Performing National Gymnastics: The Appropriation of Japanese Radio Exercise and Militarism in Postcolonial South Korea

From time to time, a familiar marching band fanfare, followed by a commanding male voice shouting, “National Gymnastics, Start! One, two, three, four...” catches the ears of Koreans through media or community events, evoking memories of school days. This music–voice combination is part of National Gymnastics (kungminch'ejo), a five-minute free-hand calisthenics program introduced in the 1970s by the South Korean government, especially during the military regime of President Park Chung-hee, as part of citizenship education aimed at building a strong, prosperous, and independent nation. Interestingly, however, National Gymnastics was not an original invention of the regime but an adaptation of a Japanese colonial practice. This paper examines the historical ironies surrounding the development of National Gymnastics, focusing on how the South Korean military regime reimagined and transformed the Japanese Radio Exercise (rajio taisō)—a colonial propaganda tool of the Japanese Empire—into a postcolonial practice. I analyze the programs’ audio elements—the music and verbal instructions of both the Japanese and Korean versions to investigate how South Korea’s National Gymnastics was shaped by the legacy of its imperial predecessor. Significantly, this adaptation reflects an effort to build a disciplined, modernized, and militarily strong nation, paradoxically grounded in colonial structures. Through this case, the study reveals how music and sport can simultaneously reinforce colonial legacies while serving as sites for constructing new national identities. In doing so, it contributes to broader discussions on postcolonialism, neo-colonialism, and the modernity of South Korea and East Asia.