Performing Empire: The “Patriotic Genius Orator Girl” and the Negotiation of an “Unliveable Life” from Colonial Korea to the Metropole

This article examines Tanaka Tsuyako, a 14-year-old “Patriotic Genius Orator Girl” who delivered patriotic speeches in colonial Korea and the metropole, to illuminate the intersection of gender, media, education and imperial mobilisation in 1930s Japan. Drawing on newspaper archives, unpublished family memoirs, interviews and personal materials left by Tanaka, this study challenges conventional narratives of settler children as passive bystanders. Instead, it demonstrates how the media commercially exploited Tanaka’s innocent and petite image to stoke “affective patriotism” amidst national crisis. Furthermore, the analysis reveals how Tanaka and her family exercised agency, utilising the role of the “model subject” as a survival strategy to navigate her actual physical frailty and restrictive gender norms. By tracing her journey from the colony to the metropole, this research highlights the reverse flow of imperial ideology and illustrates how an individual navigated her life within the complex social and cultural frameworks of the empire.