The Origin of the 1960s Korean Developmental Regime: Manchurian Modern

In The Origin of the 1960s Korean Developmental Regime: Manchurian Modern, Suk-Jung Han traces the current Korean dynamism through Manchukuo, the Japanese puppet state in northeast China from 1932 to 1945, which has been frozen as the sacrosanct stage of nationalist resistance. The author proposes the factor of colonial diffusion in the lineage of East Asian state-formation, which has been overlooked in the discussion of the state. He also traces the cultural flow from the Manchurian setting, which contained the seed of the future cultural prowess of Korea and maintains that modern ideas were diffused synchronically and diachronically in the Japanese empire, which was a cultural network. He further argues that Koreans’ experience in the harsh periphery, Manchukuo was not just painful diaspora but the moment of adaptation, which would become the potential weapon for their Cold War competition with North Korea, also with ex-colonizers in the 21st century.

Suk-Jung Han is emeritus professor and ex-president of Dong-A University, Korea.