일제의 동계 조사와 식민주의적 시선

Abstract

The Japanese authorities’ survey results of Korean Donggyae(village association/洞契), which have served as the basic source of research for historians involved in the studies of Donggyae units from those days, are no mere records which objectively reflect the conditions and situations of the past. They are records which were also affected by policy intentions, research capabilities and survey perspectives of the colonial authorities at the time. In other words, the Japanese authorities’ survey results & reports, regarding the Korean Donggyae of the Japanese colonial period, are texts which are composed not only of the realities of the colonized Korean Donggyae, but also the point of view which was maintained by the colonial rulers who were intent upon revealing the Donggyaes’ nature and utilizing them to their advantage. In their researches, the authorities mainly considered the Donggyae as bodies organized with all the residents in old Dongri villages(舊洞里), and as bodies overseeing Dongri operations that involved all the residents as well. Yet the status the Donggyae units occupied and the function they played in Dongri operations were understood rather differently, as surveys themselves evolved and shifted their focuses. The Dongri village surveys of the Japanese imperial authorities initiated with the Old-customs survey(舊慣調査) around the 1910s, and then proceeded with the Present-situation survey(實態調査) during the 1920s and the 1930sd, and ended with the academic survey(學術調査) conducted in the 1940s. In conclusion, the Japanese imperial authorities’ view of the Donggyaes was, that they were organizations which evolved from securing resources for expenses of the Dongri villages’ public affairs, into managing all the public affairs, projects and businesses of the Dongri villages, and finally into being autonomous ruling bodies of the villages. And most importantly, the Japanese authorities continued to view these entities with a colonialistic view. Such view changed from time to time in terms of tensity and contents, yet they continued to survey the situation of the colonized Korea, only in order to efficiently rule them, and constantly so in the spirit of serving the best interests and agendas of Japan, the colonial ruler, rather than Korea. It was, from the beginning, based upon a point of view discriminating the ruler from the ruled, in terms of power and politics. And this kind of mind set to view the Donggyae entities, the colonial attitudes toward reality, were significantly limiting their own view.