일본 식민주의자들의 한국고대사 인식을 위한 예비적 검토

Abstract

The Japanese wrote thirty one books about ancient Korean history over the period of Japanese early modern times from the Meiji Restoration to the Russo-Japanese War. This study classifies those books into information and history books according to the characteristics, and provides a brief review of writers’ personal backgrounds, purpose of writing and contents of description. On the basis of the policy of conquering Joseon by military force(征韓論) shortly after the Restoration of Meiji, a number of relatively small-volume information books were written by scholars of the Chinese classics to introduce various information, including geography, history, institutions and customs of Joseon, and published. Before and after the Sino-Japanese War, large-volume history books written in modern style by college graduates with modern educational backgrounds appeared with information books affected by them. Such a change was caused by the need for much information about and deep understanding of Joseon as modern education system was established in Japan and Japanese colonial rule over Joseon became clear. During this period, books were written based on the thought of the kokugaku (國學派: national learning) school in the Edo period, in which the conquest of Silla and the foundation of Mimana Nihonfu by Empress Jingu were described as true. In the meantime, the descriptions which were grounded on the theory of Japan and Joseon sharing the same ancestry(日鮮同祖論) showed a subtle distinction between information books inheriting the kokugaku tradition and history books affected by modern historical science. Both are books related to Korean history, however, they have the common points that they never referred to new historical understandings and findings in which Dangun and Balhae had been highlighted since the late Joseon period.