Great East Asian War and the Birth of the Korean Nation

"JaHyun Kim Haboush argues that beginning with the outbreak of the Imjin War, when Japan invaded Korea in 1592, a discourse of nation emerged in Chosôn Korea (1392-1910) which continued, in a variety of forms, until the modern era. This is the first book to examine the formation of the Korean nation before the modern era. The Imjin War and the rise of the Manchu were events of monumental importance in East Asian history. The Great East Asian War escalated into a six-year regional war in which the three East Asian countries, Japan, Korea and China, fought either as allies or enemies, with a commitment of large forces, fighting on sea and land. This conflict was by far the largest war known to the world in the sixteenth century. In East Asian memory, it remained unequalled in scale until the Second World War. In Korea the Chosôn dynasty began in 1392 and persisted until 1910, and within this dynasty an idea of nation emerged and circulated. This discourse of nation shifted and intensified after the Manchu invasion in 1636. Haboush shows how this process was a visible, traceable, and documented phenomenon. The idea of a sixteenth century Korean nation is also unfamiliar in Korea. Nati