On the surface, Korea’s division into a communist North and anticommunist South in 1945 was a classic case of Cold War polarization. But even as South Korea became a stalwart American ally, its leaders openly criticized the United States as an inappropriate model for Koreans to follow. Vocal skepticism of key concepts of Western liberalism, including capitalism, freedom, and democracy, pervaded mainstream political discourse. Postcolonial Korean political culture contained the hallmarks of fascism: virulent ethnonationalism, emphasis on self-sacrifice for the nation-state, and a search for an alternative nationalist modernity beyond either communism or capitalism. In Korea, the ethnic nation was to transcend all other forms of identity—including class and individuality—and political ideologies.

Nation Transcendent shows how this particular form of fascism was the product of Koreans’ struggle to reconcile their postcolonial condition with the Cold War context. Sungik Yang examines how Koreans sought national autonomy amid pressures to conform to one worldview or another during the Cold War while seeking to overcome the profound crisis of national division. These fascistic tendencies also reflected a deep discomfort with American hegemony, as Koreans sought to put forth independent nationalist visions outside the Western orbit. For those dissatisfied with both communism and capitalist liberalism, fascistic interpretations of nationalist modernity proved appealing—and also acclimated Koreans to authoritarian rule. Shedding new light on the contradictions of Cold War–era South Korea, this book also demonstrates the continued relevance of the concept of fascism beyond the interwar European context.