Medium Post #2(Week 3)
Think about the relationship between post-World War One capitalist crisis (elaborated by Young), transformations in colonial policy (examined in lecture 6), and new conflicts that emerged between colonial subjects and ordinary Japanese people as a result. Does thinking in these terms help us make sense of the 1923 massacre of 6,000 Korean people living in mainland Japan by a combination of police and vigilantes who took it upon themselves to kill the “unsacrificeable (see Ryang’s homo sacer)” people in their midst?
Thinking in these terms, it isn’t unreasonable to see why there was tension between the Japanese and Korean immigrants at the time, which may have been the cause of the unprecedented killing of ~6000 Koreans. Post WWI, Japan was going through an economic boom, rapidly transitioning towards a capitalistic economy. However, in order to go towards this change, infrastructure had to be set in place to support the economical strain, but it was not there. In order to get the infrastructure there, Japan tried setting up colonial policies. These policies were set up in Taiwan and Korea, in order to assimilate the then Japanese colonies to be more Japanese. However, the economic boom and the policies set in place may have been what caused colonial racism, which led to the massacre.
As summarized by Young, a capitalistic economy allows for the rich to get richer and the poor to get poorer. Especially during this time when there was no infrastructure setup to support the boom, a lot of immigrants were coming over to get a job in the new economy. This leads to job competition and one can’t help but see the similarities between this and America’s racism, especially against those of Hispanic descent. As in America, there will always be a group of people saying, “They stole our jobs”. One can’t help but wonder if this was the same for Japan at the time?
Ryang says that it was not due to racism, but rather, the policy of homo sacer was the main cause of killings. However, no matter how one looks at it, the killings were a scapegoat, a way to vent out frustration at the time. To finish a war, and lose, must’ve brought the country’s morale down. Although an economical boom would’ve been a good sign, one has to consider what a Japanese person would be feeling if they had not gotten a job due to a colonial person coupled with the emotions from the trauma of war still. Also it is clear to see, as explained by Ryang, that the massacre could’ve been a political objective as well, allowing for right winged Japanese to carry out executions of left-wings and that the massacre was used to cover up the main killings.
