colleagues and friends as well as a frequent topic of discussion in the Korean media. Many Koreans expressed a keen interest in Japanese colonial formal education. My interest in this subject increased with each additional piece of information I acquired and seemingly in direct relationship to the number of times this issue surfaced as a topic of conversation.

In my enthusiasm to gather empirical information as quickly as possible about Japanese colonial education I initially adapted a questionnaire research methodology. Soon after administering questionnaires to a sample population, I learned that this methodology was unworkable given the environment in which I was working and the research goal I hoped to achieve.

Questions pertaining to the life experience, attitudes, and behavior of people who endured the often trying and harsh conditions of colonial life did not easily lend themselves to a questionnaire format. A comprehensive study about the educational experiences of individuals who went to Japanese colonial schools meant that persons who participated in this process had to be interviewed. Individuals with whom I established friendships and acquaintances during my first two years in Korea were kind enough to introduce me to people educated during the colonial era. After initial contact was made with the potential interviewees months were often spent establishing my academic and political credibility with them.

By adopting an oral history research methodology, an informant, holistic approach to the study of Japanese colonial education in Korea became possible. The study of colonial formal education in this manner permits us to examine a particular social institution as it exists as a relatively autonomous unit of society while at the same time allowing an unobstructed view of its relationship to other institutions and events occurring throughout the society. When examining the effects of Japanese colonial formal education upon Korean participants this becomes especially important. The holistic approach when applied to the study of colonial education in Korea provides the opportunity to explore how colonial formal education was designed to change the attitude and behavior of Korean students, and to discover how the Koreans I interviewed believed their attitudes and behaviors did change as a result of their educational experience. Oral history research methods will help us understand how those educated during the colonial period related to other Koreans and/or Japanese living in Korea.

The fact that oral history is an intense research methodology is the second reason for using it to investigate the effects of Japanese colonial education upon Koreans. In the case of Korea, as previously suggested, interpersonal relationships occur within a complex set of social norms and values at a face-to-face level of interaction. This means, in turn, that societal circumstances determine the condition under which “field” research is to be conducted as least as much, but probably more important, than the person doing the research. The political climate of Korea makes it very difficult to conduct social science research of any nature. Social science research that has possible political implications is strictly forbidden by the government. Most Koreans with whom I established contact did discuss politics but did so among a few well selected friends and then not without some apprehension. For instance, I was informed of one incident in which an individual who gave an evening cocktail party at his house for a few friends was arrested the following day. I was told that someone at the party reported the host to the police for making unfavorable remarks about the then President of Korea, Park Chung Hee.

The interviews contained in this study are designed to examine the attitudes of Koreans who went to colonial schools. The oral histories presented here will provide the reader with insight into the effects of colonial formal education upon these individuals as well as provide us with some idea about the role of formal education in a colonial society.

Given that the Koreans I interviewed received most, if not all, of their college education during the colonial period, we should be able to gain insight into socio-political tensions created by colonialism that have seldom been explored. The interviews contained in this study suggest that the general Korean population looked to the better educated segment of their population for leadership that would free them from Japanese colonial rule. The Korean people possibly were eager for the respondents to receive a formal, especially higher, education given that the schooling they would receive would equip them with the knowledge and skill needed in the Korean peoples’ struggle against colonialism. These same people in all probability were looked upon by colonial officials as people who could assist them in keeping the political lid on a potential explosive political situation. In exchange for a quality formal education Japanese officials assumed that upon successful completion of their formal education Koreans would willingly help the government maintain law and order in Korea. So, the question that oral history research allows us to posit, as no other research method could, is whether the fundamental political attitude of Korean students changed in favor of the government as they progressed through school.

Comparative analysis is another benefit derived from using the in-depth, informant oral history research method in investigating colonial formal education in Korea. This research methodology allows repeated investigation of a particular socio-cultural phenomenon or event in such a way that it allows the researcher to get to its underlying cause(s). With regard to Japanese colonial education in Korea, the examination of oral histories of Koreans who attended schools will help us better understand which colonial educational practices and policies were aimed at shaping the political disposition of indigenous students. Secondly, this research method permits the foreign investigator to compare his/her data with similar historical conditions in other societies.

In deciding to collect the oral histories of individuals who attended school when Korea was a colony of Japan, I was confronted by a number of situations that had the potential of being problematic. My experience and observations on the use of the Korean language, which was later confirmed by Korean friends and associates, convinced me that if my research project was to succeed the recording of the interviews had to be conducted in English. Korean scholars I consulted estimated that it would take most foreigners approximately ten years of intense Korean language study to successfully conduct oral history research. A primary reason for this is that the Korean language contains numerous nuances that can lend themselves to various interpretations. Past and present political oppression in Korea has forced the Korean people to incorporate nuances of dubious meaning into their language as a way of avoiding being accused by government officials of making political statements or suggestions that could be interpreted as being anti-government. Fluency in the Korean language, said one scholar, would be no assurance to the foreign researcher that political nuances would be recognized and/or correctly interpreted.

A native-like command of the Korean language by a foreigner has the potential of interfering with an exchange of information for another reason. Due to the postcolonial political circumstances of Korean society, most Koreans are highly suspicious of anyone who has shown any long-term interest in their affairs. As far as they are concerned any foreigner who has a good command of their language has, until proven otherwise, ties to the feared Korean Central Intelligence Agency (KCIA).

Using respondents who could be interviewed in English automatically narrowed the number of educated Korean subjects to be interviewed. The replies to my questions, however, were usually refreshingly honest and concise. In most instances, those individuals who did not want to provide an answer to a particular question refused to respond or intentionally changed the subject of conversation.

Collecting oral histories from Korean respondents in English proved to be a highly successful research technique possibly providing psychological distance for the individuals interviewed from their own life experience. Most respondents did not seem threatened during the interview by the content of the conversation.

UNCONTROLLABLE FACTORS AFFECTING THE METHODOLOGY

The site of the interviews, in retrospect, proved to have some bearing on the quality of the interviews. Respondents to be interviewed were given the option of determining where and under what circumstances the interviews were to be recorded. Out of the seven oral histories included in this thesis five...

Erscheint lt. Verlag	10.4.2023
Sprache	englisch
Themenwelt	Geisteswissenschaften ► Geschichte ► Regional- / Ländergeschichte
ISBN-10	1-6678-9340-8 / 1667893408
ISBN-13	978-1-6678-9340-2 / 9781667893402

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