Wokou: Living as Shadows

The wokou cannot be defined. The term has been abused so thoroughly, each group reflecting its own perspective, that we no longer even know what it means. Research into the true identity of the wokou may only become possible after Korea, China, and Japan have completely lost their present-day identities. As a result, the very question of how the wokou have been perceived has itself become a research subject in the epistemology of history. How should history be handled? In order to answer this question, the work of confronting that which lies at the very bottom of this world, like the wokou, is meaningful in itself. For just as we today can call the wokou of the past by whatever name we choose, those who come after us will be able to call us of the present by whatever name they choose.

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