I am a professor at the College of International Studies, Korea University. Majoring in modern and contemporary Japanese history and culture, I have worked on the interwar and wartime Japanese political thoughts and the Japan-Korea relations via visual culture of modern Japan. My books include, An Imperial Path to Modernity: Yoshino Sakuzo and a New Liberal Order in East Asia, 1905-1937 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2013) and 『일본, 만화로 제국을 그리다』 (공저, 서울: 일조각, 2006). The latter book has won the best academic book prize in Korea and has been translated into Japanese 『漫画に描かれた日本帝国』 (東京: 明石書店, 2010). Recently, I published another book entitled Dark Heritage in Contemporary Japan: Relics of an Underground Empire (London: Routledge, 2024).

Currently, Dr. Han’s research focuses on the contemporary Japanese civic activities on conserving the dark heritage of war-related sites. Dark heritage in the research refers to the sites and artifacts that are associated with deliberately inflicted human suffering and death in general and with Imperial Japan’s aggressive war in the Asia-Pacific in particular. Reflecting Dr. Han’s current research, undergraduate-student classes and graduate-student seminars are designed around the themes of 1) making of modern East Asian world; 2) rebuilding of postwar Japan; and 3) development of Japan-Korea relations since the 19th century.

A short list of Dr. Han’s publications includes:

Articles in Korean

• 2022. 04. 「일본 “전후 민주주의”의 형성과 변형: 전쟁유적 보존 운동을 중심으로」, 『일본역사연구』 57
• 2020. 03. 「다이쇼 일본과 ‘현대’의 가능성」, 『역사와 현실』 115집
• 2019. 02. 「오만한 일본, 불안한 제국: 다이쇼시대 일본의 국가정체성 변화와 대외정책」, 『일본비평』 20집

Articles in English

• 2023. 04. “Darkling Ventures: Conserving and Recasting War Heritage in Japan,” Journal of Contemporary History
• 2017. 01. “Heritage of Resentment and Shame in Postwar Japan,” The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus (https://apjjf.org/2017/01/han)