뉴스레터

The Northeast Asian History Foundation’s was designed to systematically research and compile the history of Japanese imperialism's invasion and colonization of the Korean Peninsula, and publish it as a series. It is composed of the data collection, research collection, and liberal arts collection, and is divided into political, economic, social, and cultural fields. Experts in the academic field are participating in the writing process. In the , we introduce one of the published volumes from the total compilation of Japanese invasion history.

  When and how was the ‘modern family’ institutionalized in Korea? This book traces the genealogy of the modern family, focusing on the process of institutionalizing the family during the colonial era. In particular, it reflexively analyzes the establishment of the family system as a product of colonialism, which may have implied a problem of post-colonialism. The book is divided into two parts. While the first part deals with the colonial politics of the Japanese Government-General of Korea, which aimed to construct the ‘family’ as a system, the second part analyzes the core of the family system, specifically how the lives of Joseon people were divided based on ‘gender’ by family laws.

Household Register an Organizational Unit for Identifying Joseon People and ‘Family’

  The modern family was established on the material basis of the household register. It was completely different from the household register during the Joseon Dynasty, but it was imported from modern Japan. The household register was an administrative document used by the Japanese Government-General of Korea to identify Joseon people, reorganizing Joseon into ‘family’ units. It restructured families into small units consisting of people who were connected by blood relations, such as spouses and blood relatives, and who shared their livelihoods. At the same time, individuals notarized their social status through this family register. The core of this family system was the existence of ‘the right to be the head of a family’, having a strong patriarchal authority vested in the head of the family. Furthermore, the principle that the family would be perpetuated through male household was inherent. This system, which embodied the succession of patrilineal descent, had been regarded as a custom, but in reality, it was an invention of modern Japan designed to secure national unity. This was none other than the family system, which was designed to reorganize the nation into uniform organizational units while limiting the spread of individualism.

Customary Law Policies and the Invention of Family ‘Customs’

  While the household register system provided the basic framework for the family system, the relationships between family members were governed by family law. The establishment of the family system through these two factors was also the process of inventing ‘customs’ in Korea. This was because Article 11 of the 「Joseon Civil Affairs Ordinance」 adopted customary Law in family law in March 1912 to avoid potential shock and resistance caused by the direct application of Japanese civil law to sensitive family matters.

  The adoption of customary law raised questions about what constituted the ‘customs’ of families in Korea. Although there was the 『Report on Joseon Customs and Practices Survey』, which was researched and compiled during the period of the Japanese Resident-General of Korea, it did not possess legal authority in itself. Customary law implied that the determination of ‘customs’ would be made through the legal interpretation and judgments of the justice department. At that time, customs were restricted to a structure in which certain practices, among the various practices, that did not conflict with modern Japanese family law were declared to be customs. This is why it is said that Joseon’s customs were invented through customary law. Subsequently, the expansion of the scope of civil law application through the revision of Article 11 of the 「Joseon Civil Affairs Ordinance」 was also justified by the political rhetoric of ‘changing customs’.

Gender Relations Engraved in Family Law

  Joseon under colonial rule was in a period of reconfiguring gender relations, and family law played a central role in this process. Moreover, Confucianism was the main resource used to sugarcoat the family relationships, especially gender relations, that were implemented under Japanese civil law as Korean customs. Practices of Confucianism that were prevalent in the upper class of Joseon society were transformed into universal and common family customs in Joseon. Practical ethics, such as filial piety, ancestor worship, and marital segregation, were also major principles that had already been accomplished in the Japanese family system. The paternal lineage unilateralism among these practices played a significant role in generating various fractures within Joseon society. It resulted in stigmatization of illegitimate child as a child out-of-wedlock who did not receive their father’s recognition, the principled exclusion of women(wives and daughters) from inheriting property, the incomplete parental rights of mothers compared to fathers, and gender control that affected only women. Colonial family law institutionalized gender inequality in law and structurally created discriminatory gender relations.

Remaining Traces of Colonialism in Korean Society

  In many cases, the customs inherent in colonial family laws continued into Korea’s ‘New Civil Code’. So, what were the principles behind enacting laws that retained the legacy of colonialism and were reborn as a family law? The dominant legislative trend at that time was the 'Theory of Respect for Tradition’. This is because much of the legislation leaned towards upholding tradition in the context of the two major conflicting agendas of ‘democracy’ versus ‘tradition’ during Korea’s establishment. As a result of being largely disregarded in terms of gender equality and constitutional respect, significant portions of colonial customs were carefully preserved in the new civil code under the label of ‘tradition’, except for practices that seemed disparate, such as the son-in-law adoptee or an adopted child with a different surname. The paternal lineage-centered ideology, prioritizing the household system, remained as a core element in the new civil code. Because there was no acknowledgment or introspection on how colonialism had influenced or shaped the customs and traditions. Despite the abolishment of the household system in Japan after the defeat in World War II, it persisted in Korea as a tradition until its elimination in 2005, creating an ironic situation.