한국에서 ‘반일(反日)’ 민족주의 담론의 지속 과정에 관한 연구 : 국사 교과서의 전근대 일본 관계 기사를 중심으로

Abstract

This article analyzes a wide range of articles about pre-modern Korea-Japan relations in South Korean national history textbooks, which have played an important role in the persistence of anti-Japanese nationalist discourse in South Korea. It proposes a perspective necessary for a more objective understanding of this relationship, by analyzing the contents, characteristics, and issues with these previous writings. Regarding this pre-modern relationship between Korea and Japan, South Korean national history textbooks include articles on the following incidents: the Japanese invasion of Silla and support for the revival of Baekje; the cultural transmission to Japan by the three ancient Korean kingdoms; the Mongolian mobilization of Goryeo for the Mongolian Invasion of Japan; Japanese raiders’ invasion of Goryeo during the late Goryeo period; conflicts and reconciliation between Joseon and Japan during the early Joseon period; the 1592 Japanese Invasion of Korea; Joseon’s mission to Japan; and An Yong-bok’s activities around Dokdo Island. Among these highly varied writings, those dealing with Japanese aggression and invasions encourage students to develop anti-Japanese sentiments, while articles about cultural transmissions by Koreans encourage Korean student to have a sense of superiority over Japan. Through these textbooks, Korean students come to view Japan as an ungrateful country— a land that learned advanced civilization from Korea and yet took every opportunity to invade and exploit Korea. As a result, these national history textbooks play a key role as conduits of anti-Japanese sentiment among Korean students. In fact, while it might seem quite reasonable that many articles about pre-modern Korea-Japan relations paint Japan as typically an aggressor, they contain a significant degree of distortion originating from an ultra-nationalist perspective— ignoring the way that pre-modern East Asians, including Koreans and Japanese, understood themselves to be a part of a continuum. Thus, in order to describe pre-modern Korea-Japan relations objectively, we need to rectify this nationbased, or modern nationalist perspective, and instead approach the entirety of East Asia as a unit, as East Asians themselves understood their world.