6⋅25전쟁기 「전시생활개선법」과 후방의 ‘생활동원’

Abstract

Modern war is often characterized as ‘total war’. The trend in ‘total war’ is not to allow the traditional distinction between combatants and non-combatants as well as between front and rear (or home). Especially the rear also forms the so-called ‘home front’ and the citizens in the rear are accordingly asked to act as another principal actor of the questioned war. It is beyond any doubt that the Korean War was a ‘total war’. However, the Korean War has been considered chiefly either in the political context or in the military one. Alternatively, some historians and scholars have recently attempted to explain the war with the perspectives of sociology and social history. However, their works almost uniformly describe the Korean society in the rear during the war as a victim of massacres, occupations, and various forms of mobilization and exploitation. However, the Korean society in the war was surely asked to be another major actor for carrying out the total war. The society was subjected to comprehensive mobilization of manpower and materials, even of unwavering will to fight throughout the war. ‘The Law for Improving Daily Life of People in War’, promulgated in 1951 and abolished in 1963, was a failed attempt to ask the people to have thoughts and lifestyle suited to a nation in a ‘total war’. It was deserved to be called ‘mobilization of daily life’. This article tries to reveal a picture of ‘mobilization of daily life’ in the Korean society during the Korean war and to draw some lessons for any possible policies and actions in war to limit the people’s basic rights or to invade the people’s privacy.