[KS] Hanbando, Pukkando, etc.

[Michael Robinson]

A further note on hantou might be added with regard to the frequent use of 
hantou as a synonym for Korea.  Gari rightly reminds of  its pejorative 
connotation.  In the late 1930s and early forties there was an extensive 
debate within the GGK organ Chousen about the practicality of assimilation 
policy with particular emphasis on language acquisition.  As Japanese was 
kokugo or the national language some other designation needed to be used for 
"Korean" and what was it in relation to Japnese.  The bureaucrats charged 
with keeping tabs of Japanese acquisition more often to Korean as 
Hantougo....and also used Hantou bunka in reference to Korean culture. 
There was a general sense that Korean would not be wiped out in any real 
sense, and, furthermore, would always remain in some form to express those 
particular aspects of Hantou bunka that would always be a part of Korea. 
Some asserted say that these local languages (think Manchuria as well) would 
continue to exist and express sub-national ethnic culture, but that in the 
end Japanese would be firmly established as the common "national" language 
of Empire.  This is very different from the oft asserted desire of the 
Japanese to eliminate Korean use.  Eliminate as a public, formal, and 
juridical language and denegrate it as an inevitable remmant of ethnic 
difference.  In the useage I observed in this period Hantou provides a 
useful way to avoid mention of Korea altogether.

Mike Robinson
----- Original Message ----- 
From: <gkl1 at columbia.edu>
To: "Korean Studies Discussion List" <koreanstudies at koreaweb.ws>
Sent: Monday, May 15, 2006 5:48 PM
Subject: Re: [KS] Hanbando, Pukkando, etc.


>   While the negative Japanese colonial view of Korean politics,
> economy and culture is very much as Hyung Pai has described it, my
> impression is that it arose from the Japan-driven argument over
> "stagnation," which was seen as a general Korean cultural and
> social malaise resulting from isolation and over-sinification.
> China's historical situation was seen in much the same "stagnant"
> terms. Why such a state of affairs should have been a result of
> Korea's peninsular state is beyond me, but then, nothing in this
> construction was ever very rational.
>   In spite of all the kilobytes lavished on "pando" and peninsulas,
> it has not yet been noted that pando, in its Japanese form (hantou),
> as in the phrase "hantoujin," was two or three degrees more hateful
> and condescending than "Chousenjin," which itself almost always
> came out in popular Japanese discourse laden with deep disdain and
> hatred. When I circulated in the Korean community in Tokyo in the
> fall and winter of 1955-56, I witnessed many instances of the
> disparaging use of "hantoujin." Still, it was always clear that
> this was driven by negative feelings about Koreans, not about
> peninsulas.
>   On "Pukkando," I think it should be registered that people rarely
> use that qualified form, but say simply "Kando."
> "Pukkando" (northern Kando) is mainly used when it is necessary to
> distinguish it from SOgando (Se.kanto in Yale), western Kando.
> Northern Kando, as already well explained, refers to the Korean
> immigrant community north of the Tuman River, while Western Kando
> refers to the Korean community living north and west of Paektusan
> in the northern watershed of the Amnok (Yalu) river and nearby
> areas. The northern community was far more numerous and at issue
> than the western one, and there was also a language dimension in
> that Kando proper (i.e. northern) was of HamgyOng origin and spoke
> the Yukchin dialect while the western group was mainly of P'yOng'an
> provincial origin.
>
> Gari Ledyard
>
> Quoting Hyung Pai <hyungpai at eastasian.ucsb.edu>:
>
>> Dear members,
>> I have found the use of "Hanbando" in Japanese historical
>> literature
>> around the 1900s. It seems to be used to contrast the
>> geographical
>> and environmental conditions (fudo-p'ungt'o)of Korea as a
>> peninsula
>> nation as opposed to Japan which is an island nation (shima
>> kuni).
>> These kinds of analogies most frequently appear when the Japanese
>> scholars I read ( mostly art historians, archaeologists and
>> anthropologists) are attempting to explain  why Korea's art,
>> architectural and archaeological remains as compared to that of
>> China
>> as a great continent ( Taeryuk kijil) remained small in scale and
>> remained stagnant in development after the Silla Period. The
>> Korean
>> people and their culture and civilization could not expand
>> because
>> they were geographically circumscribed by more powerful empires,
>> and
>> physical barriers such as mountains, seas as a bando nation.
>> There are also many articles that attempt to compare Japanese
>> racial,
>> artistic and architectural achievements in the Nara period to
>> that of
>> Ancient Greece ( Esp.  Buddhist sculpture and the Graeco-Buddhist
>> Origins of Japanese art) due to their geographic similarities as
>> islands that spawned the roots of Western civilization. On the
>> other
>> hand, the Korean peninsula in ancient times is often written as
>> resembling Italy -again a peninsula that was once great in the
>> past
>> but had declined since the Roman empire. There are still many
>> Korean
>> scholars today who throw out these general statements regarding
>> such
>> environmental/racial deterministic reasons for explaining the
>> rise
>> and fall of civilizations.
>
>