해방 후 공공성을 둘러싼 위기 담론 속 소거된 부랑자와 공공공간의 정화

Abstract

The liberation space was a special environment exposed to colonial rule for a long time. It was a truly poor situation that had been left unattended for 36 years of Japanese colonial rule. The aftermath of colonial rule appeared as a comprehensive problematic situation in politics, economy, and society and the spread of poverty caused by the legacy of colonial agricultural exploitation had negative interaction in tandem with the emergence of the vagabond. With the emergence of modern society, vagabond has been recognized as a hazardous risk that must be isolated from society, rather than as a subject to state protection. In particular, among the vagabonds, the biggest victim was Hansen’s disease patient. The Vagabond Hansen’s disease patient issue was an incident in which the state power directly intervened in an individual’s body, of which nature itself was also coercive and violent. From the Japanese colonial era, the Vagabond Hansen’s disease patients were consistently treated with thorough exclusion and isolation from society. After liberation, the policy of the US military government was not substantially different. Hansen’s disease was still recognized only as an abhorrent infectious disease, and even the policy authorities regarded it as a serious threat to the usual maintenance and reproduction of social order. Accordingly, the US Military Government made it a priority to secure the foundation of public support for the governing system to be established in the future by resolving fear, hatred, and dirt in society. The U.S. military government attempted to approach the goal of governance by resummoning non-citizens during the Japanese colonial era and treating vagabond, which was perceived as a threat, in public space. In the process, as a governing mechanism to gain trust from the people, discriminatory management, which was a thorough exclusion of non-citizens and acquisition, was maintained. Patients with Hansen’s disease, who were stigmatized as non-citizens, were gradually eliminated from public spaces, and the boundary between citizens and non-citizens became more solid as coercion was added to the quarantine policy imposed on non-citizens. This study aimed to reveal the historical meaning implied in the US military government’s ruling strategy reflected in the goal of completing the occupation and rule of South Korea.