Award Name
Junior Award Winner
Faculty Sponsor
Samuel Yamashita
Description/Abstract
In this research project, I analyze the themes, morals, and stories in three elementary school textbooks issued by the governor general of colonial Korea from 1915 to 1935. I specifically aim to understand how and why the Japanese government used education to exercise power over its Korean subjects. In order to do so, I use Michel Foucault’s theory of “How to Exercise Power” as a framework. This theory explains how states direct the behavior of people through lines of communication, the shaping of capacity, and the exercise of power relations. Thus, a Foucauldian reading of these sources reveals how the Japanese government attempted to achieve its goals in colonial Korea. I do not, however, examine the students’ responses to these texts in this project.
Recommended Citation
Noh, Hyun Wook (Jacob), "Education as an Instrument of Power: Japanese Textbooks in Colonial Korea, 1910-1945" (2020). 2020 Claremont Colleges Library Undergraduate Research Award. 3.
https://scholarship.claremont.edu/cclura_2020/3
