Managing the Living through the Dead

This article investigates how the Japanese colonial state's new governmental rationality was deployed and how these technologies of rule sought to regulate Koreans. Using the theory of colonial governmentality, it examines the 1912 burial rules that transformed Koreans' social norms on death and the dead. In order to achieve efficient state management of burial customs, the Japanese colonial government applied laws pertaining to burials, and the disciplinary technologies of policing and punishment. In so doing, the colonial government disciplined the individual Korean body and enforced conformity to colonial institutions.