The Illusion of “pure-blood” and the Rise of Mixed-Race: Focusing on Kim Nae-sung's Typhoon and Ando Sakan's Pirate Story: Karma of the South Seas

Abstract

The term “mixed race” is not currently used in South Korea. In Japan, Asahi Shimbun decided in January 2004 to avoid using the term “mixed-race child”. This is because “mixed race” is a term that sets boundaries between humans and otherizes them, and is not appropriate in this era of increasing globalization. The term “mixed race” first appeared in Korea during the colonial period, particularly around 1940. In this study, we will examine the reason and meaning behind the full-fledged emergence of the term “mixed race” in two novels that feature mixed-race children: “Typhoon” (1943) by Kane Raise and “Pirate Story of the South Seas” by Ando Sakan. (1939). Around 1940, there was a serious debate going on in Japan about “maintaining the purity of the race”, and Kim Nae-sung's “Typhoon” and Ahn Tou-hee's “Inferno in the South Sea” were very relevant to this era. It was a novel created in which the main character was a mixed-race man who aimed to build a mixed-race empire in this atmosphere. The exploration of the “mixed-race people” that appear in these two novels has an important meaning in investigating the substance of the pure-blood ideology that was spread by the Japanese Empire during the colonial period. In addition, the conclusions of these two novels are worth noting in order to clearly understand the origins of racial prejudice and discriminatory perceptions that still persist today.