동북아역사재단 2023년 05월호 뉴스레터
- Associate Professor Kim Ju-yong, Korean Chinese Relations Institute, Wonkwang University
The publication of “History of Japanese Invasion” by the Northeast Asian History Foundation issues a compilation of systematical research on the Japanese invasions of the Korean peninsula and Japanese imperialism in detail. The compilation written by academic experts is composed of data, research, and reading materials, and divided into four categories: politics, economy, society, and culture. Through the History of Japanese Invasion Series, we introduce our readers a book among the compilation.
Imaginary and real Manchuria
The defeat of the Japanese Empire and Korea’s liberation in August 1945 was an event where Koreans in Manchuria had to decide a fork in the road about their new life. About 1 million Koreans residing in northeast China before the liberation returned to the Korean peninsula while others remained and obtained Chinese citizenship(they are referred to as Joseonjok or ethnic Koreans in China) in 1952. Joseonjok began to establish themselves as members of the community in each industrial site of Korea after the establishment of Korean-Chinese diplomatic relations in 1992. Joseonjok in Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture(abbreviated to Yanbian) has already settled into Korean society for more than 30 years. Their culture is a medium that narrows the differences between Korea and China.
Manchuria was a region that continued to be a center and margin throughout history. It was highlighted as a place with the “spirit of Goguryeo” to Koreans from ancient to modern times amid the formation and extinction of dynasties and a modern nation. To the Japanese, it was a place where they once achieved the “dream of an Empire.” In Chinese history, Manchuria was where minor ethnic groups ascended and acknowledged and emphasized as the birthplace of the Qing dynasty. In the present day, it is also a region where China is ambitiously planning and implementing the “Promotion Strategy for Northeast China.”
Korean patriots carried out independence movements with the world as their stage to recover their country since the Japanese annexation of Korea in 1910. Manchuria is where they fought most fiercely against the Japanese Empire. Today, Manchuria is still inscribed as a significant location to Koreans that embodies the history of time and space of the Korean independence movement.
Part 1 of Manchuria Survey: Temporary Gando branch office of the Japanese Resident-General
Resident-General Ito Hirobumi enacted the “Organization of the Gando Supervisory Office” in November 1906 with an excuse of solving the Gando issue and protecting Koreans. The Japanese Empire established the Gando branch office on August 22, 1907 in Longjing as a bridgehead for the occupation of China. The supposed intention was to protect Koreans and Japanese, but the actual aim was for a full-scale survey of the region and observing the tendency and state of affairs of the Chinese government in Gando as a preparatory step to conquer Manchuria.
Jisaku Shinoda, head of the Survey Department at the Gando branch office, graduated from the School of Law at the Tokyo Imperial University and served as a government official at the Gando branch office, Resident-General of Korea, and Governor-General of Joseon. Shinoda later served as the President of the Keijo Imperial University. His activities were organized and published in A Report on the Temporary Gando Branch Office of Resident-General and Industry Survey Report of Gando. He especially acted as a vanguard to ensure the monopoly of Gando and strengthen Japan’s voice on the jurisdiction issue of Gando that continued for a decade.
Korean People’s Association: Control over the Korean society in Manchuria by segmentation and surveillance
The Japanese Empire’s desire was to establish a strong and prestigious public organization under the order of the Consulate-General of Japan with the aim of developing a solid basis for invasion and strengthening the control over the Korean society in northern Gando. Thus, they established the Korean People’s Association based on the Japanese Residents’ Association. The Consulate-General of Japan developed a system for command and supervision of the Korean Residents’ Association. They completely excluded the right to vote and the eligibility to run for an election from the Korean Residents’ Association members. They dominated the power to appoint and dismiss members of the association including the chairman. The Korean Residents’ Association fell completely as a subsidiary agency of the Consulate-General of Japan due to the regulation of needing approval from the consulate on finances and for all deliberation matters to be executed.
The most important duty assigned to the Korean Residents’ Association by the consulate was conducting surveys. Surveys were carried out on various fields including census, agricultural management, livestock, and tax statement of Chinese local authorities, and the Consulate-General of Japan collected basic information on Korean society through these surveys. The Korean People’s Association expanded to Manchuria as well as northern Gando. The Japanese Empire’s surveillance and control of Korean residents in Manchuria through the Korean People’s Association were systematical and minute. The so-called “yihanjehan”, or controlling Koreans with Koreans, was the most effective method to achieve dominance over Koreans in Manchuria for the Japanese Empire.
Forced displacement of Koreans to Manchuria and their heritage
Since the Manchurian(Mukden) Incident, the patterns of Korean migration composed of individual and group migrations. The Manchurian Incident on September 18, 1931 was a historical event that executed the full-fledged Japanese invasion of Manchuria. Manchukuo was founded the following year and was under the control of Imperial Japan for 14 years.
This puppet state, founded with great firepower of the Kwantung Army, promoted harmony as its founding principle and demonstrated exhaustive suppression techniques towards opposition forces. The so-called public security purification was initiated to eliminate anti-Japanese groups. This is where the “safe farm village” originated. However, the safe farm villages that derived from the Manchurian Incident and the founding of Machukuo were another barrier of coerciveness for Koreans. Safe farm villages that were established “safely” by Imperial Japan allowed Japan to promote both “assurance of public order” and “acceleration of exploitation” with Korean migrants at the center.
Contrary to Japan’s expectation of an increase in Japanese immigrants due to the founding of Manchukuo, it led to an impasse and Japan held the first meeting on immigration in 1934 to comprehensively review immigration policies in various forms including agricultural immigration. In July 1935, they developed a 10-year migration plan of 5 million Japanese and 1 million households through the Manchuria Development Company and the Manchuria Immigration Association. The initiative was pushed forward while ignoring the opposition of Japanese immigration due to the increased financial burden from the excessive budget for “migration costs.” The plan projected Japan’s recognition of the absolute necessity of large immigration of Japanese people to control the anti-Japanese capacity of oppressed groups with Yamato people placed as the core of colonial rule in Manchuria. However, only 42,000 Japanese households migrated based on the five-year plan from 1937 to 1941. As an alternative, Japan enforced a large-scale forced displacement of Koreans to Manchuria.
Migrants lived an imprisoned life in Manchukuo while the state built fortifications under the pretext of the safety of “settlers.” Manchukuo advocated “Five Races Under One Union” to control Koreans, as the state tried to maintain the war footing by accomplishing an economic community. The precondition for control and surveillance is coerciveness. Koreans who were forced to migrate came to a fork in the road upon liberation: either remain or return. Many Koreans who were forced into the exhausting migration did not return after the liberation and are living as Joseonjok, an ethnic minority and Chinese citizens.
동북아역사재단이 창작한 '제국주의 일본의 ‘왕도낙토’ 만주: 침략과 ‘공존’, 강제의 중층적 지대' 저작물은 "공공누리" 출처표시-상업적이용금지-변경금지 조건에 따라 이용 할 수 있습니다.
