일본의 근대 철도 건설에 참여한 조선인 노동자

Abstract

In modern Japan, civil engineering construction projects played a leading role in achieving the political and military objectives, such as colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula and securing economic benefits from the Chinese mainland. In particular, the construction of railroads played the most important role in building the modern nation state and expanding colonial territories. In short, the construction of railways was the process of building the ‘blood vessels of the empire’.
 The Japanese civil engineering construction industry, in the process of building Empire Japan, faced the challenge of labor shortage. In order to solve this urgent problem, foreign workers were introduced. Hiring Korean workers while building the Gyeongbu Line in Korea, Japan’s civil engineering construction industry experienced the first direct labor relationship with Korean workers. From this experience, Japanese civil engineering construction companies noticed that unskilled Korean workers were excellent labor force. In order to build Japanese modern railways, Korean workers were introduced to the construction sites by migrating them from Korea to Japan.
 Completing the construction of railways, the Japanese civil engineering construction companies built many railway monuments and memorials. Some of these monuments and memorials, built in the 1900s and 1910s, shows how Korean workers had moved into Japan. One is Tetsudoukouchoujunnanbyoubotsushatsuitoukinenhi(the Memorial Monument for Those Died of Diseases and Accidents during the Railway Construction), built by Hazamakumi in October 1908, and the other is Tetsudoukoujichuushokuheibyoubotsushashuukonhi(the Evocation Monument for the Deceased Workers during the Railway Construction), built by Tetsudoukougyougoushigaisha(the Unlimited Partnership Company of Railway Industry) in October 1911.
 The Korean workers’ names engraved on those railway memorial monuments have become historical records to prove the entry of Korean workers into Japan and henceforth changes in the Japanese labor market. Korean unskilled workers were an alternative labor force in the Japanese civil engineering construction industry facing labor shortages. Korean workers, migrated from Korea into Japan by the Japanese civil engineering construction industry, were the first bearers of the foreign workers’ issues in Japan.