The Movements of Women Divers and Marine Resources in the Colonial Period of Korea and Japan

Abstract

This study considers the social character and the social meaning of women divers in Korea and Japan who worked in the sea of Korea and of Japan through their migrational seafood gathering. Through their labor and their movement, this study focuses on the biological aspects of the Japanese colonial period in Korea instead of the traditional economical and individual evaluations. The Women diver’s movement has been considered mainly in terms of regional economic development and local history. This movement started under Japanese rule in Korea. Unlike, the traditional trade among the regimes in Korea and Japan that revolved around tribute to China, this period shows significant changes in resources and human movement. It is the sea of Korea and Japan that indicates specific examples.BR The point of this article is that Japanese demands for seafood caused the movement of the women divers in Korea and Japan. They gathered seafood for industrial and military supplies. Whereas it is profitable for the women divers, it is followed by extension and destruction of fishing ground. For example, In the colonial period (1910~1945) 1) the reproductive mechanism from maritime ecological perspective was not considered. 2) Socially, industrial value –specifically as military supplies took priority over day to day value. 3) Although Korean and Japanese women divers had opportunity of cash earnings, Jeju diver’s labour has been underestimated. 4) While Japanese diving boats intensively collected abalones, Korean and Japanese women divers were only able to work on gathering seaweed. 5) These diving boat skills used for collecting abalones indicate that Japanese adopted western techniques and its high yield throughout the Pacific coast. 6) Furthermore, productivity of the diving boats did not contribute to the local resident’s income. To be specific, the movement of Jeju divers reached the Korean peninsula, Japan, China and the Russian coast. A Network based on seafood collecting in the sea of Korea and Japan among male guides, local landlords enabled the movement. Thus, the movement of women divers was a special phenomenon that occurred during the expansion of Japanese imperialism based on marine resources. The movement of women divers expanded according to the expansion of Japanese imperialism, their seafood was taken as a raw material for Japanese industry. The majority of divers who moved between the Sea of Japan and Korea were the women divers of Jeju Island(Jamsoo).