• 한일민족문제연구
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• 제35호
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• pp.107-144
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• 2018

This paper summarizes the genealogy of post-war Zainichi magazines in Japan until 1959 and examines their meaning in the context of magazine history in Japan. The purpose of this paper is to prepare the framework to view characteristics of Zainichi magazines in Japan after the war until the present from a continuous and comprehensive perspective. Zainichi, who were left behind in Japan after the war began to project diverse aspects of their lives onto magazines. Despite the poor publishing environment, censorship of GHQ, shortage of writers and financial limitations, the Zainichi society did not give up the public sphere of magazines. The confusion in this time period acted as an element to expose limitations of Zainichi magazines in Japan. Most of magazines published in 1940s and 50s had to focus on political propaganda within the political frame, and many of such magazines were only published for a short term. In other words, it is ambiguous to define the majority of them as 'magazines' and a considerable number of them cannot even confirm the existence, making it difficult to examine the whole picture of magazines from this period. However, recently excavated materials indicate that most of Zainichi magazines in Japan attempted to reflect the reality of the Zainichi society in various ways, though they were confined in the political frame. The process in which language of magazines was changed from Korean language to Japanese and then again to Korean language suggests that Zainichi magazines in Japan tried to consistently express their existence in 'ethnicity,' 'homeland' and beyond, mediated by 'politics' and 'culture.' Moreover, the experience of seeking for the possibility of Zainichi culture in Japan from the flow of cultural movements in Japan during 1950s is an experience of seeking for a popular 'expression' that overcomes the political conflict of homeland. This reveals the diversity the Zainichi society to occur afterwards. A more precise study on individual magazines published during this period would be necessary in the future.