Tozaburo Ono and Fujinagata shipyard —with a focus on meeting Koreans—

Overview

This study examines the experiences of poet Tozaburo Ono during his conscription to the Fujinagata Shipyard in Osaka from July 1943 for approximately one and a half years (ending around late 1944 or early 1945). During this period, Ono oversaw the forced mobilization of Korean youth from various regions and helped with their housing arrangements. The research positions Ono's encounters with these forcibly mobilized workers as central to understanding his postwar poetic development, arguing against the prevailing historiographical emphasis on Ono's influence on other poets such as Kim Sijong.

Methods and approach

The study employs close examination of Ono's poetic works and biographical documentation from his wartime conscription and postwar career. The research traces the relationship between Ono's direct experiences with forcibly mobilized Korean workers at the shipyard and the thematic and philosophical development evident in his subsequent poetry. The analysis reconstructs Ono's affective and intellectual responses to witnessing coercive labor conditions and positions these encounters within his broader philosophical worldview.

Results

The analysis reveals that Ono developed profound feelings of longing and friendship toward the Korean workers he encountered, sentiments he retained with pride in the postwar period. His experiences witnessed traumatic wartime conditions that generated feelings of remorse and self-loathing. Postwar poetic works demonstrate substantive representation of the forcibly mobilized Koreans he met, suggesting that these encounters functioned as generative experiences that shaped his aesthetic vision. The research indicates that Ono's poetry served to give voice to those rendered voiceless—the forcibly mobilized workers unable to articulate their own experiences.

Implications

The findings challenge existing Japanese research historiography that frames Kim Sijong's poetic development primarily through the influence of Ono's aesthetic theories. Instead, the study posits that Ono's own worldview was itself significantly reshaped through encounters with forcibly mobilized Korean workers, who functioned as catalysts for his philosophical and poetic evolution. This reframing positions the relationship between Ono and the Korean workers as reciprocally formative rather than unidirectional. The research suggests that examination of wartime forced labor experiences and their subsequent representation in postwar cultural production offers substantive insight into how immediate historical trauma and ethical reckoning become inscribed in literary form. The study contributes to understanding mechanisms through which witness to coercive labor systems informed modern Japanese poetic consciousness.