• Journal of English Language & Literature
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• v.59 no.4
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• pp.619-643
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• 2013

The experience of interment during World War II has been one of the primary motifs of fictional and autobiographical narratives by Japanese Americans. Examining textual evidences in John Okada's No-No Boy and Monica Sone's Nisei Daughters, this paper argues that the internment has been designed, carried out and concluded based primarily on the principles of economics. Borrowing the notion that 'wealth has (racial) color' as Lui and others maintain, this paper analyzes episodes in which the protagonists and other characters testify how their internment has resulted in their loss of capital as well as human rights and dignity, not to mention temporary suspension of their citizenships. In addition, this paper contrasts the image of the US as a land of equity as represented in the literary texts of the $18^{th}$ century authors in the US with that of our two authors. In doing so, this paper argues that the historical incident of internment in the $20^{th}$ century is the scene in which American ideals become irrecoverably sullied and American dreams turn into American nightmares.

• Journal of English Language & Literature
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• v.64 no.2
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• pp.219-238
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• 2018

This essay examines the first-generation Korean American writer, No-Yong Park's falsehoods about his ethnic identity to suggest how and why he passed for Chinese, and to explore the political, anti-Japanese implications of these actions. The essay first identifies erroneous information circulating about his biographical background, presents some other materials that help us better understand the context in which he forged his Chinese identity, and then examines how he represented himself as Chinese in his published works. I would argue that Park's self-identification as Chinese was a resulting outcome of his naturalization caused by the Japanese colonial power in Korea and also one of his surviving strategies in the racist environment within American society. Looking at some of his works-including Making a New China (1929), An Oriental View of American Civilization (1934), Chinaman's Chance: Autobiography (1940)-and examining how he represented Korea and its people reveal how he tried to raise voice for them. By doing so, this essay illuminates Park's resistance to Japan's colonial discourse and power in Korea while revealing his lifetime passing as Chinese-far from his refusal to belong to the Korean community, or to acknowledge being Korean.

• English & American cultural studies
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• v.18 no.2
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• pp.79-104
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• 2018

Chung Ji Yong is a well-known poet in the Japanese Occupation Period firstly as a lyrical and traditional poet as a member of the literary journal Simunhak(Poetry Literature) along with Park Yong Chul and Kim Young Rang and later as a prominent modernist poet in the late years of the Period. He is always highly estimated as a poet of pictorial images and lyricism, but his ardor for translations, especially Walt Whitman has been neglected so far. Before him, Ju Yohan, Yi Kwang Soo, Yi Un Sang, Kim Hyung Won and many other poets and critics had been interested in Whitman's democratic ideas and his poems. Chung Ji Young also translated Whitman's three poems in the hard days of 1930s. After the Imperial Japan surrendered to the Allied forces on 15 August 1945, ending 35 years of Japanese occupation, Korea was under the American forces and Russian troops. In this critical days of Korean's debating only one korea or separated Koreas, strangely enough, Chung ji Yong fully immersed in translating Whitman's poems only for four years as an English literature professor just before being abducted by North Korean Army, while almost discarding his own poetic ability and sense of duty as a leading poet in the literary circle with only just a few exceptions. Why did Chung Ji Yong focused on the translation of Whitman's poems in this important period as a poet and intellectual in the newly independent country? He may want to warn people too much ideological conflicts or at least express his frustration through translating Whitman's poems. Until now, academic endeavors on Chung Ji Yong's poems and life are focused on his lyrical and modernistic works of the Japanese Occupation Period and naturally little interested in the days of Independence period and his true motivations on translating Whitman's poems. As a proposal, this short article can be a minor trigger for the sincere efforts of Chung Ji Yong's last days.

• Cross-Cultural Studies
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• v.25
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• pp.213-236
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• 2011

The negative symbol of 'American imperialism', which was reinterpreted superimposed on the symbol imposed on Japanese imperialism in the 1945 Liberation of Korea, was more amplified added by the experiences of the bombing and massacre by US troops during the Korean War. In other words, the symbol of the extreme 'American imperialism' in the liberation in which even the role of America contributing to the liberation of Josun had been denied had continued for a long time adhered to and amplified through the war. Thus, unlike the current emphasis laid by North Josun, the assertion in the form of 'American imperialism=Korean wolf' is an idea made from the mixture of fact and fiction combined with the theory of imperialism rediscovered in the liberation and the experience of massacre during the Korean War. And this superimposed symbol for American imperialism naturally causes the problem of being superimposed also on the symbol of North Josun. And the extreme formalization for 'good' and 'bad' sides was based on the dichotomous compositions of beauty and ugliness, good and evil. The ground for saying that an act by a good side is 'unconditionally' legitimate is nowhere found. The anti-American viewpoint rediscovered in such an extreme form results in one aspect of criticism and resemblance as a result of being locked up in the same violence which one has rejected by oneself. The anti-American viewpoint going on in the form of anti-imperialist nationalism leaves nothing except another terrible retaliation for terrible brutality. It is self-evident that one can never get out of the enchanting power of imperialism which North Josun has continuously criticized in a ring of violence and vengeance, the familiar grammar commanded by North Josun literature.

• Journal of English Language & Literature
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• v.54 no.1
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• pp.149-167
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• 2008

Korea has persisted in the notion of "ethnic nationalism." That is "one race, one people, one language" as a homogeneous entity. This social ideal of unity prevails, even in overseas Korean communities formed by voluntary and involuntary displacement in the turmoil of modern history: communities made intermittent with the Japanese colonial occupation and with postcolonial encounters with the West. Given that the Korean people suffered from the trauma of deprivation of the language caused by the loss of the nation, nation has been equated with the language. Accordingly, "these bearers of a homeland" are also firm Korean language holders. The linguistic patriotism of unity based on the intertwining of "mother tongue" and "father country" has become prevalent in the collective memory of the people of the Korean diaspora. Korean American literature has grappled with this concept of the national history of Korea and the Korean language. The aesthetics of Korean American literature has been marked by an influx of literary resources of 'Korea' in sensibilities and structure of feelings; Korean myth, folk lore, songs, humor, traditional stories, manners, customs and historic moments. An experimental use of the Korean alphabet, Hangeul, written down as pronounced, provides an ethnic flavor in the midst of the English texts. Despite its national framework of mind, however, Korean American literature as an interstitial art reveals a keen awareness of inbetweenness, and transnational hybrid identities. By exploring the complex interrelationships of cultural and linguistic boundary-crossing practices in Korean American literature, this paper argues that the poetics of the Korean diaspora challenges the closed structure of identity formation, and offers a transnational sphere to deconstruct a rigidly demarcated national ideology of "one race, one people, one language," for the world literary history.

• Journal of English Language & Literature
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• v.57 no.3
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• pp.413-428
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• 2011

Compared with Cathy Song and Myung-Mi Kim, Suji Kwock Kim is yet to be known in Korea, even though she won prestigious American literary awards like the Walt Whitman Award from the Academy of American Poets and the Addison Metcalf Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters for her debut book of poems, Notes from the Divided Country. Although she was born and raised in the United States and had little knowledge of Korean at first, she came to recognize her identity and be familiar by and by with Korean history. The knowledge of the facts that Korea had been ravaged by foreign forces and suffered from the Japanese colonization and the Korean War aches her soul, and this soul-aching is aggravated by her ancestors' direct experiences of those Korean historical tragedies. But this book of poems does not contain poems regarding Korean history alone. The first part shows her guilty consciouseness for her brother and sister, who are suggested to be physically abnormal or mentally retarded. The third and fourth parts are filled with poems of very diverse subject matters, tones, and themes. Of those poems, "Monologue for an Onion" is probably most worthy of special attention. It is not only a searing indictment for human folly but also a very intriguing poetic rendering of Nietzschean ultimate lessson. Her achievement in the first book of poems makes us eagerly wait for the second one, which is, reportedly, forthcoming sooner or later.

• Journal of English Language & Literature
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• v.64 no.2
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• pp.273-298
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• 2018

This paper, postulating that Lowell's Imagism is not some "Amygism" that wobbles with "emotional slither," "mushy technique" and "general floppiness" as Pound once mocked, but another kind of poetic discourse that deserves the fullest re-consideration, goes back to the very scene where Pound left for Vorticism, condescendingly allowing Lowell and her supporters to use the name "Imagism" for three years. There, it tries to illuminate how Lowell, making the most of the opportunity given to her, picked up what Pound had left behind, grafted it on the soil of America, and finally fulfilled her literary passion to awaken the common reading public to the taste for poetry reading. For the purpose, it looks into her critical reviews in Tendencies in Modern American Poetry, and stresses her creative critical efforts to re-address Pound's principles of "Imagisme." In particular, given the limit of space, it focuses only on the second principle of her Imagism and examines the modernity of her concepts of "a cadence," "suggestion," and "the real poem beyond." Then it reads "Patterns" in the context of Japanese poetry and Noh drama and analyzes the poetic patterns that Lowell made through a creative adaptation of Japanese aesthetics for Imagist poetics. In doing so, this paper aims to provide reasonable evidences to evaluate the modernity of Lowell's Imagist ars poetica and to consider her a truly serious Imagist poet worthy of a place in the history of American poetic modernism.

• Cross-Cultural Studies
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• v.52
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• pp.223-251
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• 2018

This paper comparatively considered how Korea and Japan address the concept of 'postwar' in descriptions of their literary history. In Japan, 'postwar' refers to the period after World War II (Asia-Pacific War). This word implies a variety of contexts such as collapse, poverty, confusion, calendar reform, reconstruction and restoration as well as a series of historical events such as war, war defeat, and American occupation; and so it has been treated in Japanese society a significant period. In the history of Korean literature, it is after national liberation that the word 'postwar' appeared; however, it has usually indicated 'the period after the Korean War.' The question is that although the term of postwar refers to periods after different wars, Koreans used the term of postwar also in the same way as Japan, and their concept of postwar overlaps with the concept of prewar or postwar used in Japan, and accordingly, side effects are produced that fail to grasp properly the independent characteristics and significance of the Korean War. In conclusion, the Korean War brought about contrasting effects on the history of Korean and Japanese literature. While the Korean War meant a start after the war in Korean literature, it became a turning point marking the end of postwar in Japanese literature. Such different perceptions on postwar also have major implications in that perceptions represent postwar discourses in today's Korea and Japan.

• International Journal of Contents
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.29-33
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• 2007

Anime is very popular in Japan, it has also gained a following in America and is beginning to hit the mainstream. Anime is gaining popularity in the United States as it is shown more on television, most noticeably on the Sci-Fi Channel with shows such as Saturday Anime and during Anime Week and on Cartoon Network with shows such as Sailor Moon and Dragon Ball Z being shown every weekday during the Toonami block. In this paper, I present the key factors behind the success of anime in USA. To find out the factors, I research literature and simple survey. The differences of anime from us animation make anime popular. Anime-related goods such as video games, trading cards, and characters' jewelry aid the anime growing popularity. A booming trend in admiration for Japan is one of the key factors behind anime's success. In spite of disputing about Japanese animation, anime is starting to have some influence on US animation and also young American. Anime's success factors in USA could suggest that Korean Manhwa and Korean animation have to prepare strategies for rising popularity in oversea.

• Journal of Environmental Health Sciences
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.136-162
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• 1991

This thesis is a study on the change and the process of the development of the hygiene administration during the period of modernization of our nation which promoted by the open door policy of our country chiefly under the pressure of the foreign countries. During that period Korea had reorganized the old political system radically and introduced the western medical system. Through the close study of literature concerning the system of the hygiene administration, the laws of health and hygiene, the environmental sanitation organizations and their practical activities the author obtained the conclusions as following 1. The government passed around 40 laws of health and hygiene from the time when the bureau of hygiene was founded in 1894 to the annex of Korea to Japan. Most of the laws were believed to be established by the enforecement of Japanese government. When the epidemics were prevailing, a decree for the prevention of the epidemics was proclaimed by the Japanese president of the headquarters of national police. It is shown well that the sovereignty of Korea had been deprived. 2. After the armex of Korea to Japan, the hygiene police and the general police belonging to the bureau of national police shared the tasks of health and hygiene. This was a temporary system which had existed just during the colonial period. As for the water-supply which is the most important facility among the various environmental hygiene facilities, the rate of supply was remarkably high in Japanese rather than in Korean. 3. During the period of American military administration, it is notable that the division of hygiene in the bureau of national police was replaced by the bureau of hygiene. This period is regarded as the turning point when hygiene administration was operated by means of education along with the introuction of American system of public health. 4. Ever since the foundation of the republic government, the laws of health and hygiene which had been established during the colonial period have been put into operation without rriuch change except several regulations concerning food.