전후 일본 남성들의 여성해방 인식 - 점령기 『婦人公論』의 언설을 중심으로 -

Abstract

In this article, I examined the male responses and understandings toward radical policies concerning liberation of women during the US Military Administration (1945〜1952) through the analysis of the writings by the male intellectuals published in Fujinkoron, a representative journal of Japanese feminism. Contrary to the expectation that Fujinkoron would actively support the policies for women’s rights, though the discourses in the journal basically agreed with women’s liberation and equality of both genders, most of them showed negative reactions to the immediate realization for such ideas, and they were pessimistic about what was to come because they simply believed it was too early. We can find a number of reactionary and conservative opinions about US postwar policies. Not only that, even though those intellectuals pictured American women as adorable objects, their interests were focused on the convenience of their housework which was without an adequate understanding toward the lives of American and Japanese women. Even those who consented to women’s liberation explained these phenomena with its connection to American patriotism, and hoped that women’s liberation in Japan would not deviate much from the traditional areas of womanhood, suggesting that they expected a limited or gradual changes, instead of fully supporting women’s liberation and equality between the sexes. Based on these findings, we may have clearer understanding toward the concerns and reactions of the Japanese people about the issues of women’s liberation during the period of US Military Administration.