일제강점기 인천의 주택난과 조선대가조합령

Abstract

This paper is an empirical study on the housing shortages of Incheon and the Regulation on the Housing Renter Union in the Japanese colonial period. The Regulation on the Housing Renter Union was a housing related ordinance enforced in wartime, which is the first topic addressed in this study. The housing shortages in Korean began in the 1920s and became a social problem for the whole cities in the 1930s. The housing shortages of Incheon began at this time. The cause was the industrialization policy of the Japanese Colonial rule. As the factories were built around the cities, the influx of the working population has progressed rapidly. In addition, as the front line of war expanded due to the Sino-Japanese War, the housing shortage became even more severe due to lack of supplies and disorders of distribution and financial difficulties. Because the Building materials were also important military supplies, maintenance and repair were not easy as well as new construction of houses. The housing shortage led to a sharp rise in land and housing rents cost, which soon became a deficiency of living. The Japanese government and the Governor-General of Korea gave no response to the growing housing shortages, but only in 1939 when the housing shortages caused a setback in the production and supply of military supplies, it issued a regulation to set up a housing task force within the Government-General's office and to fix the land and house rent cost. Housing related laws were also enacted in 1940s. Those are the Regulation on the Housing Corporation of 1941 and the Regulation on the Housing Renter Union of 1942. The Housing Renter Union in Incheon was founded on October 19, 1942. The chief executive members of the Union consisted of 13 persons, who are the business executives operated commercial and manufacturing industries in addition to the Housing Renters. There were about 160 the housing renters in Incheon in the late 1938, and some of them were involved in the city policy as members of the Incheon Council. After the liberation in August 1945, the Japanese properties were transferred to the US Military Government and returned to the state property of the ROK three years later. Some 5,000 to 7,300 documents of Incheon were found in the National Archives. The 330 documents in Jungangdong and Songhakdong that I collected were the houses, and the former Japanese owners of 330 are 144 persons. Four executives of the Housing Renter Union in Incheon owned 33 of 330(10%), and 59 persons of two or more owned 246 of 330(74.5%). About 900 Korean houses in Songhyundong and Whapyeongdong were torn down according to the urban planning, and the Japanese properties of two towns are 1,961 more than double that had been demolished. Despite the severe housing shortages, the Japanese and the Japanese housing renters had a large number of houses. On the basis of this, there were “no-policy for housing shortages” of the Japanese colonial rule and "preferential treatment" for the Housing Renter Union.