I am Seungsoo Yoon, a first-year student in the Ph.D. program in the Department of History here at UBC. I was born and raised in South Korea, but also lived in Thailand for a number of years and studied in the US for my undergraduate and MA programs. I received my bachelor’s degree in History and Classical Studies from Vanderbilt University, and my master’s degree in East Asian Studies from Indiana University, Bloomington.
My primary research interest is in the transpacific identities of Korean intellectuals who were educated in the United States and interacted with governing entities during the colonial period and the years of American military government. I aim to provide a nuanced perspective on the issue of ‘collaboration’ of these individuals with both the Japanese and the American systems, as it pertained to their identities of race, religion and roles as educators. Building from my previous research on Yun Ch’i-ho, an early transpacific Korean intellectual who wrestled with the categories of colonial modernity and racialized hierarchy of civilizations, I will examine figures like Kim Hwallan and Paek Nak-chun, who believed in edification of the Korean nation through education and diligence. I will argue that their interactions with both the Japanese colonial authority and the US military presence were reflective of their transpacific backgrounds and help illustrate the contradiction of their support for the policies of assimilation during Japan’s war against the United States, and their later condemnation of the acts of collaboration as members of the National Committee on Educational Planning during the American occupation.