함북 탄광 광부 강제 취업 문제를 통해 살펴본 1930년대 초 이재민 대책의 문제점

Abstract

In the 1910s, the Japanese Government-General of Korea not only failed to properly take measures to relieve the disaster victims, but also did not have the will to do so. After experiencing a severe drought in 1919, it began to prepare relief measures. Afterwards, Japan began providing relief to the victims through ‘Direct Relief’ in the form of emergency relief and ‘Indirect Relief’ by mobilizing victims as workers for ‘Disaster Recovery Projects’ and distributing wages to them, and ‘Livelihood Assistance’ through employment support.
 The Japanese government especially invested more money into ‘Indirect Relief’. However, disaster recovery implemented in the name of ‘Indirect Relief’ actually resulted in the enrichment of civil contractors by using the victims as low-wage labor.
 Meanwhile, in the first half of the 1930s, Japanese colonial authorities employed large numbers of victims as miners in bituminous coal mines in the northern region. In fact, the management of mines producing bituminous coal in the 1910s and 1920s was poor. Bituminous coal mines were located in places with inconvenient transportation, so they had the problem of high transportation costs, which made it difficult to make a profit. In order to help Japanese managers who operated bituminous coal mines, the Japanese colonial authorities forced many of the victims to work as low-wage miners at the coal mines.