한국병합 전후 서울의 ‘재한일본인’ 사회와 식민권력

Abstract

This paper aims to illustrate the cooperation and conflict between the Japanese colonial power and the Japanese residents in Seoul in the course of colonization of Korea. The two major themes serve this purpose. First, The developments and changes of the Japanese resident organization in Seoul from its inception in the 1880s to its dismantle are examined. Second, the negotiations and conflicts between the colonial power represented by the Japanese legation, the Residency General, and the Government General and the Japanese residents over the issue of 'self administration' are analyzed. Prior to the Russo-Japanese War (1904-05), the Japanese residents in Seoul had organized the Association for Prefectural People, and had run self-administrative organizations. Since the Russo-Japanese War, the Japanese residents in Seoul increased rapidly as a result of the Japanese government policy to promote the immigration of Japanese to Korea. Under these circumstances, the Japanese residents pursued with the legalization of self-administrative organizations, succeeding in the establishment of the laws for the resident organization in 1905. Accordingly, the resident organization as a legal unit received management-subsidy from the central government, and acquired the right to collect taxes, thus consolidating itself as a financial sustainable self-administrative local body. Nevertheless, since the resident organization came under direct control of the Residency General, the resident community which aspired to 'self-administration' came into conflict with it. In the meantime, the Residency General progressively diminished the size of businesses undertaken by the resident groups, and tried to institute the appointment of the head of the resident organization in 1908. On the annexation of Korea in 1910, the Government General dismantled the organization and incorporated it into local administrative unit. The Japanese residents, being deprived of their public properties and other privileges, offered a strong protest. But, the Japanese government, which denied the extraterritorial rights of the Western residents in Korea would not accept the claims of Japanese residents. Eventually, the Japanese resident organization was dissolved in 1914.