1950~1960년대 일본의 ‘식민지배 미화론’ 주장과 한국 역사학계의 동향

The opinion of the “Colonial beautification theory” in Japan in the 1950s-1960s and the response of the Korean historical academia

해방 후 한국의 일본 ‘식민지 미화론’에 대응은 1953년 10월 제3차 한일회담 당시 일본 측 수석대표인 구보타의 “36년간의 일본의 한국 강제 점령은 한국민에 유익하였다”라는 발언이 나온 이후부터라고 본다. 구보타의발언은 1980년대 불거진 ‘식민지근대화론’과 맥을 같이 한다. 이는 한일회담 당시 한일 양국의 재산 청구권 문제로 불거졌지만, 일본의 한국 식민 지배에 대한 인식이기도 하다. 하지만 한국의 역사학계는 해방 직후부터일제의 식민정책에 주목하지 않았다. 당시 한국 역사학자들은 한국 현대 사를 역사로 인정하지 않는 분위기였다. 더욱이 당시 사료가 수집, 정리되지 않았으며, 이를 전문으로 연구할 연구자가 거의 없었다. 1950년대 중반부터 한국 역사학계의 학자들 가운데 일제의 ‘시혜론’을 비판하기 위한 ‘수탈론’이 주장하기 시작하였다. 그 뒤 1965년 한일수교를 전후로 일제의 식민지배 연구는 식민사학의 문제점을 극복하는 방향으로 나아갔다. 특히 ‘정체성론’에 대한 비판적인글들이 나오기 시작했다. ‘정체성론’이란 한국사회의 내재적 발전을 부정 하는 논리로, 한국은 근대사회로 이행하는데 필수적인 봉건사회가 형성하지 못하여 사회·경제적으로 낙후된 상태를 벗어나지 못했다는 논리이다. 따라서 일본은 합법적으로 조선을 ‘병합’했으며, 일본의 통치로 한국은 비로소 근대화와 산업화를 이룩할 수 있었다고 주장한다. 즉, 일본의 식민지 지배가 조선의 자생적인 근대화 과정을 짓밟은 것이 아니라 오히려 근대 화를 앞당기고 알차게 만들었다고 하는 ‘식민지 근대화론’으로 이어지지만, 이는 1980년대에 들어서 한국 역사학계로부터 거센 비판을 받고 있다.

After the liberation, the logic of the Japanese emperor s colonial rule was that at the time of the third Korea-Japan meeting in October 1953, Kubota(久保田), the chief representative of the Japanese side, said, 36 years of Japan s forced occupation of Korea was beneficial to the Korean people. Look researched since the remarks came out. Kubota s delusions are in line with the theory of Colonial Modernity that emerged in the 1980s. This surfaced at the time of the Korea-Japan talks due to the issue of property claims between Korea and Japan, but there is also recognition of Japan s colonial rule in Korea. However, the Korean history academia was not immediately researched on Japanese colonial policy. Existing historians did not recognize modern history as history, but the historical materials of that time were not collected and organized, and few researchers specialized in studying this. Historians studies of Japanese colonial rule since the mid-1950s have led to the emergence of a deprivation theory to criticize the so-called grace theory. It clarified the substance of the land survey project promoted in the 1910s, and concluded that it was ultimately for Japan to seize. Then, before and after the normalization of diplomatic relations between Japan and Korea in 1965, research on Japanese colonial rule proceeded to overcome the problems of colonial history. In particular, critical texts on Stagflation theory began to appear. The Stagflation theory is a logic that denies the intrinsic development of Korean society, and it is the logic that Korea has not escaped from a socially and economically backward state because a feudal society, which is essential for transitioning to a modern society, did not form. Therefore, Japan legally annexes Korea, claiming that Korea was the first to achieve modernization and industrialization under Japanese rule. In other words, it leads to the theory of Colonial beautification theory that Japan s colonial rule did not trample the process of Korea s self-sustaining modernization, but rather advanced and enriched it. Since the mid-1960s to refute the theory of identity, Korean historians have proposed the theory of implicit development, and to prove this, research papers such as the theory of elements of capitalism and the Korean historical periodization have been poured out. This also served as an opportunity to overcome another issue of colonial history, the theory of Heteronomy. This is also because it is the logic that Korea has made positive efforts for modernization since the late of Chosun Dinasty. As a result, the Korean historical system gradually overcame the Japanese Colonial beautification theory theory.