Date: Thursday, September 25, 2025 at 3:00 PM - 5:00 PM

Venue: Center for Korean Studies Auditorium

In what ways did colonial-era household registries (hojŏk) function in delineating the boundaries of nationality in postcolonial Korea, and how did their administration affect subjects of the former Japanese Empire? Distinguishing Japanese from Koreans emerged as a pressing task for the US Army Military Government in Korea (USAMGIK), which rushed to repatriate all colonial military servicemen, officials and settlers while vesting their property. However, these momentous policies of decolonization proved especially unsettling for interethnic families. Examining USAMGIK’s adjudication of cases involving the enforcement of repatriation and the confiscation of property reveals how it distinguished between Japanese and Koreans by relying on hojŏk records. These legal cases not only reveal the American occupiers’ opinions on the intersectionality between ethnicity and gender, but also the influence it played in the legislation of the Republic of Korea’s first nationality law in 1948.

  

Speaker:

Matthew R. Augustine is Associate Professor of Modern Japanese and East Asian History at Kyushu University. His most recent publication, From Japanese Empire to American Hegemony: Koreans and Okinawans in the Resettlement of Northeast Asia (2023), was published by the University of Hawai'i Press and nominated as a finalist for the 2025 Modern Japan History Association Book Prize.

 

The event is free and open to all. For further information, including information regarding disability access, telephone the Center for Korean Studies at 808-956-7041. This event is in part supported by the Academy of Korean Studies Strategic Research Institute Program (AKS-2020-SRI-2200001).

The University of Hawai‘i is an equal opportunity institution.