지역공동체에서 평화공동체로 가는 상상력 ―마타요시 에이키 초기소설의 의미

Abstract

Matayoshi Eiki(1947∼ ), one of the Okinawa's major writers, has still written literary works since he made his debut as a writer in 1975. Six of his novels were translated into Korean, all of which are his early works written in his late 20s and early 30s. The Carnival Bullfight (カーニバル鬪牛大會) (1976), Ginnemu House (ギンネム屋敷) (1980), and The Intrusion of Military Police (憲兵闖入事件) (1981) depict Okinawa in the 1950s. The Wild Boar that George Shot (ジョージが射殺した猪) (1978), The Black Bugs by the Window (窓に黒い虫が) (1978), and The Man Shaking a Shaker (シェーカーを振る男) (1980) illustrate Okinawa in the 1960s. Of his works whose setting is the 1950s, The Carnival Bullfight and The Intrusion of Military Police show conflicts between local residents and foreigners over the traditional Okinawa's bullfight. Here, U.S. soldiers(American) are depicted as the ones who wield imperial violence and the criticism against Yamato (Japanese mainland) is metaphorically raised. At the same time, a sense of shame that Okinawa cannot resist the U.S. and Japan’s imperial violence is also revealed. In Ginnemu House, U.S. soldiers are illustrated in the background as unapproachable while Yamato’s violence is portrayed in the foreground through Chosun’s soldiers and comfort women. It also expresses the awareness of self-criticism, suggesting Okinawa residents can be inflicters All the works whose setting is in the 1960s portray events that occurred U.S. military bases in Okinawa and their surroundings. These works display U.S. soldiers’ contempts against Okinawa residents and their violence both by a U.S. soldier and an American virgin killing Okinawa's old man and virgin in The Wild Boar that George Shot and The Man Shaking a Shaker and by shedding light on residents selling sex in The Black Bugs by the Window. In addition, these works show the interpretation that U.S. soldiers are also victims of the war, focusing on U.S. soldiers suffering the horror of the war. As commented, Matayoshi’s early works point out the violence of the war, criticize imperial greed, and contemplate the status of Okinawa communities. This is an fundamental introspection, neither sense of exclusion nor unconditional anti-America or anti-Japan. In his works, “other person” is not defined as ethnicity, nationality, or locality. He became confident, by exploring the issues of war and military bases unfolding in Okinawa, that ‘violence flows deep under’, and his Asian imaginative potential was embodied as dreaming of peace community.