한국소설과 재일조선인 귀국사업 - 체제의 의도와 주체의 의지 사이

Abstract

The purpose of this paper was to review how South Korean novels dealt with homecoming projects by Koreans in Japan. <Why did the cormorants go to the sea?> by Lee Seong-Ah is the first South Korean novel that earnestly portrayed the issue of homecoming among Koreans in Japan. In this novel, a Korean novelist examines the lives of Koreans in Japan by taking and reading the records of Korean residents in Japan who returned home and Jochongnyeon(the pro-North Korean residents’ league in Japan) activists. Between three countries of Japan, North Korea, and South Korea, the South Korean novelist’s observations are linked to the recorders’ locations. This novel focuses on the second homecoming project of Koreans in Japan since 1971. Different situations are found between the first homecoming project in 1959 when information on North Korea was definitely lacking and the second homecoming project since 1971. However, Jochongnyeon activists still made idealistic claims and the “Hwa-ja” does the same. On the other hand, the life of “Sora” who returned to North Korea shows the end of fantasy. Although Sora’s family left for North Korea dreaming of a society without discrimination, North Korea also does not treat them humanely. The North Korean system does not allow individuals to live according to their own will, and the self should instead reconfirm their own identity while constantly confronting the system. In this process, individuals whose doubts about the system are revealed are endangered. Therefore, this process remains only secret records. Between the three countries, the South Korean novelist Jun realizes that South Korea is not irrelevant to these observed individuals. Sora and her family chose homecoming to their dream, not to the reality, and the conclusion of their choice eventually ends in tragedy. The records of Sora and the narrator are delivered to Mio and Jun, which leads to the awareness of nationality, ethnicity, division, and diaspora. South Korea’s position in relation to homecoming projects by Koreans in Japan continued to be opposition to repatriation to North Korea, anti-Japanese, and anti-communist. An important matter in South Korea was whether Koreans in Japan can be used for political power, but not their reality itself. Koreans in Japan were completely otherized objects. In this literary work, “Jun”, who is a narrator as well as an observer, symbolically shows this South Korean attitude and leads to a self-examination on historical recognition.