The emergence and development of Zainichi Korean media in post-war Japan: focused on the topography of magazines from 1945 to 1979 @ Issue contents

This article explores the magazines published by ethnic Koreans in Japan from 1945 to 1979. After Japan’s defeat in World War II, Korean residents in Japan who could not return to their home country began to project various aspects of their life through the medium of magazines. In the 1940s and 1950s, the majority of ethnic Koreans in Japan supported socialist ideology. Their relationship with the United States, which liberated them from Japanese imperialism, rapidly deteriorated as the Korean Peninsula became the stage for Cold War confrontation. The core of the Korean community in Japan was affiliated with left-wing organizations. The poor publishing environment of the 1940s and 1950s, the censorship of the GHQ, the lack of magazine writers, and economic hardship—all these factors contributed to attracting ethnic Koreans living in Japan to Korean organizations. The magazines, many of which were organs of those very organizations, started out by accommodating the urgent and diverse needs of the Korean community in Japan. Following the Korea-Japan Treaty in the 1960s, there was a change in the question of national identity of ethnic Koreans in Japan, which had been determined so far only in relation to North Korea. This political event, which shook the Korean community in Japan, brought attention back to the political sphere, and various Korean magazines published at this time had to focus on these concerns. In the 1970s, a great change came to the Korean community in Japan. As the second and third generations of ethnic Koreans came to account for a large proportion of the population, the change in the political discourse and cultural consciousness within the Korean community in Japan accelerated. Naturally, as with the notions of “national identity” and “homeland,” issues surrounding everyday life and social reality emerged as important factors for Koreans in Japan. These aspects are well represented in the Korean magazines published in this period.