1950년대 공주 유구지역의 피난민 정착촌 형성과 직조업

Abstract

The first purpose of this paper is to reconstruct the motives of refugees for migration to Yugu area and the settlement process during the Korean War. This paper also aims to reconsider Yugu as a settlement for refugees and analyze concrete characteristics of networks among refugees from the same provinces during their settlement process. The refugee settlement case in Yugu, Gongju demonstrates the refugees’ process of finding a settlement and creating their own living foundation during the Korean War, in detail. Before the liberation, Yugu was a remote village where about 500 households lived and electricity was not supplied properly. Before and after the Korean War, the population in Yugu began to rapidly increase and a lot of refugees crowed into this area, since this was mentioned as Sipseungj in Jeonggamrok. A more direct reason was because that starting the early 1950s, the weaving industry began to be formed. The absolute demand for fabrics rose due to the Korean War and with the shift of the proportion of looms from power to human resources, in the 1950s, small weaving businesses faced prosperity. At that time, fabrics were sold as soon as they were produced and the swift conversion to capital helped refugees settle down in this region. Refugees from the Hwanghae Province were active in bringing their relatives over to Yugu and they made their livings, engaging in the weaving industry. They provided settlement conditions actively by building houses for their relatives, who were scattered all over the country, or making hand looms for them. Refugees coming together this way brought their separated families over to Yugu once again. Refugees pioneered or opened Christianity in Yugu and created ‘Sinseol-dong’. In that process, the networks among refugees from the same provinces were tightly formed with relatives and in-laws. At its core, the weaving industry functioned. Yugu became activated by refugees while weaving factories increased to nearly 250 and a weaving association was founded, focusing on their networks. But in the 1950s, large-scale cotton textile factories obtaining benefits from the aid allocation policy of the government grew and rayon fabric production rapidly decayed throughout the country. Fabric production of the weaving industry in Yugu relied on hand looms because of the poor power condition. For this reason, the industry suffered greatly and from the 1960s, it began to decline. Nevertheless, refugees strived to cultivate a settlement in Yugu area, seizing the opportunity for a short period of time and the refugees’ process of settling down in Yugu in the 1950s, based on the weaving industry provided a significant regional identity to Yugu of the present time.