국민가인의 패전–사이토 모키치의 전쟁책임과 전후 단카

Abstract

This piece of writing reexamined what kind of influence the national poet of the time, Saito Mokichi had on the modern Japanese era by his Tanka which was smeared with war and figured out its status and role in an objective view. During the wartime, Mokichi was a person who spoke for the public and sincerely believed in the Japanese emperor's holy war and brought the people to take part in the war but declared 'silence' after the announcement of the Protocol of the war's end by the Emperor. This silence was an intended posture which was devised out of anger and protest that did not admit the reality of defeat. Moreover, this can be interpreted as a behavior to protect himself from the war responsibility and avoid moral judgment and regret. Postwar Tanka which rapidly turned toward a nature poem through this silence transformed itself into the purest grief and comforted the public by stirring up the public opinion that 'Nation fell but mountains and streams stood'(A phrase from Dubo's poem 「Chunmang」). In one aspect, the amazingly beautiful language of Postwar Tanka by Mokichi was a message of salvation and hope to Japanese but promoted Japan's victim mentality in another aspect. This is because it erased the opportunity for punishment or correction of the past by sealing it in silence after being unable to properly perceive the wrongful state ideology and the historical mistake. His Tanka, which solely deals with sentimental sorrow and desire for recovery and carried on during and after the war without any epistemological conversion, symbolizes a problem that remains unsolved for 70 years after the war.