Koreans as Japanese Soldiers: Reflections on Inclusionary or Polite Racism in WWII

Lecture Information:
Professor Fujitani’s presentation will draw from his forthcoming book, Race for Empire: Koreans as Japanese and Japanese as Americans in WWII. The book is a comparative and transnational study of ethnic and colonial soldiers during the Asia-Pacific War (or the Second World War in the Asia-Pacific region) that focuses specifically on Japanese Americans mobilized to serve in the Unites States army and Koreans who were recruited or drafted into the Japanese military. His research utilizes the two sites of soldiering as optics through which to examine the larger operations and structures of the changing U.S. and Japanese national empires as they struggled to manage racialized populations within the larger demands of conducting total war. As Prof. Fujitani’s work uncovers, discussions about, policies, and representations of these two sets of soldiers tell us a great deal about the changing characteristics of wartime racism, nationalism, imperialism, colonialism, capitalism, gender politics, the family, and some other related issues on both sides of the Pacific. These issues go well beyond the soldiers themselves, and their repercussions remain with us today.

Lecturer Information:
Takashi Fujitani is Professor of History at the University of California, San Diego. His primary areas of research are modern and contemporary Japanese history, East Asian history, and transnational history (primarily U.S./Japan and Asia-Pacific). His publications include: Splendid Monarchy: Power and Pageantry in Modern Japan (UC Press, 1996; Japanese version, 1994; Korean translation, 2003); Perilous Memories: The Asia Pacific War(s) (co-editor, Duke, 2001); and Race for Empire: Koreans as Japanese and Japanese as Americans in WWII (forthcoming, UC Press; Japanese version, Iwanami Shoten); as well as numerous book chapters and articles published in Korean, Japanese, and English. His recent research has been funded by the John S. Guggenheim Foundation, ACLS, NEH, and SSRC.