Abstract
This study attempts to examine the concept of mindo in colonial Korea to understand the mechanism of the colonial public sphere. The Japanese often explained that they could not implement certain policies in Korea because of the low mindo or cultural and economic level of the Korean population. This denigrating term then became internalized among Korean participants in the colonial public sphere, and they often expressed notions that Koreans as a collective whole were backwards and not able to fully express their political will. This self-reference to the collective inferiority of Koreans can be viewed as a major characteristic of the colonial public sphere. However, Koreans did not accept their fate quietly and a critique of the colonial order developed within the colonial rationality of mindo, especially over the failure of the colonial government to deliver education and controversies over colonial policy. The discourse of mindo would change rapidly with the outbreak of war as Koreans would claim that their level of development had risen high enough to achieve equality with Japanese. Political pressure for reforms built up even during the height of the wartime period and they would have a different character than before. Through an examination of the trajectory of mindo, we may gain insights into the ‘alternative rationalities’ of the colonial order and how it propagated through the colonial public sphere.