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The Japanese Government-General of Joseon’s Policy of “Naeseon Ilche” and “Donggeundongjo-ron”

  • Journal of Humanities
  • 2014, (54), pp.87-122
  • Publisher : Institute for Humanities
  • Research Area : Humanities > Other Humanities
  • Received : June 27, 2014
  • Accepted : August 7, 2014

Jang, Sin 1

1성균관대학교

Candidate

ABSTRACT

This paper has examined the relations between the JapaneseGovernment-General’s two major policies of assimilation: “naeseon ilche” (內鮮一體) and “donggeundongjo-ron” (同根同祖論). The former idea maintains that“Japan and Korea are one entity,” while the latter, a.k.a. “ilseon-dongjo-ron”suggests an idea that the origin of ancient Japan and Joseon is the same. “Donggeundongjo-ron” emerged as one of the major measures of “naeseonilche” which was the core task the colonial policy of subjecting Joseon toJapan. Those who strongly suggested “donggeundongjo-ron” included: JapaneseGovernor-general Chiro Minami; Tokisaburo Shiobara, director of theEducational Affairs Bureau; and Governor-general Kuniaki Koiso. Professors ofKeijo Imperial University as well as Japan’s history circles, however, did notagree with the opinions. The Japanese academic community argued that mythshould not be interpreted as history. “Donggeundongjo-ron” was propagated into Joseon in two categories. First,the relation between Japan and Joseon in hisotry was interpreted andpublicized as “the history of ‘naeseon ilche.’” Since the era ofSusanoo-no-Mikoto —the Shinto god of the sea and storms — a lot of people or events have been introduced as historical evidences of “naeseon ilche.”Such a proposal was distributed through the bulletins published by theJapanese Government-General of Joseon. Second, Japan reinterpreted thehistorical relations between Joseon and Japan not as “the history of ‘naeseonilche’” but as “the history that will become ‘naeseon ilche,’” thus regardingits occupation of Joseon as the historical beginning of “naeseon ilche.” Such aview was raised by the Educational Affairs Bureau in charge of publishinghistory textbooks and received a far-reaching response from the Japanesebureaucracy. Although “donggeundongjo-ron” failed to receive favorable responses fromboth the Japanese academic circles and the Japanese Government-General, it,nevertheless, was distributed through the press and the educational fieldsunder the oppression from the governor-generals who had the distorted viewsof history. As “donggeundongjo-ron” was a fabricated history based onbeliefs, however, it failed to persuade the people of Joseon. With the defeatof Japan at the end of World War II, “donggeundongjo-ron,” along with“naeseon ilche,” disappeared like a mirage.

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