용산 지역 일본인 사회의 형성과 변천(1882∼1945)

Abstract

This article examines how Japanese society was formed and changed in Yongsan before 1945, resulting in a society composed of an army, government, and the private sector. Japanese society began to form in Yongsan in 1882. The treaty made between Korea and Japan that year designated Yanghwajin(楊花津) as an open city(開市場). Afterward, the place of open city was changed from Yanghwajin to Yongsan as a result of an agreement made in 1884 between Korea and several countries, including Japan. Despite the fact that the follow-up measures necessary to make Yongsan an open city were not taken, Japanese people had already begun to settle down there illegally. However, the Korean government did not protest this, which the Japanese viewed as implied consent. Furthermore, the Japanese government expropriated a vast amount of land in Yongsan to build a permanent military base for the Japanese government constructed railway facilities and established a Japanese commercial area. This entire area that was expropriated by the Japanese was given the name “New Yongsan”, and the area that was originally declared an open city came to be called “Old Yongsan”. Both New Yongsan and Old Yongsan were the result of spatial reorganization. However, there is a difference between them, which should not be overlooked. In the case of Old Yongsan. which originated as an open city, the population was a mix of Koreans and Japanese. In contrast, New Yongsan, which was established through land expropriation, was comprised of only Japanese people. However, the fact that a mixed population resided in Old Yongsan did not mean that Koreans and Japanese lived next to each other, and the fact that only Japanese people settled in New Yongsan did not mean that there was homogeneity, without any discrimination, in New Yongsan. Regardless of the different circumstances, discrimination between people always seemed to arise in any colonial society beyond space and ethnicity.