만나지 못하는 두 개의 기억-중국귀환자연락회의 전사(前史)-

Abstract

In East Asia, historical disputes constantly reoccur due to differences in each country’s World War II war memories. Japan’s efforts to erase the facts of the harm without reflecting on its war of aggression continue. However, in Japan, some people constantly testify totheir harm and appeal for reversal. An example is the “Association of Returnees from China” (Chukiren, 中帰連), formed by those detained and returned from China’s war crimes management center. ‘Chukiren’ had a chance to reflect on its harm from the victims’ perspective through China’s unprecedentedly generous war crimes policy and war crimes trial, focusing on ‘human crime’ (認罪) and ‘reformation’ (改造). They were born as subjects who internalized the political community’s joint responsibility, such as establishing their identity as perpetrators and dedicating their lives to Sino-Japanese friendship and anti-peace movements through evidence of harm after returning home. ‘Chukiren’ is a perpetrator who constantly testifies to their involvement in Japan’s war of aggression. However, they are also victims who were detained for five years in Siberia and engaged in forced labor before being transferred to China in 1950 –representing Japan’s devastated existence. Just as the context of the war of aggression was eliminated from the memories of Siberian detention, which are presented as representative victim narratives in Japanese society, the memories of their harm are not integrated even within ‘Chukiren’. This paper attempts to understand the two memories from a continuous perspective by examining the prisoner/war criminal policies of the same socialist country, the Soviet Union and China. We will explore why the Siberian detention experience in Japanese society is remembered as complete damage and why Chukiren members no longer actively reveal what they experienced in the Soviet Union. Therefore, I would like to consider the basis of the victim’s consciousness of the Siberian detainees and the interlayer of the damage and harm that the Chukiren members turned away from.