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In Search of Neutrality-Oriented Zainichi History: A Post-war History of Cho Seung-Bog, a Korean from Manchuria

  • Journal of Humanities, Seoul National University
  • 2022, 79(4), pp.249-282
  • DOI : 10.17326/jhsnu.79.4.202211.249
  • Publisher : Institute of Humanities, Seoul National University
  • Research Area : Humanities > Other Humanities
  • Received : October 7, 2022
  • Accepted : November 8, 2022
  • Published : November 29, 2022

KYOUNGHWA LIM 1

1중앙대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

Usually, post-war Zainichi history tends to be described in terms of the ideological polarization between pro-South Korean Mindan and proNorth Korean Chongryŏn. This confrontational structure crystallized soon after Liberation, and has not significantly changed even into the present day, despite the general weakening of the Korean diasporic organizations’ influence in Japan. However, there were continuous attempts to overcome this institutionalized confrontation – in fact, these attempts started also right after the Liberation. This paper will deal with one such attempt, discernable in the post-Liberation activities of Cho Seung-bog (1922-2012). Born in Manchuria, educated in Japan and later famous as a Sweden-based scholar of East Asian languages and unification activist, Cho is deeply related also to Zainichi society’s history. Cho resided in Japan for 9 years, from the time he was enrolled at the First High School in 1939 and until he, as a graduate of Tokyo University, left for America in 1948. Having started by studying for career advancement, Cho ended up as an activist dreaming of building an ideal democratic society in united Korea. Active in the Zainichi movement since 1945, Cho continuously liaised with the Zainichi milieu even after settling in Sweden. As not an out- and in-sider in Zainichi society, he remained a boundary personality tightly related to it even after leaving it. His memoirs, written in the 1990s, reveal his special identity of a Manchurianborn Korean, and a number of unique experiences it entailed. One of these experiences was the history of the Zainichi community, and his attempts to overcome the confrontation inside it, viewed from a perspective of a boundary-placed participant-observer. This paper, based on his memoirs, attempts to reconstruct the post-1939 history of Zainichi community as depicted by Cho, and searches his activities for the roots of Zainichi’s quest for neutrality amidst the national division system.

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This paper was written with support from the National Research Foundation of Korea.
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