Kang Yuni, “In the Shadow of Sōshi Kaimei: Imposed and Adopted Names in Yū Miri’s The End of August”

Excerpt from Translator’s Introduction:

In the history of Zainichi critical discourse on names, passing, and sōshi kaimei (lit. “establishing family names and changing given names”), the dominant lens on these questions has been that of the ethnonation. As such, the whole framework around the use of ethnic names within the Zainichi community is built on an implicit binary of passing versus active ethnic identification. This binary is superimposed onto the morally charged dichotomy of collaboration versus resistance. That is, the use of a tsūmei (lit. “passing name,” understood to be a Japanese name) is read as a form of tacit acquiescence to Japanese rule—either in the colonial past or within present-day Japanese society—while the honmyō sengen (lit. “declaration of one’s real name”) is assumed to be a liberating act of resistance.

As Kang argues, the key insight that is missed by both of these oversimplifications is that the value of a name cannot be measured in terms of ethnic consciousness alone. Rather, names function as markers not only of ethnicity but also of a whole set of identities and relations. Indeed, part of what is so brilliant about Kang’s reading is that it unpacks the gendered inequities of Japanese naming policies, from sōshi kaimei to current and historical debates on separate surnames for married couples (fūfu bessei). Entangled as such problems of gender are with the koseki family registry system, they are themselves ethnic issues. In the same way, the ethnonational oppression of the colonial era “robbing of names,” as sōshi kaimei is popularly remembered, was itself inextricable from gender.