만주 망명과 독립 운동에 대한 경북 여성들의 시선과 기록

Abstract

This study intends to examine the meanings of documents on Manchurian exile and independence movement in different dimensions through the memoirs and naebang-gasa written by women who lived in Gyeongsangbuk-do during the Japanese colonial era in the early 20th century. In recent years, naebang-gasa works have been actively discussed in relation to Manchurian exile, and this study extends the perspective in order to interpret the works in connection with “the history of Manchurian exile and women.” The discussion on women’s memories and records is important as it allows us to perceive them as subjects of active thinking, rather than objects otherized in history. The reason behind is that official records or men’s records describe only women who participated or sacrificed themselves in the independence movement, and there are limitations in restoring an effective semantic network solely from those women. Therefore, as we approach and analyze records by women who understood and gave meanings to their time for themselves, we can convert the perception of women in the history of independence movement from “women placed in a position” to “women positioning themselves.” Naebang-gasa works describe daily lives captured from a microscopic perspective in detail, which cannot be seen in men’s records about the history of Manchurian exile, such as hardship in the journey to Manchuria, problems of food, clothing and shelter, and relationships and anecdotes with warmhearted people. They describe women who were struggling, with burden, to be responsible for the livelihood of their families, behind the ideological imperativeness of the independence of their ruined country. Their affection and longing to see their friends and family is also found throughout the works. In addition, the two memoirs are different from naebang-gasa as they contain their memories and oral statements on the history of Manchurian exile in the reality of the country divided into South and North Koreas after the liberation from Japan and the Korean War. The memoirs show that the way they remembered their longing for independence even after a long time and their perspective and language used to illustrate the daily lives full of hardship were remarkably vivid, unlike naebang-gasa that were written in the same period for the purpose of self-narratives or communication within a family. In particular, the reflective significance of the memoirs stands out in parts where they looked in agony at their families that collapsed due to their Manchuria exile and independence movement, as opposed to the descendants of pro-Japanese families who were receiving new modern education and living in affluence, after the liberation and the division of the country. As seen above, the records by women who lived in Gyeongsangbuk-do during that period show that in the history of Manchurian exile and the independence movement, women were the subjects of active actions and practice and comrades of men who eagerly longed for the national independence, as well. It appears that the naebang-gasa and memoirs, which contain women’s sensibility and sighs from personal perspectives, have sufficient significance as complementary and alternative records to men’s diaries or official historical materials focused on factual records.