Sungwoo Kang

10.18399/acta.2021.24.2.005

This paper examines the dynamics of competition and cooperation between Korea and Japan in constructing the Seoul-Pusan railway during the late 19th century. Korea and Japan had quite different motivations in the construction of the railway with each trying to secure its own agenda and interests on the Korean Peninsula. For the Korean government, the construction was perceived as a critical modernization project and an important symbol of advancement. For the Japanese government, the Seoul-Pusan railway was an important bridgehead to expand Japanese influence on the Asian continent. Initially, the Korean government, wary of the Japanese, hoped to grant concessions to almost anyone but the Japanese. Although the Korean government finally agreed to grant the Seoul-Pusan railway concession to a Japanese syndicate, it retained the right to buy back the railway company. Although in the end, the railway served Japanese colonial interests in attaining and maintaining control over Korea and beyond, the processes that characterized the construction of the railway reveal the deeply complex and paradoxical nature of colonial modernity by showing that the colonized can still retain considerable agency.