이사하야(諫早)농학교 朝鮮留學生團 사건과 신치안유지법

Abstract

This paper examines the incident involving the Korean student group at Isahaya Agricultural School in Nagasaki Prefecture, Japan, in early 1942. It closely traces the discovery and arrest process, comparing and examining materials such as the preliminary hearing decision, the Daegu District Court verdict, and the criminal case files held by the National Archives of Korea, as well as the memoirs of Park Geun-cheol and Lee Sang-ho, who survived and recounted the events of that time. Particular attention is paid to the relevance of the case to the comprehensive revision of the Peace Preservation Law in 1941. This incident began in February 1942, when a letter sent by Park Geun-cheol, a student at Isahaya Agricultural School in Nagasaki Prefecture, Japan, to his classmate Lee Sang-man was discovered by police officers at the Yecheon Police Station in North Gyeongsang Province. In addition to Lee Sang-man, fellow student Shim Jae-in was arrested, followed by subsequent arrests of his juniors at Isahaya Agricultural School. Of these, 22 were indicted, and the preliminary hearing was concluded in November 1942. On May 7, 1943, 13 were referred to the Daegu District Court for trial. The ringleader, Shim Jae-in, was sentenced to four years in prison, Lee Sang-man and Park Geun-cheol to three years, and the other associates to one year and six months in prison, suspended for three years. A look at the network of people involved in this incident reveals three groups: Shim Jae-in and Lee Sang-man, graduates of the Goseong Agricultural Training School; Park Geun-cheol, a graduate of the Ulsan Agricultural Training School; and a new group of Korean students from the Isahaya Agricultural School, formed when Shim Jae-in, Lee Sang-man, and Park Geun-cheol studied abroad at the school in Japan in 1938. At the center of this group were Shim Jae-in, Lee Sang-man, and Park Geun-cheol. Isahaya Agricultural School (officially Nagasaki Prefectural Agricultural School), which opened in 1907, had only 17 Korean students by the 28th graduating class in 1938. However, after the Second Sino-Japanese War, 3 to 4 Korean students enrolled each year. In this environment, Shim Jae-in and his juniors at Isahaya Agricultural School frequently met together to foster camaraderie. They shared their anger at the discrimination against Koreans by the Japanese during their time studying abroad and encouraged each other to dedicate themselves to the advancement and independence of the Korean people. They neither organized a “group” nor engaged in activities with a platform or a specific division of roles for the independence movement. However, the Japanese imperial judicial authorities suppressed them under the charge of “The crime of holding discussions with the aim of changing the Japanese national polity” under the revised Peace Preservation Law of 1941. In particular, Japanese judicial authorities collaborated with police in Nagasaki, Tokyo, Osaka, and Mie Prefectures to apprehend those involved, expanding the case by arresting individuals scattered throughout the country. Some of these individuals were subjected to extreme torture and interrogation, dying during preliminary hearings or in prison, while others died shortly after their release. If it had been before this time, their activities would not have been organized for the purpose of denying private property, and since there were no specific activities such as an organizational structure, division of roles, or platform, it would have been insufficient to punish them for violating the Peace Preservation Law. However, in a situation where the Japanese judicial authorities were carrying out a global invasion, they were wary of the rebellion of the colonized people, so they completely the revised Peace Preservation Law in 1941 to allow even “personal rebellious thoughts” to be punished as “The crime of transforming Japan’s national polity” They utilized police force to conduct thorough surveillance to detect so-called “Rebellious thoughts,” and then enforced strong judicial sanctions. Furthermore, the perpetrators of these actions were Korean police officers and judges. Through the incident of the Korean students at the Isahaya Agricultural School, we can confirm the pure passion of Korean youths for Korean independence during the harsh final days of Japanese colonial rule, while also seeing the suppression of the independence movement by the judicial system and the reality of national division under colonial rule.