Studies on Japanese settlers in colonial Korea are taking on a new aspect. Recent studies, at the least, are assuming a different standpoint from existing researches, which view Japanese settlers as 'spearheads of invasion.' Simply put, studies of colonial era are welcoming a turning<br>point, breaking away from the dichotomous frame of determining 'either exploitation or modernization.
The purpose of this study is to classify Japanese settlers in colonial Korea by generation and to specifically investigate the experience and awareness of the second generation settlers through literature and stories they left behind. The second generation settlers refer to Japanese people who immigrated to the colony when they were young or were born in the colony. Most of them returned to Japan after Japan's defeat in World War II. Their mental structure formed in the midst of dynamic experiences of the time show complicated aspects.
The second generation settlers who had returned to Japan after the 1945 defeat started to publish memoirs and stories since the 1970s. Examining these literature, it was found that the sense of incompatibility among the second generation settlers for the post-war Japanese society, which seemed to have healed over with the rapid economic growth of Japan that began right after the post-war famine, was still prevalent among these generation. Muramatsu Takeshi, a poet and a third generation of colonial Korea, described such identity of second generation settlers of colonial Korea as 'half Japanese-half Korean.' These second generation Japanese settlers of colonial Korea are people who revive the colonial memory that post-war Japan have been neglecting. In other words, they act as a bridge between the Imperial Japan and the Japan today. This is the very reason why the present study underlines the history and consciousness structure of the second generation Japanese settlers of colonial Korea.
抄録全体を表示