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Abstract

During the period of Japanese occupation, themes of the majority works of the Chosen [Korean] literature in the Puppet Manchukuo can be considered healthy; some of them denied or resisted Japanese imperialism by means of various literary ways, while more writings consciously were composed to avoid political issues or appeared in the form of pure literature in order to escape from the censorship by authorities. In fact, there were a batch of works met with the expectation of the puppet Manchukuo, or made compromise with even showed cooperative intention to the top powers. It was also found that a very few works commended of or catered to the aggressions of Japanese imperialism. The complicate situation, of course, not only had much to do with the colonial discourse under Japanese long colonial rule on the Chosen people, but also related to the puppet nature of the pseudo-Manchukuo. Colonialism turned out to be the culprit behind the hybridity of the colonized subjects. Through long-term colonization, Japanese imperialism not only carried out its brutal crackdown upon the colonized subjects, but also constructed its colonial discourse by the so-called “Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere,” encroaching upon consciousness of nationalism among the colonized subjects. But nonetheless, writers seemed to imitate or assist the colonial discourse in the so called hybridized writings that catered to the puppet Manchukuo or Japanese imperialism, they kept their own words in different ways. Firstly, they showed cooperation with the puppet Manchukuo so as to reflect their non-cooperation with the Japanese imperialism; secondly, they primarily expressed their deep concerns about the problem of the survival of the Chosen immigrants, while retaining cooperation with Japanese imperialism; thirdly, even though they assisted Japanese imperialist aggression, while keeping a certain distance and giving expression to the hybridity of the colonized subjects. Accordingly, the author argues that, through discussion about the mentioned issues merged in the Chosen literature in the puppet Manchukuo during the Japanese occupation, one cannot make an either-or judgment, or cannot arrive at conclusion in dichotomous thinking, on the so-called Pro-Japanese literature or Pro-Manchukuo literature.