일본인과 ‘일본회귀’: 아사노 아키라(浅野晁)의 전향과 조선의 소거

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to discuss the intellectual and spiritual site to which the Japanese reverted when they ‘returned to Japanese Nationalism’ (Nihon Kaiki) in the context of Akira Asano, the Japanese literary critic and poet who was the founder and primary proponent of the most significant nationalist ideology during the Greater East Asia War. First, this paper describes the process of Asano abandoning his communist philosophy in the 1930s and of helping Tenshin Okakura, who was mostly unknown in Japan at that time, to become the pioneer of Pan-Asianism. By comparing this process with the views on Okakura of other art researchers and followers of the philosophy of Nihon Romanha, this paper also sheds light on how Asano achieved a ‘return to Japanese Nationalism’ by simply interpreting Okakura’s expression “Asia is one” as a prophecy of Japanese victory in the Greater East Asia War. Based on Asano’s experiences on Java island in 1942, and on the differences between Okakura and his teacher Fenollosa’s views on Korean culture, this paper shows that Asano’s ‘return to Japanese Nationalism’ constituted the abandoning of his original views on Korea under Japanese rule. Furthermore, the forced assimilation and marginalisation of Korean culture became the key to Asano’s renewed Japanese nationalism. 　 Lastly, left-wing Japanese literary scholars, who condemned Asano after Japan lost the war, continue to look down on countries that were under Japanese rule, such as Korea. This paper challenges this perspective and offers reasons for Japanese researchers to learn more from Korean research on tenkō and from those who sympathize with Japan’s perspective.