To Bow or Not: Mission Schools, Shinto Shrine Ceremonies, and Empire in Colonial Korea

Abstract

This talk examines a series of debates that embroiled Protestant Christian communities of Korea during the 1930s over whether students at missionary run private schools should bow at government mandated Shinto Shrine ceremonies. Refusal risked arrest or even closure of these educational institutions. Despite official assurances that bowing was merely a non-religious, patriotic expression of loyalty to the Japanese emperor, many Christians harbored suspicions that these ceremonies contain spiritual elements. However, neither missionaries nor mission school students uniformly rejected colonial demands. Instead responses were multi-faceted, as the question of bowing at Shrines transcended issues of religion or faith. The demand to bow concerned issues of racial identity, political allegiances, and social mobility.