Imperial Romance

This chapter captures the complex phenomenon of representations of Korean–Japanese intimate relationships in Korean popular literature, media, and cinema with colonial policies during the Japanese protectorate period and colonial rule in Korea from 1905 to 1945. It cites that Koreans' experience of intimacy was rare in twentieth-century global colonialism as intermarriage and intimate relationships were encouraged by the colonial government. It also argues that Korean writers and cultural producers of the first half of the twentieth century displayed a fascination with their Japanese colonizers. The chapter analyses moments when colonial subjects become active participants in, and agents of, Japanese and global imperialism. It talks about the cracks in the colonial system, such as moments when Koreans became equal to the Japanese, with or without the support of the colonial rulers.

Visualizing “International” and Korean-Japanese Marriage in Print Media

This chapter discusses married life and the sensationalization of interracial marriages in print culture, and examines “international” marriages in newspapers and magazines, including Yŏsŏng (Women). It explains how the print media embraced “internationally” married couples as celebrities in the mid-1930s, specifically couples that consisted of Korean and non-Korean or non-Japanese partners. It also explores essays and interviews featured in the magazine Naisen ittai, looking at descriptions of the married life of Korean–Japanese couples. The chapter illustrates the ways the international marriage discourse strengthened the already widespread desire for Western-style homes and emphasizes the cosmopolitan impulses of this desire. It argues that the sensationalist stories and essays that contributed to the “sweet home” discourse accommodated and strengthened the Korean–Japanese intermarriage ideology by creating a new cosmopolitan model of “intimacy” for all forms of intermarriage.

Wartime Ideology and the Integration of Korean-Japanese Mixed Families, 1930s

This chapter concentrates on colonial kinship and narratives of adoption that were intended to highlight the mixed family as a harmonious unit. It looks at Yi Kwangsu's novels Kokoro aifurete koso (When hearts truly meet) and KŬdŬl Ŭi sarang (Their love). It also shows how the wartime imperialization policy and assimilation played out in domestic everyday life through a story of Korean–Japanese family adoption. It further explains the colonial kinship discussion by analyzing the films that centers on the development of mixed families Rinjin'ai no reikyaku (Beautiful guest of neighborly love) and Ai to chikai (Love and the vow). The chapter recounts the “cultural rule” of the 1920s that brought a proliferation of print culture in Korea and ushered in a censorship-oriented state of war as the Japanese Empire reached North China in the following decade.

Romance and Colonial Universalism

This chapter reviews the romantic engagements of Korean–Japanese couples by looking at stories that do not emphasize the assimilation of Koreans. It analyzes the work of the major colonial-era writer Yi Hyosŏk, who is known for his modernist style and rustic portraits of country landscapes. It also discusses Yi's later works that often feature the Japanese Empire's expansionism and interracial romances, such as romance and marriage between Koreans and Japanese and between Koreans and Russians. The chapter elaborates how Yi is considered the single most important writer to recognize the colonial intimacy among imperial subjects in the context of the Japanese expansion into Manchuria. It offers close readings of Yi's short story “Azami no shō” and his novel Midori no tō and compares them to his other works.

Under the Same Roof

This chapter investigates the ruling elites' discourse on intermarriage in literature and the media in the late 1910s and the 1920s. It discusses the Korean media that published topics ranging from the legalization of Korean–Japanese marriage to the future of intermarriage in the wake of the 1920 royal marriage between a Korean prince, Yi Ŭn, and a Japanese blueblood, Nashimotonomiya Masako. It also talks about the influence of the ruling elites' intermarriage that continues to be evident in fictional narratives by Yŏm Sangsŏp. The chapter reviews Sangsŏp's novella Nam Ch'ungsŏ in 1927, which is a story about a rich family in Seoul. It analyses how contemporary Korean writers portrayed upper-class Korean–Japanese mixed homes and families.

Postcolonial Interracial Intimacy

This chapter discusses postcolonial intimacy by surveying post-1945 cultural productions on Korean–Japanese intermarriage. It offers a short sketch of the construction of the postcolonial memory of colonial intimacy in South Korean popular culture and analyzes the normalization of Korean patriarchal narratives about Korean–Japanese relationships. It also reviews the “Hyŏnhaet'an” narrative with the movie Hyŏnhaet'an Ŭn algoitta in 1961 and the post-1998 lifting of the ban on Japanese culture in South Korea, particularly the differences between the reception of the Japanese film Hotaru in Japan and Korea. The chapter looks at the 2010s, with the movies Tŏkhye ongju (The last princess), Agassi (The handmaiden), and Pak Yŏl (Anarchist from colony). It recounts the Korean War and the Cold War politics that dominated both North and South for the next few decades and impeded the decolonization process in the Korean Peninsula.

Civilization and Enlightenment

This chapter examines the introduction of intermarriage between Koreans and Japanese as a public discourse in the early twentieth century, starting in the Japanese protectorate period from 1905 to 1910. It examines the colonial government documents and newly launched Japanese-language media. It also looks at readings of novels by Yi Injik in the genre of the so-called New Novel and of Yi Kwangsu's early short stories. The chapter then explores the discourse that propagated the idea of Korean–Japanese intimacy as an important part of the Korean assimilation into the newly dominant Japanese civilization. It explains how the violence of the Japanese Empire has overshadowed the existence of intimate and familial Korean–Japanese relationships since the colonial period.