‘재일(在日)’에 대한 성찰과 타자 지향

Abstract

Just for having lives and history of Korean Japanese in the center of the narration, <Yu Maeng> already deserves much attention. But more importantly,<Yu Maeng> not only portrays lives of Korean Japanese in historical and national context but also projects the current image of ‘living in Japan’. During the distorted history of the country-the Japanese colonial period-people moved to Japan for making a living or impressment and these people stayed in Japan in the midst of turmoil in East Asia; their stories are vividly portrayed, the continued social status of Korean Japanese as others even after the liberation is suggested specifically to confirm that the sense of others while ‘living in Japan’ was forced by the national border, which led to self-division. In addition, <Yu Maeng> suggests Korean Japanese internalized the fluid and mixed state of self-division, through which they see their sense of division and apply the view for outlook on the nation and the country. The sense of division in ‘living in Japan’ is extended to introspection on the sense of others, which is a hierarchical relationship between the majority and the minority; ‘my’ staying is not a choice out of frustration and despair but a process seeking reorganization and change of self and other through preferring the sense of other, which is ‘living in Japan’. Therefore <Yu Maeng> is a story about fated agony on the nation and the country to choose the world of others for solution; and shows sympathizing with others is the right path for narration on living in Japan.