著者

松平 功 Isao Matsudaira 桃山学院大学チャプレン

出版者

桃山学院大学総合研究所

雑誌

桃山学院大学キリスト教論集 (ISSN:0286973X)

巻号頁・発行日

no.46, pp.55-84[含 英語文要旨], 2011

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Japan invaded Korea and annexed it 100 years ago. Although the official policy of the Japanese government was to treat the Koreans on an equal basis with the Japanese, this ideal was not translated into action. As the conquerors, the Japanese were thoroughly convinced of their superiority over the Koreans, and applied terrible policies and behavior toward them. Before World War II, Japan faced a severe shortage of manpower, and the lack of industrial material as well. The Japanese government tried to alleviate such a manpower shortage by importing Koreans. Before the annexation of Korea in 1910, only several hundred Korean residents in Japan were reported. In 1945, the number of Koreans in Japan was determined to be as many as 2,000,000. After World War II, about 500,000 Koreans remained in Japan. At the conclusion of the U.S.-Japan Peace Treaty in San Francisco in 1952, all Koreans in Japan lost Japanese citizenship, and their suffering increased through unfair policies. For many years, the Japanese Church ignored its duty to be the liberator of suffering Koreans. As an agent of the prewar imperial government, it became an oppressor for Koreans in Japan. However, after the 1970's the Japanese Church began to cooperate with the Korean Church in Japan and seriously worked for Korean minority in Japan. The Japanese Church is working to combat not only unfair employment discrimination against Korean-Japanese but also numerous other kinds of injustice practiced by the Japanese government. This paper will attempt to clarify the relationship between minority issues in the context of the Korean-Japanese and the resistance movements conducted by the Church and people in Japan. It will also provide prospective suggestions to resolve the issue of Korean discrimination in Japan from the point of view of Christian ethics.