釜關連絡船 始末과 釜山府 日本人 人口變動

On Passage of Busan-Shimonoseki Cross-channel Liner and the Change of Japanese Population in Busan

This paper investigates the history and situation of Busan-Shimonoseki cross-channel liner and analyses the relations between Busan-Shimonoseki cross-channel liner and Japanese resudence in Pusan. The Ferry which connected Busan and Shimonoseki opened in September, 1905 and closed in June, 1945. More than 30 million passengers use this Busan-Shimonoseki cross-channel liner for 50 years. With the increase of Japanese who wanted to proceed to the continent the increase of Koreans who wanted to go to Japan, the passengers continued to increase up to 1942 and they slightly decreased since 1942. Especially, it is notable that there was huge increase to 400,000 passengers in the late 1910s and in the late 1930s, about 300,000 more passengers increased each year compared to the previous years. Except in 1930, there were more Korean passengers who went to Japan than those who came back to Korea from Japan. The population in Busan during the Colonial Period was 8.8% increase a year on the average. During the same years, the Japanese residents in Pusan increased average 13.5% and all the Japanese in Korea increased 13.9%. As Busan geographically played a role as a foothold for the Japanese invasion to the continent and there were more passengers and temporary residents, the general population of Japanese of Busan was far bigger than they were shown as residents in the statistics.