日帝 强占期 濟州道民의 오사카(大阪) 移仼

Cheju Islanders' Passage to Osaka during the Colonial Period

When we look at Koreans in Japan today, we can observe that there are more people from Chejudo than from any other region and that the residential centrality of Chejudo people is very strong So many Chejudo people live in Ikuno-ku, Osaka-shi, which is called 'little Cheju.' This paper examines why Chejudo people historically centralized in Osaka and how their lives in Osaka were. The reasons why many Chejudo people went to Osaka can be raised as below. First, Cheju islanders easily went to Osaka because of so called 'Pan-je(Han-sai) Route' which was opened in the early 1920s. Second, the capitalists of Osaka needed laborers from Chejudo. At that time, the base of industries in Osaka which showed the development of Japanese capitalism, was labor-integrated small factories. 'Diligence and loyalty', which was said to represent the character of Cheju islanders, conformed to the interests of capital. Third, the authoruty of Cheju Iceland actually promoted the islanders' passage to Japan. Koreans passage to Japan was almost restrained through the colonial period except limited short period But in case of Chejudo, the authorities actively promoted the passage. Fourth, the unique web of Cheju islanders decreased the danger caused by individual passage to Japan. In particular, the social system called 'Kwendang' gave Cheju islanders 'we' consciousness where all the Cheju islanders were not other. The web which existed in Chejudo rapidly enlarged to Osaka more and more Chejudo people crossed the water. However, as soon as arriving in Japan in order to find away of subsistence Cheju islanders faced bitter realities. There were racial discrimination against 'Chosenzin', class discrimination against low-paid workers and regional discrimination against islanders. They had to make a new living in Osaka where the language and custom were different from theirs, as 'Chosenzin', low-paid workers and islanders. The response of Chejudo people appeared in two ways. One is to actively participate in independence movement or labor movement. The other is to make social gatherings altogether with people from the same homeland, maintaining their identity by keeping unique custom such as burial and to strengthen Chejudo society in Japan by inviting more people from their homeland. Therefore, many Cheju islanders succeeded in forming 'little Cheju' in Japan, fighting against threefold discrimination, and building the foundation of living. Eventually, they contributed to the improvement of the living condition of Cheju islanders who were still living in the homeland. That's how today's Cheju society in Japan has historically formed and could exist.