일제 말기 한국광복군 여성대원들의 활동 양상

Abstract

This study deals with the Korean Women’s Independence Army. It notes that the social background of the women who joined the Korean Independence Army was diverse. Many of them were the family members or wives of the participants in the independence movement, the women who went into exile away from the oppression of the Japanese police and those who worked once in a Kisaeng house. The women enlisted in the Army with various motivations. Some thought of the enlistment as a way to enhance women’s rights, while others were drawn to the Army with the death of the family members by the Japanese. Among them Oh Kwang-Sim and Ji Bock-Young were relatively in high ranks in the Army. They exclaimed “Who can deprive us of the equal rights if we boast to show men’s capacity and character and if we work and bleed like men for the mother country?” and participated actively in the services in the front and the rear as male members did. The women who joined hands with men managed to finish military training and exercises, participated in the propaganda campaigns and recruitment activities, and shared in strategical secret services for the Korean-American joint military work. However, the women members of the Army could not escape from the stereotyped role of women at the time because they were given extra work that women were supposed to do, such as sewing, laundering and nursing activities.