Japan's Colonization of Korea: Discourse and Power (Peoples of Hawai'i, the Pacific, & Asia) (9780824831394): Alexis Dudden: Books

Amazon.com: Japan's Colonization of Korea: Discourse and Power (Peoples of Hawai'i, the Pacific, & Asia) (9780824831394): Alexis Dudden: Books

Japan's Colonization of Korea: Discourse and Power (Peoples of Hawai'i, the Pacific, & Asia) Paperback – December 18, 2006
by Alexis Dudden  (Author)
4.1 out of 5 stars    2 customer reviews
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Editorial Reviews
Review
"[Duus'] book deserves a wide audience."

"The author's descriptions of the 100th Battalion and 442nd Regimental Combat Team's combat operations are gripping and personal, enabling the reader to envision and understand the hardships and horrors experienced by the Japanese-American infantrymen."

"The Japanese-American soldiers not only won a victory over the enemy abroad but over prejudice and injustice at home. President Harry S. Truman himself said as much. Masayo Duus has written a book that is truly remarkable, not because it so effectively affirms this lesson once more, but because she manages to tell so much more. After extensive research and interviews, she tells her tale through the voices of many: generals, privates, mothers, sons, Germans, French, issei, nisei, draftees, volunteers, kotonks, and buddhaheads."

Excellent-- "Korean Quarterly"

A skillful narrative-- "Japan Times"

Students of Japan s history, domestic politics, and international relations will find this text extremely valuable, as will readers of theorists such as Roland Barthes, Michel Foucault, and Gayatri Spivak.... Essential. All levels/libraries.-- "CHOICE"

A welcome and important addition ... It casts the entire imperialist enterprise with Japan as an integral part of that enterprise in a fresh light-- "American Historical Review"

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Review
Excellent (Korean Quarterly)

A skillful narrative (Japan Times)

Students of Japan’s history, domestic politics, and international relations will find this text extremely valuable, as will readers of theorists such as Roland Barthes, Michel Foucault, and Gayatri Spivak.... Essential. All levels/libraries. (CHOICE)

A welcome and important addition ... It casts the entire imperialist enterprise―with Japan as an integral part of that enterprise―in a fresh light (American Historical Review)

Review
This will take its place as a major book in Japanese and Korean history, prompting a reexamination of Japan’s controversial annexation of Korea. Dudden’s fascinating analysis rests on the sort of transnational research that scholars often talk about, but rarely undertake. Japan’s rise as an imperialist power should not be seen as exceptional, she argues, but rather was embedded in the global discourses of the time. She tells the remarkable and unsettling story of how Japanese leaders quickly mastered Western international law in the late nineteenth century, and how they used the new legal norms to legitimize themselves and their colonial project in the eyes of the Western powers. (Sheldon Garon, Princeton University)|In Japan’s Colonization of Korea, Alexis Dudden gives us a very compelling look at how Itô Hirobumi and other Japanese leaders viewed geo-political relationships at the end of the nineteenth century and beginning of the twentieth. In particular, she shows that Euro-American concepts of international law both provided a motive for imperialism in general and supplied an intellectual framework to legitimate Japan’s imposition of hegemony over its continental neighbor. Drawing on Korean, Japanese, and Western-language sources, Dudden adds enormously to our understanding of the intellectual foundations of Japanese imperialism, and her work surely will be compared favorably with other landmark studies on Japanese colonialism by Hilroy Conroy, Mark Peattie, and Peter Duus. (James L. McClain, Brown University)|Japan’s Colonization of Korea makes a powerful case that every step Japan took to erase Korea’s sovereignty was ‘legal’ in the prevailing terms of international conduct at the start of the twentieth century―and that taking Korea as a protectorate was a strategic step in Japan’s own efforts to achieve diplomatic parity with the Great Powers of the West. Alexis Dudden deftly dissects colonial rhetoric and practice from Sapporo to Seoul, interweaving biographical with textual analysis and showing a keen attentiveness throughout to Korean as well as Japanese voices. Drawing on legal history, colonial studies, and translation theory, the book is impressive in both heft and range. A compelling addition to the growing field of comparative imperial history. (Karen Wigen, Stanford University)

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4.1 out of 5 stars
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3.0 out of 5 starsInteresting, yet not an easy, enjoyable read
ByDavid Quigleyon April 25, 2006
Format: Hardcover|Verified Purchase
Dr. Dudden presents her argument that Japan mastered, and sometimes misused, western terms for international law. Using their mastery, they made their annexation of Korea "legal" by international terms. In doing so, Japan won the support of much of the west (excluding Russia) and situated itself as a legal colonizer of Korea.

Although the topic is interesting, the book is not one that is easily read. It is often out of chronological order and sometimes goes off on tangents that take the reader's attention away from the topic at hand. Dr. Dudden presents her points using words that I am convinced she searched through a thesaurus for, as the terms are often very obscure. Although she obviously knows the subject extremely well, it sometimes seemed as if she was going around in circles when explaining an idea.

I wish she would have gone more into Japan's actions when in Korea. The book is mainly about the "discourse" used in international law and how Japan came around in mastering these terms and even translating them into their own language. It is at times very boring to read, but Dr. Dudden does make her points clearly in each chapter.

I would suggest this book for anyone interested in Japanese and/or Korean history as it shows how a country can legally be taken control of just by the usage of language. It is a concept foreign to most people today, but was an important historical moment for Japan when they made the annexation of Korea legal.
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5.0 out of 5 starsAn angle at this piece of history most historians and observers ignore
ByNerdus Maximuson September 25, 2012
Alexis Dudden tackles the Japanese annexation of Korea from the perspective of the legal framework which Japan used to take Korea into its sphere. She explains and details how Japan, far earlier and ahead of both China and Korea, mastered the western empires' usage and definition of international law to legitimize and defend their own takeover of other countries and adopted the westerners' own "game" to become an international power player, and hence, avoid the fates of those nations colonized by the west.

A short, yet rich book, filled with interesting and relevant facts. Merits at least two readings.