The Rural Control Policy and Peasant Ruling Strategy of the Government-General of Chosŏn in the 1930s-1940s

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The Rural Control Policy and Peasant Ruling Strategy of the Government-General of Chosŏn in the 1930s-1940s

Journal Title: International Journal of Korean History - Year 2010, Vol 15, Issue 2

Abstract

The rural control policy of the 1930s was rooted in the Rural Revitalization Campaign. To this end, the Rural Economic Rehabilitation Plan was implemented as the main measure used to actualize the campaign. However, the Government-General of Chosŏn’s announcement of the Plan for the Expansion of Rehabilitated Villages in January 1935 effectively transformed the Rural Revitalization Campaign into a group guidance undertaking that was to be carried out at the village level. This principle became the main focal point of the rural control and production increase policies that were put in place after 1940. The advent of the National Mobilization Campaign in 1940 saw the Rural Revitalization Campaign be transformed into the Rural Patriotic Service Production Campaign, and the Village Production Expansion Plan implemented as a means to mobilize the human and material resources needed to wage war. Thereafter, the growing need to increase agricultural productivity in order to ensure effective mobilization for war resulted in the Rural Reorganization Plan and the Chosŏn Agricultural Plan being established. These measures were motivated by the desire to mobilize military supplies through ideological education and propaganda, as well as coercive organization, once it became apparent that the limitations reached in terms of productivity all but negated the ability to mobilize the required material and human resources. The rural control policy of the Government-General of Chosŏn was carried out based on the use of Korean collaborators as its proxies. To control the farmers, rural revitalization committees which served as government-led agricultural organizations were established. Those placed in charge of these rural revitalization committees were the so-called ‘leading figures’ that had been produced based on the Government-General of Chosŏn’s modern colonial education system and colonial policy. The intensification of the mobilization for war after 1940 saw the villages be upgraded to ku, which constituted the lowest administrative level, and the directors of the Village Leagues appointed as kujang. The number of kujang was rapidly increased during this process. In exchange for conducting their role as the party responsible for the mobilization for war, the kujang were granted enhanced administrative authority and material compensation by the Government-General of Chosŏn. However, as the Government-General of Chosŏn’s forced mobilization and exploitation worsened, the kujang and local petty officials were left to stand as the public faces of this mobilization system, a denouement that resulted in their becoming the main targets of the people’s resentment. The evaluation of these leading figures, which belonged to the pro-Japanese or collaborator camp rather than to those groups who resisted against colonial rule, is intricately related to the overall evaluation of the Japanese colonial rule.

Authors and Affiliations

Songsoon Lee

Keywords

farmer control wartime mobilization Rural Revitalization Campaign Rural Economic Rehabilitation Plan National Mobilization Campaign Village Production Expansion Plan Rural Reorganization Plan Rural Revitalization Committees leading figures director of Village League kujang local petty officials (ŏp and myŏn level)

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