1920~1930년대 동래의 지방선거와 조선인 당선자들

The Local Elections and the Korean Elected in Donrae during the 1920s~1930s under the Japanese Colonial Rule

Some local societies in Korea began to change after the ‘Law of local system’ was revised in 1920, which has been estimated as the influence of the 1919 Independence Movement of Korea. The town, Dongrae was one of such local societies. The changes happended because the revised law allowed some towns including Dongrae to have Myen-council whose members could be elected by a part of the residents. The members of Myen-council were elected every three years during the 1920’s and four years during the 1930’s. The 12 members of the first period Dongrae Myen-council were elected in May, 1923, when Dongrae-Myen became a ‘Designated Myen’. At that time only the ‘Designated Myens’ could have their council whose members could be elected by the votes of their residents, while in the most part of the Myen, the General Myen the elections were not allowed. In the 1930’s Dongrae-Myen was raised to Dongrae-Up. Those who held the title of the member of Dongrae-Myen Council were totally 28 persons. There were 21 Koreans and 7 Japanese among them. Any time Korean members were majority in both the 1920’s and the 1930’s. Those who held the title of the member of Dongrae-Up Council were totally 23 persons. There were 17 Koreans and 6 Japanese among them. Dongrae Myen-Council and Dongrae-Up Council or their members in the 1920’s and the 1930’s had the following characteristics : (1) Korean members took the initiatives in the local Council of Dongrae because they were always over 75% of the total members, which was a very different situation from the Pu-Council of Busan, the neighbor city of Dongrae. (2) The elections were sharply contested comparatively though only small group of the residents called ‘Youji elites’(below 3% of the total resident population) had the right of vote. Because the Council was the only official body through which the local Koreans could approach to the political power of local society. (3) The most of the local Council members of Dongarae were consist of merchants, bankers, and industrialists or landowners, who were called ‘Youji’ as the local elite class members. That was related with the fact that Dongrae, one of the traditionally commercial towns had been developed by the trade with the Japanese merchants for long time. (4) The local group of youth movement in the 1920’s and the 1930’s played the important roles in the elections for the local Council members in Dongrae. In short, the local elections in Dongrae were affected by the urban development projects which the colonial authority had planned since 1920. The colonial authority of Dongrae made issues continuously about the development of town or the town planning such as the increase of school, the revision of the administrative districts, the change of the railroad, the moving of the public market, the management of public spa ect. The local elites [Youjis] wanted these projects would be controled by themselves, so they tried eagerly to attend the local council which they considered as a body of the representatives of the Dongrea residents.