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UID:pretalx-wha-annual-meeting-korea-2026-9LSPHN@pretalx.com
DTSTART;TZID=KST:20260625T101500
DTEND;TZID=KST:20260625T103500
DESCRIPTION:What are global economic consequences of colonialism in the mod
 ern world? How can we reconcile contradiction between arguments of colonia
 l exploitation and modernization? Examining business tax registers of Seou
 l under Japanese colonial rule\, this research builds a model applicable t
 o other colonial experiences across regions\, using a Korean case. Korea u
 nder Japanese rule (1910–1945) experienced 2.3% average economic growth\
 , twice the global average for the period. Yet records produced by Koreans
  depict grim poverty and exploitation\, not prosperity\, in most cases. Th
 is conundrum\, I argue\, can be explained by seemingly contradictory mecha
 nism of _dependent growth_. Despite striking _quantitative growth_\, _qual
 itative industrial dependence_ of Korean businesses on Japanese counterpar
 ts endured throughout colonial period and\, in some cases\, intensified. I
  demonstrate this claim using large-scale taxation data digitized by resea
 rcher\, spanning more than 10\,000 cases of individual businesses. There a
 re two major findings. First\, Seoul’s business tax revenue\, proportion
 al to business income\, expanded rapidly at annual average of 8.19% (1923
 –1939)\, and share of Korean businesses in tax revenue rose from 14.6% t
 o 22.4%\, aligning with previous observation of quantitative growth. Secon
 d\, however\, such growth did not translate into qualitative development o
 n Korean side. Industrial composition of Korean businesses stagnated\, rel
 ying on low-capital\, low-skill sectors of rice trade\, brewing\, cloth tr
 ade\, and private loan\, whereas Japanese counterparts held near monopoly 
 on modern industries such as finance\, machinery\, electricity production\
 , and construction. Put differently\, Seoul’s urban economy was microcos
 m of colonial economic relations: Korea producing foodstuffs while consumi
 ng Japanese industrial goods. In this sense\, growth was rather a result o
 f dependence and colonial division of labor—not by its overcoming. This 
 mechanism of dependent growth offers a way to connect varied global coloni
 al experiences while avoiding simple binaries of exploitation and moderniz
 ation.
DTSTAMP:20260412T123904Z
LOCATION:Room 403 PC Desk (Seats 30)
SUMMARY:Growth through Dependence: The Urban Economy of Seoul under Japanes
 e Colonial Rule\, 1923–1939 - Wonkyoo Lee
URL:https://pretalx.com/wha-annual-meeting-korea-2026/talk/9LSPHN/
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UID:pretalx-wha-annual-meeting-korea-2026-PL7C3N@pretalx.com
DTSTART;TZID=KST:20260626T152000
DTEND;TZID=KST:20260626T154000
DESCRIPTION:How was the United States—conventionally not a major power in
  East Asia—able to consolidate new regional hegemony after 1945 rapidly 
 and smoothly? How did Korean and Japanese people come to accept U.S. Occup
 ation as legitimate\, even though it effectively negated Korea’s indepen
 dence and\, in Japan\, imposed rule by a former archenemy? This paper addr
 esses these questions through a political-economic lens\, focusing on trad
 e disruption\, food crisis\, and U.S. aid. In postwar East Asia\, dissolut
 ion of the Japanese Empire also meant breakdown of long-standing trade net
 works. In 1936\, Korea exported half of its rice production to Japan\, and
  Japan relied on its colonies for one-fourth of total grain consumption. T
 his highly interdependent economic bloc collapsed in 1945\, as the United 
 States forbade Japan’s import of food from former colonies in order to b
 uild independent national economies. Predictably\, this policy generated f
 ood crisis and economic chaos\; paradoxically\, the United States also bec
 ame the main solver. U.S. military governments and U.S.-led international 
 food institutions compensated for disrupted trade in Korea and Japan by pr
 oviding massive aid of flour and fertilizers produced at home. In 1949\, f
 or instance\, Japan imported 1.45 million tons of flour—enough to feed 2
 0 million people for a year—solely from the United States\, for which Ja
 panese statesmen frequently expressed gratitude in the National Diet. In K
 orea\, where people had suffered population pressure throughout the coloni
 al period\, postwar U.S. aid was described as “incomprehensibly generous
 \,” and U.S. efforts to sever Korea’s rice exports to Japan were also 
 broadly appreciated. In this way\, the Japanese Empire was recast as an Am
 erican empire in postwar East Asia\, through U.S. agricultural production 
 that refilled East Asia’s empty granaries with flour from American Great
  Plains.
DTSTAMP:20260412T123904Z
LOCATION:Room 201 (Seats 42)
SUMMARY:Recasting Empire: Trade Disruption\, Food Aid\, and the Legitimatio
 n of U.S. Occupation in Postwar Korea and Japan\, 1945-1950 - Wonkyoo Lee
URL:https://pretalx.com/wha-annual-meeting-korea-2026/talk/PL7C3N/
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