萬寶山事件의 歷史的 背景

The Historical Background of the Wan-Tao-Shan(萬寶山) Case

The Wan-Tao-Shan Case means a trouble which, in Wa-Tao-Shan, Chi-lin Province(吉林省), Manchuria, was caused between Korean peasants and Manchurian people in 1931. Historically, the case has an important significance in its influence on the international relationship in the back scene of it, rather than the superficial case itself. In 1910, Japan annexed the Korean Penninsula to her territory, and then attempted to advance her interests toward Manchuria. At that time, in Japan, about the act of the aggression on Manchuria, there were several conflicting views among Japanese politicians, such as Foreign Minister Kijuro Shidehara’s(幣原喜重郞) policy of economic aggression, Prime Minister Kiichi Tanaka’s(田中義一) policy of political aggression, Kuan Tung(關東) Army’s military act of their own, etc. Among them, the Kuan Tung Army held the most substantial power in Manchuria. One of the reasons why the Wan-Tao-Shan Case was largely expanded was attributed to the Kuan Tung Army’s attempt to make use of the case and to take a military action in Manchuria. The other collision affairs between the Korean and the Manchurian also seems to be caused by Korean people’s desire to advance into Manchuria and the various problems due to it. The Korean people’s advance into Manchuria had taken place before the 1910 Annexation of Korea to Japan, but it had been done only by very few people lived around the border-line. However, since 1910, when the annexation of Korean territory was forced by the Japanese, Korean people all over the country could not but have emigrated to Manchuria. With the increase of these emigrations to Manchuria, there occurred many problems for Korean people. Among them, especially, two important problems in Manchuria were the problem of duel nationality, legal status for the Korean, and the problem of land-ownership for cultivating a farm. First of all, the problem of duel nationality was that the Korean emigrants to Manchuria did not give up their Korrean nationality, yet soon new immigrants were naturalized as Chinese citizens. As a rule, in case one did not abandon one’s original nationality, the law of Chinese naturalization prohibited the immigrant from being naturalized as a Chinese citizen. However, the Chinese Government permitted the natiralization of the Korean because they believed the Korean people had lost their nationality, with the 1910 Annexation of Korean territory to Japan. As a matter of fact, most of the Korean people had held their own nationality without any constriction. It did not matter that the Korean people had held their own nationality as ever, but that the Japanese Government insisted stubbornly that the Korean should belong to the Japanese, with the annexation of Korean territory. But in fact, the Japanese Government did not permit the naturilization of the Korean as their own citizens even after the annexation of Korean territory. Then, for what did the Japanese insist that the Korean emigrants to Manchuria should belong to Japan. They did not aim to protect the Korean emigrants, but on the pretext of protecting the emigrants, Japan was to find out, sometimes this caused some troubles between Koreans and Manchurians, a chance to invade Manchuria. In the beginning, the Chinese did not oppose the Korean immigrants, but as days passed by, they opposed them because they regarded the immigrants as a cat’s paw for the Japanese. Thus, the legal status for the Korean in Manchuria was guaranteed neither by the Chinese Government nor by the Japanese Government. Next, the problem of land-ownership for cultivating a farm was caused by the fact that most of Korean immigrants cultivated the leased land in Manchuria. It was because in Korea most of them had engaged in agriculture and come to extreme poverty. As they had mastered how to cultivate the rice field, Korean immigrants could clear a paddy field in a simple way.