During the Pacific War, Korean male intellectuals under the wartime total mobilization system converted and collaborated with Japan’s war of aggression, interpreting Naisen Ittai as an opportunity to reinterpret their status and escape from national discrimination. However, female intellectuals supported the war based on different logic. Believing that the enhancement of national strength by Japan would realize the modern family, they started from the enlightenment of modern home economics and strived to become wise homemakers and responsible family heads, aligning with the nation’s and the era’s demands, to exhibit agency as citizens (imperial subjects). Activities of intellectual women advocating for lifestyle improvements, frugality, and economic independence during the war were carried out in pro-Japanese women’s organizations overseen by the Japanese Governor-General of Chōsen, but contrary to the exaggerated propaganda of the Governor-General, they did not significantly mobilize or achieve success. This was disconnected from the daily lives of ordinary Korean women. While individual intellectual women might be visible with their names and careers, the majority of common women remained obscured within their families or clans, sharing the same interests. Prior to improvement or savings, their lives were threatened in the colonial reality, leading to a significant divergence in the war perceptions of common and intellectual women. This can be seen as the beginning of division and conflict between common and intellectual women in terms of gender and nationalism.