Diaspora and Restoration of Self-ethics: Focused on Hoesung Lee, Zainichi Writer

This study aimed to analyze Zainichi diaspora as they were depicted in Hoesung Lee’s novel works and their narration from the perspective of ethical choices and their meanings. First, this study examined the expression of ‘violence’ in the families of 1st generation Korean residents in Japan and ‘resistance against violence’ that began as the spirit of resistance against oppression and discrimination in the Japanese colonial period. Second, the inner conflicts and victim mentality that Korean residents in Japan were forced to experience as a minority in the midst of social chaos in postwar Japan were examined. The expression of irrational will and the representation of animal factors were identified through the unethical acts of young Korean residents in Japan, and it was explained that they were set by writers in order to arouse rational will and human factors. Third, this study identified the relationship between their divided fatherland and the society of Korean residents in Japan, worries about personal identity, and the fact that democratic movements against dictatorship and military forces are ‘human factors’ manifestation of ‘resistance against violence,’ in other words, ‘human factors’ transformation from potentiality to actuality. Fourth, as the late 1980s was a turning point not only for the Korean Peninsula but also for the world, changes in the consciousness and thoughts of Zainichi writers as the diaspora were examined. This study also aimed to confirm that the choices of Zainichi diaspora within literary works were refashioning the diaspora as a new alternative to issues associated with the divided fatherland, dictatorship, and democratization.