From 1910 to 1945, Japan ruled over the Korean Peninsula and tried to assimilate the Korean people into its empire. Part of this ambition was the suppression of the native language, for example by ending Korean language education and newspapers. Under these circumstances, the peninsula’s authors had to find new forms of creative expression – and despite these difficulties they produced insightful fictional works, even during the last, and most oppressive, decade of Japan’s colonial rule.

To learn more about the literature from this era, and about the conditions under which it was produced, we had the pleasure to interview Professor Janet Poole. She spoke to us about some of the authors of this period, the characteristics of their writings, and about what happened to them and the reception of their works after the colonial period.

Janet Poole is Associate Professor of East Asian Studies at the University of Toronto. Two years ago she wrote “When the Future Disappears: The Modernist Imagination in Late Colonial Korea” (Columbia University Press). Poole received her PhD in East Asian Languages and Cultures from Columbia University, her MA in Korean Literature from the University of Hawai’i at Manoa and a BA in Japanese and Korean from the University of London.

The relations between South Korea, Japan and the United States are often described as triangular. The two Asian countries have been long-time alliance partners of America, and all share common interests, such as the denuclearization of North Korea. Yet this North East Asian triangle is facing an uncertain future, and while it has to adapt to the rise of China, America debates its role in the region, and South Korea and Japan keep clashing over historical disputes.

To learn more about these challenges for the relationship between the three countries, we had the pleasure of interviewing Jonathan D. Pollack. He spoke to us about the paradoxical realities of East Asia’s international relations, South Korea’s and Japan’s different perceptions and agendas, and about the implications of these issues for the United States and its presence in the region.

Jonathan D. Pollack is the Interim SK-Korea Foundation Chair in Korea Studies in the Center for East Asia Policy Studies and a senior fellow in the John L. Thornton China Center at the Brookings Institution. Previously, he was a professor at the U.S. Naval War College and worked for the Rand Corporation. Jonathan Pollack has written numerous books and articles on East Asia’s international relations and received his MA as well as his PhD in Political Science from the University of Michigan.

In the past fifteen years, families in the United States have adopted more than 200.000 children from other countries, and over 20.000 from South Korea. The origins of America’s status as an adoption nation lie in the years after the Second World War and oftentimes in humanitarian intentions. Yet, adoptions are also linked to problematic phenomena, from racial preferences on the side of adopters to economic interests in the adoptees’ home countries.

To learn more about the adoptions that link America and Korea, we had the pleasure to interview Catherine Ceniza Choy. She spoke to us about the historical roots of this phenomenon and the intentions that drive it, the particular development of adoptions from Korea to the United States, and the many interpretations and problems that arise from them.

Catherine Ceniza Choy is Professor of Asian American and Asian Diaspora Studies at UC Berkeley. She is the author of the book “Global Families - A History of Asian International Adoption in America” (NYU Press) as well as various journal articles and another book on international adoption. Choy received her PhD in History from the University of California in Los Angeles, an MA from the same school and a BA from Pomona College.

In South Korea, child-rearing still remains first and foremost the responsibility of mothers. Pressures from society – and frequently their own families – create expectations as to what children ought to do, eat, and learn. In opposition to these social constraints, mothers employ different strategies and rationales to give their children the best life possible.

To learn more about how women steer the childhood and aspirations of their offspring, a well as their own self-development, we had the pleasure of interviewing Professor Bonnie Tilland. We discussed the relations women maintain across generations, with their parents and parents in law, but also with their own children, how women contest the narrative of "national strength" and other social constructs through their mothering, and how they conceive the future of their children as they grow up.

Bonnie Tilland is Professor at the EASTASIA International College (EIC) of Yonsei University's Wonju campus. She obtained her PhD in Sociocultural Anthropology from the University of Washington. She also completed a graduate certificate in Feminist Studies and a Master's in International Studies (Korea Studies) from the same institution, as well as a BA in East Asian Languages and Cultures from Lawrence University.

Around two million ethnic Koreans live in the United States. This makes them the second largest Korean diaspora, after the one in China; Los Angeles and New York even have the largest Korean populations outside of cities on the Korean Peninsula. Koreans in America have been referred to as a “model minority” due to their educational and economic achievements; yet they also face racial discrimination and isolation.

To learn more about how Koreans have navigated American issues of race and inequality, we met with Professor Nadia Kim. She told us about the history of Korean migration to the United States and the role of America’s military presence in Asia; the socialization process of immigrants that already starts on the Korean Peninsula; and the hardships Korean immigrants face once they arrive in the US.

Nadia Y. Kim is Associate Professor of Sociology at Loyola Marymount University. She obtained her Bachelor at the University of California - Santa Barbara and received her Ph.D. from the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor. She was also a postdoctoral fellow at the Center for Comparative Immigration Studies at the University of California - San Diego. Her most recent book and the subject of this interview is Imperial Citizens: Koreans and Race from Seoul to LA (Stanford University Press).

South Korea’s international relations have been extensively studied, from its security policies to its approach to foreign aid. But while the country’s diplomats are at the center of its relations with the world, little research has been done on their actual work and South Korea’s diplomatic culture.

To hear more about South Korea's diplomatic style, we had the honor of meeting with Professor Jeffrey Robertson. He spoke to us about the importance of understanding countries’ diplomatic styles, South Korea's diplomatic culture as well as its unique characteristics and the generational change it is currently undergoing.

Jeffrey Robertson is a Visiting Fellow at the Asia-Pacific College of Diplomacy (APCD) at the Australian National University (ANU) and an Assistant Professor at Yonsei University. In the past, Professor Robertson worked for the Australian Government in the field of foreign policy and North Asia; his most recent book "Diplomatic Style and Foreign Policy" (Routledge) explores the insight gained through the recognition and comprehension of diplomatic style.

South Korea’s democracy is experiencing some eventful years. Last April, the ruling Saenuri party saw an unexpected loss in the parliamentary elections; and next year. in late 2017, President Park Geun-hye’s term in office will end as new presidential elections are conducted. Until then, the opposition parties will likely try to consolidate and attempt to create a unitary platform around a single candidate in order to capture the Blue House.

To learn more about South Korea's democracy, we met with Steven Denney after April’s parliamentary elections. We took a look back at the first three years of President Park Geun-hye's presidency and spoke about the attitudes and peculiarities that shape the country’s democratic process. Additionally, we asked for his opinion about the voices that see South Korea’s democracy threatened by the authoritarian tendencies of the current administration.

Steven Denney is a PhD candidate in political science at the University of Toronto and a doctoral fellow at the Asian Institute at the Munk School of Global Affairs. In addition to various academic articles, Steven Denney is also a frequent contributor to The Diplomat and the Managing Editor of SinoNK.com.

Over the course of the past few decades, the People’s Republic Republic of China opened up and became a land of economic opportunity not only for South Korean companies but also for individual entrepreneurs. Today, over 70.000 South Koreans reside in Wangjing, a district of Beijing known as the city’s Koreatown. The enclave’s quick development has also attracted numerous Chinese citizens of Korean descent from Northern China who made it their home.

To learn about how Korean Chinese and South Koreans live with each other in Wangjing, we had the honor of meeting with Professor Sharon Yoon. She told us about the history of Korean migration to China, the Korean enclave in Beijing as well as the difficulties Korean Chinese and South Koreans face when interacting with each other.

Sharon Yoon is Assistant Professor at Ewha Womans University. She obtained her Bachelor in Asian Studies and Sociology from Dartmouth College and her PhD in Sociology from Princeton University. Before joining Ewha, Professor Yoon was a postdoctoral fellow at the University of Pennsylvania and at Osaka University.

Just like South Korea is one of America’s most important partners in Asia, so is the United States a key ally for South Korea. The importance of this relationship is visible: the embassy of the United States sits right in the city center of Seoul and more than 25.000 American soldiers are currently stationed throughout the country. In opinion surveys, South Koreans state that they view the United States in a more positive light than any of their regional neighbors.

An important role in the day-to-day management of this relationship is played by the diplomatic staff of the United States in South Korea. We had the unique opportunity to meet Mark Lippert, the current Ambassador of the United States to South Korea, as well as his staff and his basset hound Grigsby in his residence in Seoul. In our brief interview we spoke about his position and responsibilities, America’s perspective on regional issues and President Obama’s “Pivot to Asia.”

Ambassador Lippert obtained his undergraduate and master's degrees from Stanford University, respectively in political science and international policy studies. Before he became Ambassador to South Korea in 2014, he was Chief of Staff for President Obama’s National Security Council and Assistant Secretary of Defense for Asian and Pacific Security Affairs.

Relations between Japan and South Korea are perplexing: the two countries are major trade partners and popular tourist destinations for each other’s people, they are democracies in a region with numerous authoritarian regimes and alliance partners of the United States. Yet, despite all this, their relations are troubled by territorial and historical issues that limit mutual understanding and cooperation.

To learn more about these contentious relations, we met with Scott Snyder to talk about his latest book, The Japan-South Korea Identity Clash: East Asian Security and the United States (Columbia University Press), which he wrote together with Brad Glosserman. We discussed the two countries' identities and perceptions of each other, the role that Japanese and Korean political leaders play in this context, the stakes that the United States has in this situation – and a possible way forward.

Scott Snyder is Senior Fellow for Korea studies and Director of the program on U.S.-Korea policy at the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR), a think tank based in Washington D.C. He has received his BA from Rice University and his MA from the regional studies East Asia program at Harvard University. He was also a Thomas G. Watson fellow at Yonsei University in Seoul. We previously interviewed him in Episode 22 about South Korea’s role as a Middle Power.