Bitter Souls from Wartime Colonial Mobilization: Ritual and Political Action around Korean Remains in Japan

This presentation examines contemporary rituals dedicated to Koreans who died as a result of colonial mobilization during World War II. Based on ethnographic fieldwork, it analyzes ceremonies performed either by ritual specialists—Buddhist monks or mudang (Korean shamans)—or by non-specialists drawing on the model of Confucian-inspired ancestral offering rites (chesa). It shows how the ritual's aim of appeasing the dead becomes articulated with broader political and social issues, including claims for historical justice, the division of the Korean peninsula, and relations—at both grassroots and diplomatic levels—between South Korea and Japan.