An Urbanizing Ocean: Constructions of the Tsushima Strait, 1876–1945

This is the view out towards Tsushima/Taemado from Pusan’s T’aejongdae Park. It’s the view that I open my chapter with, as I describe how the island is often just visible on the horizon (even in this picture, if you squint hard enough).

It was a real pleasure to be part of the various workshops that led to the publication of such a rich and varied edited volume as Oceanic Japan (Hawai‘i University Press, 2024). I especially appreciated the urging of our editors to keep our chapters brief, as it made me grapple with my key arguments about how the Tsushima/Korea Strait and the Genkainada/Hyŏnhaet'an shifted in meaning and substance over the first half of the twentieth century. The chapter addresses how processes of imperial expansion and urban growth incorporated the Tsushima Strait in a new imperial region, then looks at the technologies and infrastructures that led to new constructions, uneven experiences, and divided understandings of this ocean space. Finally, it asks what these constructions reveal to us about those involved in these histories at the imperial, regional, and local scale.