Twentieth International Conference on Diversity in Organizations, Communities & Nations

Abstract

There are about three hundred twenty thousand Zainichi Koreans (resident Koreans in Japan) who are the subjects and the descendants from the Korean Peninsula during 1910’s and around 1945. They were influenced by the Japanese colonial policy either directly or indirectly back then. The purpose of this study is to reveal the Japanese society which Zainichi Koreans live, by the analysis of how he positions himself in the narratives. I especially focused on two interview-narratives such as a fictitious dialogue with a person on the Japanese government side that justifies the policy of deprivation of Zainichi Korean Japanese nationality (1952) and the story of the first visit to Korea. Drawing on Positioning Analysis (Bamberg 1997, 2004）and the notion of “constructed dialogue” (Tannen 1995), I analyzed how he positioned himself and constructed his identity through narratives as an interactive activity. According to the result of this analysis, his identity of Zainichi Korean as a diaspora appears through his different aspects. The one was criticizing Japan for being suppressed and disdained, but then, looking at his friend of Zainichi Korean who tears on his first visit to Korea objectively. This can be said that the world which made him like this is the microcosm of the Japanese society. Although he has rebutted the Japanese government in the narratives, but it will not be heard in our real world. Therefore, this study attempts to reach the unheard voices of Zainichi Koreans to the world.