일본 현대사에서 본 昭和天皇의 전쟁책임 -봉인, 미화, 왜곡과 망각의 역사인식-

Abstract

This research, based on the recognition that the present problems in Japanese’s perception of history root in the matter of Syouwa-Tennou’s responsibility for the war, aims to examine how it has been understood in postwar Japan through the interaction of eruption, concealment, beautification and distortion. In the level of the recent research into Japanese modern and contemporary history, Syouwa-Tennou’s responsibility for the war has already become popular opinion as common sense. Nevertheless, not only the distortion of history by concealing it and even beautifying him as a pacifist has continued after his death, but also the emperor’s responsibility for the war itself has been forgotten nowadays. In that sense, the meaning of discussing his responsibility for the war after four and a half centuries after his death lies in making an incision into and shedding light on the sealed and concealed part of the perception of history which has not been cleared off yet. In this research, based on this awareness of the problem, how Japanese have understood this problem of the emperor’s responsibility for the war, and how the mechanism and concealment hindering subjective consciousness-raising of it has been working behind the perception were investigated in the flow of the postwar history. With regard to Japanese’s recognition of the emperor’s responsibility for the war, as the survey shows, a majority of people are acknowledging it in one form or another. Yet, the repetitive and consistent “distortion of history” from the defeat in the war to today in order to conceal the history has prevented this problem from being intensified and discussed. As far as Syouwa-Tennou’s responsibility for the war is concealed and even beautified like this, it will be difficult to expect for the distorted perception of history in Japan to be changed fundamentally.