Discussion
On October 21, 2025, the 298th Japan Specialist Seminar was held in hybrid format at Seoul National University’s Graduate School of International Studies (GSIS) and via Zoom. Wook Kim, Principal Researcher at Institute for Japanese Studies, Seoul National University, presented on “Colonial Elites of the Empire and Korea/Taiwan as the 'Outer Territories: Focusing on Literary Works of Graduates from Keijō Imperial University, its Preparatory Course, and Taihoku Higher School.”
The lecture examined how modern Japan, unlike Western empires, constructed its colonial order by framing Korea and Taiwan as “outer territories” rather than typical colonies. Facing challenges in fully integrating these regions into the metropole, Japan established institutions such as Keijō Imperial University and Taihoku Higher School to educate colonial elites in Japanese. Through literary journals such as Cheongnyang (1925) and Sangpung (1926), Japanese and colonial students jointly produced works that reflected complex relations between colonizer and colonized, revealing both collaboration and tension.
Discussion addressed why these two journals were chosen, who the Japanese students in the colonies were, how regional proximity with colonies shaped experiences in Kyushu and Okinawa, and the conceptual difference between “outer territory” and “colony.” The speaker noted that the journals’ significance lay in their joint authorship by colonizers and the colonized, offering a unique lens on their interaction. Many Japanese students who studied in the “outer territories” later pursued academic careers in Japan, illustrating how the colonial education system both extended and blurred the boundaries of empire.
