전시기(1937-1945) 반일언동 사건과 식민지 조선 민중의 의식 ―식량 관련 ‘유언비어’ 분석을 중심으로―

Abstract

This article purports to review information, collected by the colonial governors, on groundless rumors and analyze the people’s language patterns evident in those rumors to better understand their life and culture. The colonial governors of wartime collected numerous cases of anti-Japan words and actions, especially the groundless rumors. The groundless rumors played a significant role for prosecutors, police officers and military police officers in determining the scale of punishment and discerning whether a certain law would be applicable to a case. For this reason, most of the rumor cases collected by the officials were organized around what they considered criminal components. Therefore, it is difficult to understand the specific context of the groundless rumors just by studying the cases collected by the colonial officials, which needs to be considered when studying these sources. 48 percent of the groundless rumors on food supply in colonial Joseon around 1942 were about death caused by lack of food and destruction of a household as a result. Destruction of a family could be a strong convincing factor in a strongly familyoriented society. Such pattern of tragic stories could be found in Japan as well but the cases in colonial Joseon were more drastic. Such rumors could become the motivation for resistance against the colonial power but on the other side, it could also become the motivation for conformity like the nature of Shin-pa. The colonial police officers portrayed in the groundless rumors on food supply, who represent the colonial power, are more authoritarian and violent than those in Japan. Common Joseon people rarely relied on the police and could not dare satirize the police. In contrast, the Japanese groundless rumors show that the common Japanese population approved of the ruling class and thus had expectations and disappointments towards the police, which led them to satirize the police in their rumors. The portrayal of colonial police officers in the groundless rumors indicate that the colonial governance was a "governance without hegemony," at least to the common people of Joseon.