Synopses & Reviews
"Moving beyond top-down accounts of colonialism,
Assimilating Seoul offers a richly textured, on-the-ground understanding of how Japanese rule operated and was contested in Seoul. The books careful and vivid reconstruction of the entanglements of the state with city residents makes the powerful argument that the materiality of colonial power should be understood in the configuration and experiences of urban spaces. It is a splendid combination of urban and colonial histories." Gyan Prakash, author of
Mumbai Fables
"In this illuminating examination of spatial politics in Japanese-occupied Seoul, Todd Henry takes us into the labyrinth of colonial governmentality. His captivating analysis of public ritual, city planning, and industrial expositions reveals the varied uses of urban form as a technology of rule--as well as the limitations of state power. A model study of the colonial city."Louise Young, author of Beyond the Metropolis: Second Cities and Modern Life in Interwar Japan
"Few issues in the history of world colonialism are as conceptually challenging as the problem of assimilation within the Japanese empire. Henry offers a fascinating approach to the contentious politics of what it meant to be a Korean colonial subject under Japanese rule. The many answers to this problem are sure to stimulate debate."Andre Schmid, Professor of East Asian Studies, University of Toronto
"This is one of the best books on modern Korean history I've read in recent years. Henry breaks new ground, especially in English, in his focus on the 'spaces' of colonial rule, and his command of such rich and varied primary sources is impressive. Assimilating Seoul is a fascinating read."Carter J. Eckert, Yoon Se Young Professor of Korean History, Harvard University
Review
"A major contribution to the study of the history of twentieth-century Korea."
Review
"A most welcome addition to the field of Korean studies."
Review
"An important contribution . . . impressive depth."
Review
"The first in-depth study in the English language of the history of Seoul in the first half of the twentieth century . . . entertaining and highly readable . . . a welcome addition to the growing literature on Korea’s colonial history and on urban history more generally."
Synopsis
Assimilating Seoul, the first book-length study written in English about Seoul during the colonial period, challenges conventional nationalist paradigms by revealing the intersection of Korean and Japanese history in this important capital. Through microhistories of Shinto festivals, industrial expositions, and sanitation campaigns, Todd A. Henry offers a transnational account that treats the citys public spaces as "contact zones," showing how residents negotiated pressures to become loyal, industrious, and hygienic subjects of the Japanese empire. Unlike previous, top-down analyses, this ethnographic history investigates modalities of Japanese rule as experienced from below. Although the colonial state set ambitious goals for the integration of Koreans, Japanese settler elites and lower-class expatriates shaped the speed and direction of assimilation by bending government initiatives to their own interests and identities. Meanwhile, Korean men and women of different classes and generations rearticulated the terms and degree of their incorporation into a multiethnic polity. Assimilating Seoul captures these fascinating responses to an empire that used the lure of empowerment to disguise the reality of alienation.
About the Author
Todd A. Henry is Assistant Professor of History at the University of California, San Diego.
Table of Contents
List of Illustrations
Note on Place Names
Preface and Acknowledgments
Introduction. Assimilation and Space: Toward an Ethnography of Japanese Rule
1. Constructing Keijo: The Uneven Spaces of a Colonial Capital
2. Spiritual Assimilation: Namsans Shinto Shrines and Their Festival Celebrations
3. Material Assimilation: Colonial Expositions on the Kyongbok Palace Grounds
4. Civic Assimilation: Sanitary Life in Neighborhood Keijo
5. Imperial Subjectification: The Collapsing Spaces of a Wartime City
Epilogue. After Empires Demise: The Postcolonial Remaking of Seouls Public Spaces
Notes
Selected Bibliography
Index