The 1923 Kanto Massacre, the Gibeonites in 2 Samuel 21, and Reinscribing Homo Sacer through a Hermeneutics of Mnemonic Solidarity

precis: This essay examines the 1923 Kanto Massacre of Koreans in Japan alongside the biblical narrative of the Gibeonites through a hermeneutics of "mnemonic solidarity" informed by postcolonial studies. Both narratives of catastrophe, though separated by time and tradition, reveal how sovereign powers construct the Other, enabling violence under states of exception—whether through martial law or divine command. Drawing on Hee-Jin Jeong's critique of linear, progress-oriented historiography, this study frames catastrophe not as a one-time event to be resolved by political actors but as a site of memory work that disrupts dominant temporalities and foregrounds silenced voices. Ultimately, it argues that the inclusion of the Gibeonites' story in the canonized scripture calls for an unfinished interpretation attentive to a "temporality of anticipation," one that reimagines overlapping suffering between text and life.