| This dissertation explores the experiences of the Korean community in Osaka between 1920 and 1945 using a cross-cultural approach. A central theme of my dissertation is analyzing racial prejudice and racist practices against Koreans by focusing on residential segregation and its relation to racialization, while paying attention not only to how eugenics helped to construct notions of racial difference, but also to how Koreans were racialized without reference to the stigma of skin color. This study also explores working-class racism as instanced in the massacre of Koreans in the aftermath of the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923.; Moreover, I question the monolithic representation of the Korean experience in Japan by portraying the great diversity of people and phenomena within the Korean community. In particular, I address the tensions within an assumed unitary community divided by region, political orientations, generation, class, and gender, all of which counter nationalistic interpretations of the Korean experience. I also demonstrate that Koreans' responses to kominka (the production of Japanese imperial subjects) were varied and fluid.; This project also demonstrates that Korean were not merely helpless victims of colonization, but were actors in history and in their community. By examining the activities of Koreans, especially those of ordinary Koreans in both communities and workplaces, I attempt to comprehend the dynamism and potency of the physically segregated community, which contributed to fostering economic independence and maintaining their cultural and political autonomy.; In this project I also examine the ethnically diverse Osaka community (e.g., burakumin, Okinawans, Chinese, and Taiwanese) and inter-racial relations in neighborhoods, workplaces, and everyday encounters.; Finally, to a limited degree, I compare and contrast the Korean experience in Osaka with the African American experience in Chicago at the same time. Despite some crucial differences owing to Koreans' position as colonial subjects, I show many parallels between the two minority groups' experiences of racialization and immigration. I also illustrate the theoretical value of this cross-cultural perspective. Although this dissertation deals only with certain minorities in particular historical contexts, I hope to provide a framework for analyzing minority issues, which transcends national, racial, cultural, and temporal lines. |
