This article examines a multi-layered and complex "individual" who does not conform to a uniform image of perpetrator or ruler through a reinterpretation of Japanese writer Tanaka Hidemitsu's novel Olympus' Fruit and Drunk Boat. The Japanese writers w...
This article examines a multi-layered and complex "individual" who does not conform to a uniform image of perpetrator or ruler through a reinterpretation of Japanese writer Tanaka Hidemitsu's novel Olympus' Fruit and Drunk Boat. The Japanese writers who lived in Joseon want to reinterpret Tanaka Hidemitsu and his texts because if they see his literature as the text of the ruler, they cannot interpret all the multi-layered features of "individual," which can critically consider the colonialist system of imperial Japan. Tanaka Hidemitsu's text is still only read as the text of Imperial Japan as the ruler due to his activities in the Korean Writers Association and the fact that he created a novel on the theme of "Naisen Ittai(Integration of Japan and Korea)". However, a close examination of his text reveals the violence, war trauma, and problems confronting the Japanese in Japan. The author's experience with war trauma, the political and military violence of imperial Japan, and the criticism and resignation of those who support it all served as inspiration for the excellent novels Olympus' Fruit and Drunk Boat. To reconsider the end of the colonial period, this article sought to examine the complex and multi-layered inner side of an individual and human being before judging the Japanese as conscientious Japanese or bad Japanese.