Master’s thesis
Inclusion and Exclusion: Selective Mobilization of Motherhood in Colonial Korea, 1937-1945
The end of the Cold War has enabled East Asia to critically reassess the enduring scars and legacies of Japanese colonialism. Considerable research has been conducted on the "comfort women" system and forced labor, yet relatively little attention has been paid to the mobilization of women on the home front, and their specific roles within wartime society.
This study focuses on the wartime mobilization of motherhood in colonial Korea, analyzing how the Japanese Empire, between 1937 and 1945, redefined and mobilized the maternal roles of Korean women through policy and propaganda. Drawing on wartime newspapers and magazines, it investigates how colonial authorities reshaped normative expectations of motherhood, integrating women’s maternal functions into both the total war system and the imperialization movement (kōminka).
This paper was awarded Outstanding Master’s Thesis by the School of International Studies, Peking University.
Table of Contents
- Introduction
- Chapter One: Preconditions and Media for Motherhood Mobilization
- 1.1 Lifestyles and Customs: Body Discipline and the Construction of Normative Femininity
- 1.2 Organizations and Institutions: Aegukban(애국반), Women’s Associations, and Grassroots Networks
- 1.3 Discourse and Ideology: Korean Female Intellectuals as Opinion Leaders
- Chapter Two: Direct Mobilization: The Militarization of Motherhood
- 2.1 From “wise mothers and good wives”(현모양처) to “Mothers of the Empire”(군국의 어머니): Reconfiguring Motherhood under the Total War Regime
- 2.2 “Nurturing” and “Edification”: The “Mothers of the Empire” in the National Language Campaign(국어 상용 운동)
- 2.3 “Selflessness” and “Sacrifice”: The “Mothers of the Empire” under the Conscription System
- Chapter Three: Indirect Mobilization: The Simulation and Extension of Motherhood
- 3.1 “Saving for the Nation”: Household Management as a Maternal Duty
- 3.2 Performing Maternal Care: Senninbari (천인침), Comfort Bags, and Rituals of Sending Off and Welcoming Soldiers
- Chapter Four: Passive Mobilization: Ethnic Nationalism and the Exclusion of Colonial Motherhood
- 4.1 The Biopoliticization of Women’s Bodies and Pro-Natalist Policies
- 4.2 From “Female Miners” to “Comfort Women”: The Dispossession of Colonial Women’s Maternal Agency
- 4.3 Bloodline as Boundary: Excluding Colonial Women from the Category of “Mothers of the Nation”
- Conclusion