교토의 재일조선인과 히가시구조

Abstract

Kyoto is one of Japan’s popular tourist cities and is loved by people all over the world. Meanwhile, Kyoto took its present form of a city with the arrival of modern times. At the beginning of that period, Kyoto required a substantial labor force to create a urban setup, ‘a park city’. Besides, Kyoto’s representative textile industry such as Kyoyuzen Dyeing and Nishijin Fabrics also needs hard and patient endeavors. Early in the Japanese colonial rule, many Koreans deprived of their lands were forced to immigrate to Japan and filled up the shortage of Japanese labor. But these Koreans failed to be granted the proper legal status after the Liberation of Korea and came to be alienated from Japanese mainstream society and became the urban residents of the lower classes. Japan can hardly be free from responsibility either for the historical background of a wave of immigration of Zainichi into Japan or for the division of Korea into north and south. However, the recent Hate Speech Rallies targeting Zainichi are a good example displaying a lack of knowledge as well as a sense of responsibility in Japanese society concerning colonial rule and the division of Korea. Under these circumstances, the Japanese court’s verdict of guilty on demonstration of Zaitokukai at Kyoto Chosen Daiichi Elementary School in 2014 carries great significance as the first case of Japanese court to define Hate Speech as racial discrimination. In this study I tried to trace the lives of the past and the present of Zainichi who substantially contributed to create Kyoto as its present form of cultural city. Behind the splendid scene of cultural city Kyoto, there are still many Korean residents alienated and discriminated against. The reevaluation on their contribution is urgently needed.