Description
Hwaji Shin challenges the persistent belief that Japan's ethno-racial homogeneity is responsible for its restrictive citizenship and immigration laws. She argues that the relationships between nationhood, citizenship, and migration in Japan have always been fluid and historically contingent rather than causal or static. Her work examines the nexus of these three concepts from a subaltern perspective and illuminates the ways in which non-state, marginalized actors directly influenced the state's development of citizenship and immigration policies. It explores the failures and triumphs of Koreans resisting Japanese ethno-racial oppression through stories of ordinary lives that have been disrupted by wars, elites' interests, and geopolitics. Being Korean, Becoming Japanese? draws on rich historical data to provide a powerful narrative about how Koreans in Japan have defiantly survived and thrived to impact the country's ideas and policies of nationhood, citizenship, and migration for more than a century.
About the Author
Hwaji Shin is associate professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of San Francisco.
Reviews
Being Korean, Becoming Japanese? takes on the 'myth of homogeneity' often used to explain Japan's restrictions regarding nation, state, and belonging, as well as racism toward minority groups in historical and contemporary contexts. Hwaji Shin boldly centers and reclaims the voices of Koreans as active agents in defining what nationhood and citizenship has meant for their community in Japan and asks critical questions about the meaning of 'belonging' for Koreans living there at different points over the last hundred years." - Erik Ropers, Towson University
"Focusing on the case of Koreans in Japan, Hwaji Shin convincingly demonstrates the fluid relationships between nationhood, citizenship, and migration policies. By critically analyzing the interaction of these social forces across the prewar, wartime, and postwar periods, she highlights the importance of not oversimplifying histories and reveals fascinating details that are often lost or overlooked." - Jane H. Yamashiro, Mills College at Northeastern University
Book Information
ISBN 9780824898427
Author Hwaji Shin
Format Paperback
Page Count 284
Imprint University of Hawai'i Press
Publisher University of Hawai'i Press