개인기록을 통해 본 일본인 이민농촌의 한 단면

An Aspect of Japanese Immigrant Villages Analyzed from Personal Record: Focusing on the Yamagata Village (山形村) of Fuji Farm Community (不二農村)

Traditionally, Japanese living in colonial Joseon (朝鮮) have often been uniformly recognized as invaders or colonial rulers. This paper focuses on the mixed and multifaceted characteristics of Japanese immigrant in colonial Joseon. Based on the personal records of Yamagata Village, this paper aims to grasp one of such various aspects observed from the village of Unlike the people of Joseon at the time, the Japanese could be resettled at immigrants’ farm villages build on reclaimed land aided by various supports and benefits. In particular, the Japanese immigrants who moved to Yamagata Village were a good example of such resettlement, and the frontier spirit in Fuji Farm Community. The Japanese immigrants kept their communal management based on education and cooperative spirit relatively for a long period of time compared to other communities. No one left the village even when low-interest loan problems caused conflicts between the Japanese Government-General of Korea, banks and industrial associations with the crisis of Fuji Farm Community. In addition, the underdrainage method imitated by the industrial association brought great improvement to the rural community by increasing rice harvest. Many things worked dynamically within the colonial policy and Japanese banks, cooperatives, immigrants and their cooperative, and within the immigrant community. In this process, Japanese immigratns alternately showed adaptability and resistance, compromises and discord, confrontations and conflicts, or bargain and cooperation. Nevertheless, Japanese who immigrated to Fuji Farm Community built their own sphere apart from the local Korean community. Under the colonial rules, the interaction between the Japanese immigrants and Koreans was extremely limited to the utilization of services and labor required for living. This restricted interaction was based on the Japanese immigrants’ sense of superiority and non-introspective attitude toward Koreans.