식민지 기억과 분단: 1940년 양구군 해안면 소학교 낙서사건을 사례로

Abstract

After liberation In 1945, memories of the message incident at Mae-dong Elementary School in Yanggu-gun, Gangwon-do, became classified into threetypes. The first type was referred to as the "silent" period, before the message incident becamepublic until the middle of the 1970s. After liberation, the colonial memories thathad honored anti-Japanese acts and criticized pro-Japanese acts could not last under thefailing decolonized political reforms. The silence or delay of memories reflected the ColdWar and division in the Korean peninsula. The second type of memory was classified asbeginning after 1977, in which time the court's written judgment was discovered andpublished in texts and history books. Since then, the related teacher was recognized as independencepatriot and students as leading figures in the anti-Japanese history of theregion. However, this second type of memory had two characteristics. One is referred to asthe survivor’s appropriation of memory, wherein it is doubtful whether memories correspondto actual facts. The other is called colonial traces. Ironically, confirming an independencemovement through texts, such as the ones created by Japanese powers whosuppressed the movement, reintroduced the Japanese perspective which explained on theincident by focusing on the teacher and his anti-Japanese teachings. The third type ofmemory, based on newly discovered records of the Prosecutor's Office, was formed afterthe publication of reinterpreted history books in 2013 and focused on Kim Chang-hwanand his friends. As Kim Chang-hwan ― the man responsible for putting the message upon the school ― gained attention, his memory was reignited among the people and hisbereaved family called upon the government to recognize him as an independence patriot. However, the government withheld the request because of his suspicious activities duringthe Korean War. This tells us that the current government maintains its provincial identityrooted in the prevalence of conservative powers. Thus, the shadow of the Cold Warcan still be found deep within the colonial memories of South Koreans.