다보하시 기요시(田保橋潔)의 근대한일관계사연구에 대한 검토

Abstract

Tabohashi Kiyoshi (田保橋潔) was newly appointed to a professor of KyungsungImperial University in 1927. He started researching on the history of internationalrelations of three countries in East Asia for a decade before the Sino-JapaneseWar broke out, and published a book titled “近代日支鮮關係の硏究” in 1930and a complemented book titled “近代日鮮關係の硏究” in 1940. The book “近代日鮮關係の硏究” is evaluated as the first empirical study that compiled the historyof war diplomacy of the Sino-Japanese War, ranging over not only the diplomatichistorical materials of Japan but also the materials of China and Joseon. The most outstanding point of the 『近代日鮮關係の硏究』 is the part thatarranged the diplomatic war among Russia, the U.K., China (Qing dynasty), andJapan on the verge of the Sino-Japanese War, by mobilizing the historical materialsof those countries to the maximum extent. The Japanese academia calls it as“war diplomacy” or “Mutsu (陸奧) diplomacy”. Tabohashi successfully organizedthis part by fully utilizing the materials of each country, especially the war diplomacybetween Mutsu and Li Hongzhang. In this book, Tabohashi mostly describes the process of Japanese invasion ofJoseon in an objective manner. However, that does not necessarily mean thathe describes it in a critical remark. He is well demonstrating that there was aconflict between the realistically negative theory of the Japanese Ministry of ForeignAffairs and the unreasonably strong view of the Japanese military over dispatchingtroops to Joseon in 1894. He also gave details about that the Japanese navyand army launched a preemptive attack on the Qing’s navy and army withoutany declaration of war. However, he was very critical of the politics of the Emperor Gojong, Queen, relatives, Daewongun, and the independent party. Therefore, he argued that itwas only natural for Japan to merge Joseon. He also argued that the rule ofthe Japanese Government-General of Korea on Joseon made a significant progressin public security, industrial development, and stabilization of living, and wrotethat the people of Joseon was expressing appreciations of the imperial grace ofJapanese Emperor. He had a seriously distorted awareness of the reality of thecolonized Joseon.