- Overview
-
This book presents the results of 10 years of research on Koreans who studied abroad in Japan during the Japanese occupation period, shedding light on what these people learned, from whom they learned it, and how they influenced their home country after returning.
- Book Intro
-
The first record of 1,000 Korean students who studied at Japan's Imperial Universities.
After Korea gained independence, many people participated in establishing the new country. Regardless of their political positions, Korean students who studied in Imperial Universities in mainland Japan had indispensable roles. Many of these students worked as officials in Imperial Japan and were pro-Japanese or had knowledge and experience of the modern Japanese empire that they used to elicit a massive influence on North and South Korea's administration, economy, law, and academia. Indeed, not everyone who studied in Japan became government officials who dreamt of succeeding in society. Some joined revolutionary movements under the influence of Marxism. Some others went into academia after having inner conflicts surrounding worldly success and the limitations of their social positions. All of them, however, have had large influences in both tangible and intangible ways on post-independence Korea. They also still linger in Korean society like ghosts. This book is the result of extensive research on Koreans who studied abroad in Japan during the colonial period. Starting from Kyoto and going through scattered records, the author researched for 10 years to determine why those Koreans went abroad to study, what they learned and from whom, and how they influenced Korea after they returned.
The author became interested in the identity of these people when he saw a list of Korean students in Kyoto 10 years ago. He began his research by working on the list of Koreans who enrolled in the Imperial University in Kyoto. Then, he searched for a list of students enrolled at the Imperial University in Tokyo, which was the most central of the Imperial Universities. Upon returning to Korea, the author collected information on the lives of these people and uncovered their narratives in a process that spanned 10 years. First, he completed the list of students in the Imperial Universities in Tokyo and Kyoto, which were the most important branches, and decided to study the students' lives and write a book on them. He included notable figures in Korean history even if they were enrolled in other branches. More than 1,000 Korean students studied in mainland Japan during the colonial period. No previous research was done on this topic. This book is an important outline that contributes to understanding the modern history of Korea in a three-dimensional way.
- About the Author
-
Jeong Jonghyun
Jeong Jonghyun graduated from the Department of Korean Language and Literature in Dongguk University and received his doctoral degree from its affiliated graduate school. Jeong has studied various topics relating to 20th-century Korean studies. His research topics include comparative literature in East Asia, the history of knowledge, the history of reading culture, and Cold War culture. He is currently an assistant professor in the Department of Korean Language and Literature at Inha University. He has authored many books including Theory of Asia and Colonial Korean Literature and Memory and Appropriation of Empire-Continuation and Discontinuation of Korean Literature in 1940s.
- Award
-
"Kyunghyang Shinmun, 2019, Book of the Year Munhwa Ilbo, 2019, Book of the Year Sisa IN, 2019, The Book of the Year Picked by Readers"
- Selection
-
Publication Industry Promotion Agency of Korea, 2019, Sejong Books for Liberal Arts
