히노 아시헤이의 ‘있는 그대로의 진실’과 보고문학

Abstract

This paper analyzes the limitations of Hino Ashihei's reportage literature, focusing on his ‘Military Trilogy,’ particularly Barley and Soldiers and Earth and Soldiers. Hino Ashihei's ‘Military Trilogy’ has been both praised for its affection towards the common people and its humanism, while also being more generally criticized as a work of national policy literature. However, at this point, it is necessary to more closely examine the dual stance Hino Ashihei adopts. On one hand, Hino maintains a sense of distance from his subjects from a romantic and intellectual perspective, while on the other hand, he undergoes a process of identification with the group that shares the ‘truth’ based on experience, realism, and emotion. This is repeatedly confirmed in Hino Ashihei's writing, which continuously emphasizes the ‘truth as it is.’ Through the cognitive circuit that transforms personal experiences and emotions into a universal ‘truth,’ Hino comes to believe in the logic of the group as ‘truth.’ That was also what was demanded of literature (and writers) in the literary field of that time. This is also evident in Hino's postwar behavior, where he did not reflect on his wrongdoings even after becoming a cultural war criminal. Hino's blind faith, where personal emotions combined with humanism and shared sentiments come to occupy the place of ‘truth,’ operates as an internal mechanism that assimilates the individual into the group as a half-baked humanism.