식민지 지식인의 여행과 제국의 도시 ‘도쿄’: 1925~1936

Abstract

This paper aims to investigate the relationship between imperial space and the colonized self-identity through a travel diary to Tokyo, which described what the intellectuals from Joseon experienced in Tokyo after the Great Kanto Earthquake. During the early modern times and since the great earthquake, the characteristics of a trip to Tokyoby intellectuals form Joseon shifted from discourse to sightseeing. In other words, they visited Tokyowith a goal of learning modern civilization. Since the great earthquake, however, most of them went to the new metropolis for sightseeing. After being transformed into a huge consumer city, Tokyo started to be viewed differently. At the capital of the Japanese Empire, the colonized subject was exposed to the imperial perspective. Due to strong consumption culture of Tokyo at that time, however, this kind of point of view made the empire-colony relationship more complicated. In fact, the binary relation between imperial Japanand colony Joseon started to crack because the colonized started to realize their identity as a subject of consumption culture and international subject. In other words, the consciousness as a colonized subject has diversified. This diversification has been confirmed through Lee Tae-joon, Choi Jae-seo and Ahn Jae-hong. Even though it could be classified into imperial city and consumption city, no one has ever denied the centrality of Tokyo in terms of politics and economy. As a result, the selective attitude (selective imitation on the development of Tokyo or selective luring attitude) includes both positive and negative attitudes. Therefore, they have shown a strong opposition towards the empire and willingness to imitate it at the same time. Because Tokyo saw travelers as consumers at that time, intellectuals from Joseon was able to forget their identity as the colonized for the time being. In other words, their social position shifted from the observed as the colonized to the observer in Tokyo. Therefore, they were able to establish their identity in Tokyo, which makes their trip to Tokyo from right after the Great Kanto Earthquake to right before the Second Sino-Japanese War in 1937 meaningful.