The ‘Assistants Association of the Department of Liberal Arts’ at Keijō Imperial University and Journal Gakkai (京城帝国大学文科助手会と会報『学海』)

In this paper, I will examine academic activities and the human network at Keijō Imperial University, focusing on the 'Assistants Association of the Department of Liberal Arts'. This association was established in April 1934 by Nakayama Iwamitsu (中山岩光), Takeshita Teruhiko (竹下暉彦), Park Chi-woo (朴致祐), Shūda Tatsuo (習田達夫), Sano (佐野道), and Shōji (庄司秀一). They gathered 44 members in a year and a half. Most of the members had experience as assistants at Keijō Imperial University, and most of the assistants were graduates after 1929, when Keijō Imperial University started producing graduates. They held regular lectures more than 10 times between 1934 to 1935, and published the journal Gakkai twice in 1935. The two journals published contain 17 articles and three poems written by members of the association. This association is important because it gives us a clue about how young Korean and Japan scholars communicated in that period, and helps us understand what the role of the assistant position in Imperial University was like.