가지 와타루(鹿地亘)의 反戰反帝運動과 朝鮮 -조선 관련 저작과 조선의용대와의 연대를 중심으로-

Abstract

This thesis examines the perception of Joseon in the anti-war activities of the Japanese writer Wataru Kaji (1903-1982) and the solidarity activities with the the Korean Volunteer Corps such as Kim Won-bong(金元鳳). Kaji Wataru embraced communist ideas in his youth. In Tokyo, in his twenties, while also interacting with writers of the Joseon proletariat, in 1931, he published the short story “Snow in Dae-pyung” with the theme of the Korean independence movement. This novel was a direct narrative of the oppression of Japanese rule, the fierce independence movement of the Joseon people against it, and its legitimacy. After exiling to China in early 1936, he sympathized with China’s anti-Japanese movement by interacting with China’s representative progressive intellectual, Lu Xin(魯迅). In March 1937, he was invited to the 3rd Office of the Political Department of the Chinese Government Military Committee established in Wuhan upon the recommendation of Guo Moruo(郭沫若) and participated in the anti-war movement. Wataru had a strong belief that his anti-Japanese movement was not an act of retaliation against Japan, but rather the path of a nation of aggression to save Japan, which undermines world peace by conducting a war of aggression. He planned to provide anti-war education to Japanese prisoners of war and use it as a driving force for the anti-war movement, and the method was widely practiced in the anti-war struggle of the Korean Volunteer Corps. In particular, he formed a special relationship with Kim Won-bong, the commander of the Korean Volunteer Corps, which was founded in Guilin(桂林) in October 1938, and cooperated with the anti-Japanese movement. They overcame the relationship between a colony and a colonized country and respected each other’s national identity as Japanese and Koreans. On that basis, they wanted to fight together against the injustice of the Japanese imperialist war of aggression. In December 1939, Kaji Wataru formed the Southwest Branch of the Japanese People’s Anti-War Alliance in China and began full-fledged anti- Japanese propaganda activities in cooperation with the Korean Volunteer Corps. Amid the conflict between the China Nationalist Party and the Communist Party, Wataru Kaji belonged to the communist circle, but he did not hesitate to choose to compromise with the Nationalist Party for the realization of the anti-Japanese movement. In this case, Kim Won-bong was no exception. Wataru Kaji stated that Japan would lose Asian friends in the future due to Japan’s war of aggression, and that it was the position of the Japanese people to oppose Japan’s war of aggression.