Becoming a Responsible Subject: Responsibility and Guilt in South Korean and Japanese Post-War

• In Event: Colonial legacies and Cold War Trajectories: Contact Zones and Boundaries in Japanese and Korean Literature

Abstract

This paper examines the struggles of South Korean and Japanese intellectuals to answer for their behavior during the Korean War, as presented in Choi Inhun’s The Square(1961) and Hotta Yoshie’s The Loneliness in the Square(1951).
The ROK and Japan shared a problem within the postcolonial Cold War system: neither could act autonomously. The USA reorganized North East Asia immediately after the end of World War II. In this situation, the two states could not resolve their colonial legacy by themselves and failed to be subjects with responsibility.
Within the Cold War system, both the ROK and Japan suffered severe ideological conflict. South Korean and Japanese people were forced to choose certain political postures, especially during the Korean War. Choosing one side was a certain and convenient way to become a subject. However, political choices without autonomy could not be easily justified. Some South Korean and Japanese writers doubted the oughtness of political choice. Instead, they considered the importance of internality by creating characters in their fiction who experienced conflict between political engagement and their internality during the Korean War.
By comparing these literary narratives, this paper shows that acting with autonomy was difficult for South Korean and Japanese people. Additionally, it shows that feeling guilty was the only way for them to become subjects who take responsibility. These traits are closely bound up with the failure to resolve colonial legacies and other issues associated with the postcolonial Cold War system.

Author

• JinGyu Kim, Seoul National University