North Koreans in Japan

Recently I have read the following book. Its main points are:

Book title: Ryang, Sonia. North Koreans in Japan. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1997

Main points:

- this book pursues a number of closely connected themes. First it looks at how an organization such as Chongryun that was loyal to North Korea could exist in Japan. The key to investigate was to find out how individuals used their socially constituted linguist capacity and linguistically constructed social resource. (12)

- part I (ch. 1 & 2)  of this volume probes into the system of discipline that shaped Chongryun’s students . In chapter 1, the book discusses the acquisition process of the appropriate socio-linguistic competence by Chongryun’s schoolchildren. Chapter two goes on to examine the changing curriculum and its effect on schoolchildren. (13)

- in chapter 3 of part II (ch. 3 & 4)  a view of the first generation of Chongryun recalled the historic background. (14) In chapter 4, the book considers the connection between Chongryun’s strategies that had enabled Chongryun to find a niche within the framework of the Japanese state.

- in part 2 (ch.3-4), the book thus look at the historically determined condition for the ongoing reproduction  of Chongryun’s identity. (14)

- in part 3 (ch.5-6) it focuses on the contemporary debate inside Chongryun by highlighting dilemmas and difficulties that the second generation faced. Ch. 5 concentrates on a teacher in Chongryun School; it provides a glimpse of a typical second generation.  Chapter 6 summarizes the world of three generations in a comparative perspective. This chapter is about migration and diaspora. (15)

- in conclusion the book summarizes the forgoing discussion, returning to the theme of language, ideology, and identity.  (15)

- ch. 1 – (The performative and its effects) as a self-financing kakushu gakko,(hidden school) Chongryun’s schools were exempted from regular inspection and other forms of intervention by Japan’s central and local education authorities. (25)

- children were also subjected to extra-academic pressure, as their parents were generally keen to see them perform well in school. No text was critical of Chongryun, North Korea, or Kim Ii Sung. To teach negative terms, lessons used examples of South Korean regime, Japanese imperialism, and US imperialism (31)

- the linguistic life of students was placed under collective control inside the school; the implementation of the using the Koran language was an important concern of Chongryun schools.(31)

- the Korean language schoolchildren spoken predominately text-dependent: it was the written form that was spoken. (36)

- Korean was the only language used in Chongryun’s public life; Japanese was the language used in private life. (44)

- the linguistic practices of Chongryun had two interrelated effect. First they fostered a positive relationship between its users and Chongryun. Second a clear distinction between the spheres of application for Korean and Japanese keeps the two sociolinguistic domains relatively independent form each other, the division bring about more efficient social control. (44)

- Bourdieu referred to bilingualism as that the same speaker changed his or her expression, moving from one language to another, without even realizing the fact. Thus, for as long as habitus and field were in agreement, the habitus ‘comes at just the right moment’, and without the need for any calculation. (44-5)

- the utterance of Chongryun students carried strong element of the performative statement. Performative statement, according to Austin, was not to be verified in terms of the true-or-false opposition but to be identified primarily as felicitous or infelicitous depending on the situation. (46)

- utterance was neither neutral or innocent; it amounted to a political act, legitimating Chongryun’s existence and recognizing  its authority. In this way, language and identity were linked.(47)

- by examining the institutionalized disciple, we were able to look at the process whereby individual acquired socially approved way of language use; this might not necessary be preceded by ideological conviction. (48)

- once acquired, the organizational language was at the disposal of individual users. In this process individual accrue a distinct, if only partial, identity as Chongryun Koreans. (49)

(to be continued)

North Koreans in Japan

Recently I have read the following book. Its main points are:

Book title: Ryang, Sonia. North Koreans in Japan. Boulder, Colo.: Westview Press, 1997

Main points:

- Introduction – people lived through not one but many identities’ or we might say that identity was multiple – ethnic, gendered, occupational, class, or otherwise. (1)

- in this book hopes to show the reader how Chongryun formed and maintained the north Korean identity in Japan. It involved the development of a body of knowledge and pedagogical technology that gave rise to legitimate discourse used with the organization. (2)

- this book is a three-part ethnographic journey to consider the language, ideology and identity of three generations of north Korean in Japan organized around Chongryun. (2) Why language? Because it constituted identity. Why ideology? Because it overlapped with identity, it is part of ideology.(2)

- up to 97 percent  of Korean in Japan were born in Japan. Out of those who originally came from Korea, more that 97 percent were from southern provinces of the peninsula. North Korean identity was not geo-culturally pre-given, it was Chongryun’s  political projection.(3) Founded in 1955, Chongryun consisted of a complex of numerous associations. (3) It had one university, 12 high schools, 56 middle schools, 81 primary schools. (3) The school taught about North Korea and saw themselves as overseas nationals of north Korea. (3)

- it was true that there were two distinct organizations in Japan, respectively looked to north and south Korean for affiliation: Chongryun and Mindan. (5) Throughout the text, the book calls the individual who were by and large positively and closely associated with Chongryun the Chongryun Koreas. (5)

- the northern regime was attractive in the eyes of Korean leftist nationalist because it looked more like an indigenous regime. (6)

- in the late 1940s the league of Koreans in Japan, sympathetic to north Korea, suffered intense suppression from the Allied power and Japanese authority. In 1955 Chongryun emerged, adopting a strict policy of noninvolvement in Japanese’s internal affairs.  Its members identified themselves as ‘overseas nationals’ of north Korea. (7)

- anthropological studies of Japan in English ever since Ruth Benedict had been plagued by two problems. The first was the lack of history perspective. (8) For example, in ‘Night Work’ Anne Allison presented data from the early 1980s as if the information were supra historical intrinsic to Japanese culture. This ahistorical perspective continues to be held by Japanese anthropologists. The second problem was the tendency to subsume the whole society under a particular keyword. (8)

(to be continued)