이방인 구조하기: 19세기 동아시아에서의 표류 선원에 대한 관점의 충돌

Abstract

Although the safety of castaway sailors was used to publicly justify interventions such as Commodore Perry’s arrival in Tokyo Bay in 1853 or the Japanese invasion of Formosa in 1874, the historiography of this period has searched for alternative explanations, such as commercial expansion or cultural chauvinism. This paper argues that the protection of castaways was more than a pretext for overseas military actions. Shipwrecks were a formidable problem of international relations in the period, demanding the creation of shared norms and mechanisms. In East Asia, European interlopers encountered a pre-existing system dedicated to regulating this problem that clashed with their own. Although both systems protected shipwrecked sailors, they were based on very different assumptions. Westerners made a conscious decision to subvert these indigenous institutions, even while benefiting from them. Ultimately, this struggle over the treatment and repatriation of shipwrecked sailors was a key component of imperialism.