Abstract
Among Masaaki Tachihara’s works, the one most well-known for depicting a protagonist of mixed heritage with roots in both Japan and Korea is “Tsurugigasaki” (1965). However, while less widely recognized, he wrote several other works featuring protagonists of mixed heritage both before and after this story. This article analyzes these works, while drawing on the well-established understanding from previous research that Tachihara himself was not of mixed heritage but a fully Korean. In other words, despite being a fully Korean, Tachihara portrays protagonists of mixed heritage in his works, and this article explores the disconnect between the author himself and his characters. Overall, this article argues that by imbuing his protagonists with a sense of tragedy rooted in the colonial period of Korea and WWII, Tachihara established a unique fictional authorial persona, presenting these protagonists as projections of himself to his readers in postwar Japan.
As a theoretical framework, this article employs the concept of “double consciousness” proposed by African American writer W.E.B. Du Bois. By this, I highlight how Tachihara presents the unreconciled dual identities that his mixed-blood protagonists internalize within themselves. Additionally, this article connects his works to reader-response theory, examining how they shape the transformation and establishment of the image of the author constructed in the readers’ minds. Tachihara’s authorial image as a tragic mixed-blood person was created in a multifaceted manner—not only within his works but also through his statements outside the texts and the critiques included in afterwords of paperback editions.
