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The Brokers of Empire: Japanese Settler Colonialism in Korea, 1876-1945 . By Jun Uchida . Cambridge, Mass. : Harvard University Asia Center , 2013. 481 pp. $59.95 (cloth); $29.95 (paper).
Book Reviews--Japan
For all of the recent attention "empire" is receiving in Japanese studies, there are still glaring omissions. At the beginning of her comprehensive and award-winning monograph, Jun Uchida argues that one significant group is Japanese settlers in Korea, who have been neglected in Japanese history because they were outside of the boundaries of metropolitan Japan and vilified in Korean history as civilian agents of the Government-General of Korea. But these settlers deserve a study of their own. Not merely the agents and proxies of the Government-General, these migrants--some of who arrived decades before colonization--played a crucial role in developing the shape and contours that Japan's colonization of Korea ultimately took. Particularly for what Uchida calls "brokers of empire," those settlers who wed their fortunes to this key colony while asserting their continued relevance as Japanese imperial subjects, their personal travails and triumphs mirrored the story of empire itself. Even though this interpretation of historic events was not shared by their government, or metropolitan society for that matter, it is this perspective that drives Uchida's study.
Uchida also seeks to restore the centrality of these "brokers" in Japan's history. Thus, their relationship with the Japanese state--first represented by the metropolitan government, then the Resident and finally the Government-General--serves as the central point of tension. Chapters 1 and 2 introduce these settlers,...