DOI: 10.25549/usctheses-c127-632454
title: The development of Korean communities in Japan: migrant interactions with urban environments

description: This dissertation utilizes Complex Adaptive Systems theory to investigate the roles of the urban environments of Tokyo and Osaka in the development of Korean communities in Japan. Spatial analysis of distinct Korean communities allows for the examination of urban factors of each city which contributed to the patterns of Korean immigration and community formation. ❧ By utilizing a comparative narrative of the two cities, distinctions between the organic growth of Osaka and the planned city of Tokyo are illuminated. Additionally, the dissertation utilizes the concept of function-based spatiality to show how each city interacted with its surrounding regional, national, and global spheres. The functions of Tokyo, as a gateway to Western modernization and center of the Japanese state, shaped the interactions with Korean immigrants. Likewise, Osaka’s functions as a center of mercantilism and second city played a large role in how Koreans were incorporated into the urban ethnoscape. ❧ While there is a long history of interaction and migration between the Japanese archipelago and Korean peninsula, this dissertation focuses on the period from the mid-nineteenth through the mid-twentieth centuries. Initial Koreans in Japan, or Zainichi as they came to be known as, were political reformers or students. They were male and lived primarily in Tokyo. As sojourners they had only short-term plans to stay in Japan and their actions were highly political in nature. With the Japanese colonization of Korea in 1910, many Koreans seeking economic advantages crossed to Japan and communities of laborers grew. ❧ The communities that developed were shaped by the histories and functions of the cities they inhabited. In Tokyo, Koreans were employed primarily as day laborers and there was a sentiment amongst many Japanese, including many in the government, that Koreans were subversive. This sentiment was influential in the massacre of Koreans that took place following the massive earthquake of 1923. The perception of Koreans as sojourners and trouble-causers greatly influenced the development of Korean communities within the environment of Tokyo. In Osaka however, there was a different perception. Korean labor met a market demand and in a city defined by commerce, the perception and place of Koreans within the synergies of the city were much different. After the 1923 earthquake Osaka became the largest population of Koreans in Japan, and the community they formed was influenced by the history and functions of Osaka. ❧ While the majority of Koreans to immigrate to Japan were from the southern provinces of Korea, a unique connection between the Korean island of Cheju and Osaka provided for the development of a strong Korean community in Osaka. This connection, coupled with the conditions in Osaka wherein there was a demand for female labor, provided for a more balanced gender ratio and the development of familial units that was lacking in Tokyo’s Korean communities. Osaka’s ties to Cheju show how the spatial connections between the archipelago and peninsula were important variables in the development of Korean communities. ❧ Within the concept of function-based spatiality is the idea that Tokyo and Osaka acted within nested spheres of influence. Regionally Osaka maintained a predominant position as the largest urban center in western Japan, and nationally, Osaka acted as a foil for the metropole of Tokyo. Within a global, or international context though, Osaka, economically and in some ways socially, looked to the continent, while Tokyo looked to the West. The Fifteen Year War, and nationalistic fervor that accompanied it, offset many of the regional or national differences as the nation was mobilized in the war effort. Conscription of Koreans for wartime labor greatly increased the number of Koreans in Japan. However, this increase was temporary and even within the context of the war, Korean experiences were greatly influenced by location and length of time spent in Japan. Even under conditions that were highly regulated there was a multiplicity of Korean experiences that can be seen through a spatial lens. ❧ In the postwar period the diversity of Korean experience has been somewhat homogenized into a single narrative of repression and discrimination. By employing the broad theoretical model of Complex Adaptive Systems theory, this dissertation avoids the postcolonial and Marxist models to focus on the spatial developments of Korean communities in Tokyo and Osaka. In doing so, the relationship of the distinct urban environments of the two cities with the development of Korean communities is illuminated.