일제하 예기･창기･작부 소개업의 실태와 일본군‘위안부’ 동원 －<조선직업소개령>과 소개업자에 대한 이해를 중심으로－

Abstract

In Joseon, during the Japanese colonial period, agents who dispatched geisha, prostitutes and barmaids operated under the authorization of the Police Chief as per the Regulations on the Control of Referral Services, proclaimed by each province. There had been some media reporting in 1939 that supervision will be enhanced by having Governors oversee the agents and their services, in the run up to the implementation of the Employment Agencies Act of Joseon. These agents, however, continued to operate under the authorization and supervision of the Police Chief in accordance with the Regulations on the Control of Referral Services, which had been enacted by the relevant provincial ordinances, even after the implementation of the Employment Agencies Act in 1940. The referral services for geisha, prostitutes and barmaids in Joseon, unlike those in Japan, were not subject to the prohibition of concurrent operation of other job placement services, the mandatory submission of parental consent to the police for employment outside the respective jurisdiction, the ban on outdoor signage and advertising, etc. This reveals the inhumanity of colonial administration, the lack of awareness on women's human rights, violence, and institutional and everyday discrimination against the colony. Joseon's prostitute agency business was even more brutal than that of Japan, which was condemned as inhuman by the fact-finding mission to Asia of the League of Nations in 1931, and such reality is sometimes considered a primary factor that caused the suffering of the Korean victims of the Japanese military "comfort women" system. What also emerges from this narrative is Ramseyer's claim that the Japanese Army did not work with fraudulent recruiters even though Joseon had a large corps of recruiters with history of deception. However, over 90 percent of these Korean recruiters, that Ramseyer mentioned, were real estate agents who engaged in land and housing transactions. Further, not only the victims' testimonies but also the documents of the Manchukuo police and the Allied Forces show that women were taken by deception and fraud to Burma and to Manchuria, by the brothel owners whom the Japanese Army and police in Joseon had chosen. Ramseyer's claim does not correspond to the historical facts.