Popular Culture and the Transformation of Japan–Korea Relations

Description

This book presents essays exploring the ways in which popular culture reflects and engenders ongoing changes in Japan–Korea relations. Through a broad temporal coverage from the colonial period to the contemporary, the book’s chapters analyse the often contradictory roles that popular culture has played in either promoting or impeding nationalisms, regional conflict and reconciliations between Japan and Korea. Its contributors link several key areas of interest in East Asian Studies, including conflicts over historical memories and cultural production, grassroots challenges to state ideology, and the consequences of digital technology in Japan and South Korea. Taking recent discourse on Japan and South Korea as popular cultural superpowers further, this book expands its focus from mainstream entertainment media to the lived experience of daily life, in which sentiments and perceptions of the "popular" are formed. It will be useful to students and scholars of Japanese and Korean studies, as well as film studies, media studies and cultural studies more widely. Cover Half Title Series Page Title Page Copyright Page Table of Contents List of figures Notes on contributors Acknowledgements Notes on romanisation and names Introduction: popular culture and the transformation of Japan–Korea relations Popular culture and international relations Japan–Korea relations in historical perspective Close but distant neighbours Chapter outlines Notes References Part I: Transforming Japan–Korea relations in everyday practice Chapter 1: Colonial timekeeping: bringing Koreans up to speed New standards Living in lazy times Resisting times Conclusion Notes References Chapter 2: "Dye for my grey hair and curry powder for cooking":informal politics of exchange between North Korea and Japan, 1959–1975 Connecting North Korea and Japan Letters for food An onion existence Mobilising correspondence from North Korea Conclusion Notes References Archival references Chapter 3: The "Shiba view of history" and Japan–Korea relations: reading, watching and travelling Clouds Above the Hill Consuming Shiba and his view of history Clouds Above the Hill and its critics Clouds Above the Hill as heritage Conclusion Notes References Part II: Reimagining Japan–Korea relations in film Chapter 4: Remembering to reset: representations of the colonial era in recent Korean films Introduction: colonial memories in revision Increased thematic, generic and aesthetic diversity of colonial memories New portraits of pro-Japanese collaborators References Filmography Chapter 5: Korean kamikaze pilots in Japanese films Kamikaze in post-war Japanese media Firefly and repressed trauma Resisting national narratives Conclusion Notes References Chapter 6: Memories of comfort: postcolonial production and consumption of Koreeda Hirokazu's Air Doll (2009) Introduction Air Doll (film) vs. Kūki ningyō (manga) Air Doll and the global fandom of Japanese popular culture Bae Doona, caught in soft power competition between the Korean Wave and Cool Japan Comfort women 2.0 Conclusion Notes References Part III: Japan–Korea relations and popular culture manipulations Chapter 7: The Diary of Yunbogi and Japan–Korea relations Introduction Yunbogi in the ROK Yunbogi travels to Japan Ōshima’s Yunbogi and transnational student politics Conclusion Note References Filmography Chapter 8: "Imjin River" and the transnational consumption of partitioned Korea “Imjin River” in Korea North Korean songs and self-reliance singing “Imjin River” in South Korea and Japan “Imjin River” in Japan Conclusion: music, emotion, reconciliation Notes References Music links Chapter 9: Industrial miracle or Hell Island? Gunkanjima, television, and nationalism in South Korea and Japan Introduction Gunkanjima as a UNESCO heritage site: contested war memories An industrial miracle: representations of Gunkanjima in Japanese television Hell Island: representations of Gunkanjima in Korean television Conclusion Notes References Part IV: Japan–Korea relations and popular culture engagement Chapter 10: Lovers' quarrels: Japan–Korea relations in amateur Boys' Love manga Introduction: the Hetalia Korea controversy Korea’s got moe Korea X Japan Conclusion: moe as method Notes References Chapter 11: Fly the flag (at your own risk): netizens, nationalism and celebrities between South Korea, Japan and beyond Introduction: not good copy Celebrities, netizens, nation Conclusion: when you wish upon a star Notes References Chapter 12: Japanese inherited responsibility, popular narratives and memory of the war Inherited responsibility for historical injustices Identity and collective memory Methodology Findings Information sources shaping Japanese war memory Narratives of Japanese war memory in popular culture Disavowal of inherited responsibility Conclusion Note References Index