일제시대 한국인의 일본여행에 비친 일본 -시찰단의 근대 공간성과 타자성 인식-

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to suggest the perception process of the Korean middle and upper class observers on spatiality and otherness during their touring of modern Japan in 1920-30s. Specially, observation was an intended cultural and political activity to establish the ideology of Naesun-Ilche (which referred to the idea of unification of Korea and Japan) and that of Naeji-Yeonjang (which also referred to as ‘Mainland Extension Policy’, meaning a colony, Korea, was the extension of Japan, and to apply the same legal and political systems as Japan). The observation group, which aimed for importing advanced and civilized culture, travelled around various places to internalize the imperial governing ideology for their colonies. The spaces included the traditional Shinto shrines, splendid department stores, museums, the imperial universities, and advanced industrial facilities. These places can be divided into several types of spaces such as consumptive, disciplinary, representational and military spaces. The observation group observed the differences and similarities between the two countries, and perceived the hierarchy between modernized Japan and colonized Korea through these spaces. In the modern spaces where Japanese imperialism produced and reproduced economical, political and social meanings, the otherness that could be perceived by the Korean middle and high classes. However, they tended to convert their otherness to the Japanese consciousness depending on social situations and spatial contexts. Among those members, many had passed through the perception process of otherness through distinctive consciousness between inner and outer people, sense of alienation from economic development and under-development, experience of cultural heterogeneity. They had similar identity with the Japanese taking the central position, and transplanting the civilization policies of Japan into Korea. They played a crucial role of cultural bearers for Japanese imperialism. Under the guise of the false campaign ‘Construction of a New culture’, they often accepted the imperialistic ruling values as desirable.