Desiring One Imperial Language : Affect, Gender and Colonialism

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This paper demonstrates that colonization by language makes changes to language ideologies in the colonizing country, mediated by the desire to imagine one imperial language. In the early twentieth century, Japan tried to rule East Asian colonies by forcing the use of Japanese language. Japanese language was expected to become the imperial language of the East Asian imperial realm. However, there was no single national language even inside Japan. To legitimate linguistic colonization, therefore, the peculiarity and superiority of Japanese language was promoted by praising Japanese women's language as imperial tradition. This change was also a desirable response to the National Mobilization Law requiring women to contribute to the war. The ideology of women's language newly defined as imperial tradition was incorporated into national language, symbolically manifesting women's participation in the war. Political requirements both outside and inside Japan enhanced circulation of the discourse of desire, resulting in the radical shift of the relationship between language and gender inside Japan.