청일, 러일전쟁기의 일본기독교와 조선인식에 관한 연구

Abstract

In Japanese Christianity, the First Sino-Japanese War was considered a “JustWar” (Gisen, 義戦) that led Chosun to civilization by achieving independenceand keeping the peace in the East as well as maintaining people’s safety inJapan. By aggressively cooperating with the war, therefore, Christians tried tojustify naturalizing their religion in Japan based on the argument that it wasnot anti-national but rather helpful to the nation. Furthermore, this purposebecame more obvious at the time of the Russo-Japanese War, and it led themto serve the nation faithfully in its political objectives; by extension, theyadvocated for “the necessity of the war” and appreciated its importance. It might be true to say that Christians were successful in acquiring “citizenship”to some degree through their participation in the First Sino-Japanese War andthe Russo-Japanese War. Japanese Christians, however, lost all perspectiveabout criticism of their society and resistance against injustice; rather, theyplayed the role of loyal subjects in the process of divinizing the emperor andabsolutizing his authority, Tennosei(天皇制), which is one of the most importantattributes of Japanese Christianity.