Customer Reviews

Japan's Colonization of Korea: Discourse and Power

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Dr. Dudden presents her argument that Japan mastered, and sometimes misused, western terms for international law. Using their mastery, they made their annexation of Korea "legal" by international terms. In doing so, Japan won the support of much of the west (excluding Russia) and situated itself as a legal colonizer of Korea.

Although the topic is interesting, the book is not one that is easily read. It is often out of chronological order and sometimes goes off on tangents that take the reader's attention away from the topic at hand. Dr. Dudden presents her points using words that I am convinced she searched through a thesaurus for, as the terms are often very obscure. Although she obviously knows the subject extremely well, it sometimes seemed as if she was going around in circles when explaining an idea.

I wish she would have gone more into Japan's actions when in Korea. The book is mainly about the "discourse" used in international law and how Japan came around in mastering these terms and even translating them into their own language. It is at times very boring to read, but Dr. Dudden does make her points clearly in each chapter.

I would suggest this book for anyone interested in Japanese and/or Korean history as it shows how a country can legally be taken control of just by the usage of language. It is a concept foreign to most people today, but was an important historical moment for Japan when they made the annexation of Korea legal.

The item arrived earlier then expected. I am very contend about this fast shipping. The condition of the book was as described; fair for a used book.