3.1운동과 제국일본의 위기 — 아베 미쓰이에의 전환론과 식민지조선의 합법적 정치공간 —

Abstract

This paper aims to reveal three points as belows: First, the influence of the March First Movement on Japanese colonial rule; Second, the change in Japanese ruler’s perception of Korean national movement; Finally, the meaning of “politics” in colonial Korea. Based on the above interests, this paper put the focus on Abe Mitsuie, an adviser to Governor-General Saitō Makoto. He proposed related policy how to rule Korean Peninsular in contact with Korean nationalists. Through Abe’s perception on the Korean national movement, this paper examined how the ruler’s perception changed after the March First Movement. Abe’s theory of “win-the-people’s-heart” (jinshin shūran ron) was based on a sense of crisis that imperial Japan was endangered by the March First movement. To solve this problem, Abe suggested that Japan should replace the leader of the movement from “pro-Japanese” to “nationalists”. However, there was a proviso clause: The “national movement” should not violate the sovereignty of imperial Japan. In 1925, Abe’s perception of the Korean national movement showed a slightly different developmen. Instead of the educational and economic-centric movement, he came to aim for a “political movement”, especially a “self-governing movement”. This paper tries to explain why Abe has come to seek a self-governing movement and clarify the boundaries of a “legitimate political space” dealing with Abe’s discourse on the “right-handed organizations”. After the March First Movement, Japanese rulers had an ambivalent task regarding Korean national movement, that is “suppression” or “conciliation”. The criteria to deciding whether to suppress or conciliate depend on whether it violates “legitimacy = sovereignty” of imperial Japan. This criterion was also emphasized when the movement expanded into a political movement. In other words, if the movement was compatible in the “legitimate political space”, “compromising or uncompromising” was only a secondary issue.