Postwar Compilations on the History of Governing by the Japanese Ruling Elites of Colonial Korea: The Case of Yūhō Kyōkai

Abstract

Postwar Japanese society sought to erase the memories of the nations colonial past after its defeat in the Asia-Pacific War. As colonial legacies lingered, however, including the problem of Korean residents in Japan and the outbreak of the Korean War, the so-called Korea problem (Chōsen mondai) emerged to the fore of Japanese society. It was against this backdrop that the former ruling elites of the colonial era organized into Yūhō Kyōkai (Friendly Nation Association) with the support of repatriated Japanese corporations and Korea-related firms. As the Fatherland Defense Corps of the League of Koreans in Japan (Choryŏn) sought to expand their influence after the outbreak of the Korean War, Japanese newspapers and magazines became fierce political battlegrounds on the issues of Korean residents and Japans colonial rule over Korea. Right-leaning newspapers and magazines began to publish malicious reports on Koreans in Japan, outwardly expressing their contempt and discrimination against them. In response, the leftist literary circles, composed of Korean residents, members of the New Japanese Literary Society, some conscientious Japanese and progressive intellectuals, and journalists began to criticize this approach to the problem. With this overall shift away from prewar militarism towards a cultural and pacifist Japan, the former officials of the Government General of Korea, who kept a relatively low profile under the US occupations censorship in postwar Japanese society, began to challenge the collective memory of oppression and exploitation constructed by the colonized. Instead, they disseminated their own memory of development and progress brought to Korea during colonial rule. With the support of Japans economic circles, including the Japan-Korean Economic Association, Yūhō Kyōkai established historical archives on the colonial era (Yūhō Collection, Historical Records on the Rule over Korea, Yūhō Series, etc.) in order to historicize the collective memories of colonizers. For the former officials of the Government General of Korea, the final agreement reached in 1965 for Korea-Japan normalization acted as a seal or a settlement of the issues surrounding Japans responsibilities for colonizing Korea. With this occasion and Japans rapid economic growth at the time, these collective memories of former colonial officials came to evolve into public memories, significantly influencing Japans postwar conception of the colonial era.