Pang MIn Kyu
| 2025, 32(2)
| pp.5~30
| number of Cited : 0
The purpose of this study is to provide new data on Koreans living in the Kamchatka Peninsula in the Russian Far East in the 1920s through the National Maritime Museum’s collection of 『Far Eastern Fisheries』. In particular, it aims to examine how Koreans were perceived from a Japanese perspective through the content of the text. In addition, it is significant in introducing data on the lives of Koreans living in the Kamchatka Peninsula, an area where information was relatively lacking, through the content of 『Far East Fisheries』, which has rarely been mentioned in Korean academic circles or in Japan. In particular, although specialized books on the fisheries industry have described how much Japan focused on the fisheries industry, the current status of the fisheries industry in the Kamchatka Peninsula of Russia, fishing, and canning, this paper focuses on introducing data on Koreans.
The National Maritime Museum’s 『Far Eastern Fisheries』 is a specialized book on the fisheries industry published in 1924, 14 years after Japan’s forced annexation of Korea. We translated and reviewed the material written in Japanese and examined it, focusing on the content related to Korean immigrants. We also reviewed Russian data, which estimated that over 100 Koreans lived on the Kamchatka Peninsula in the 1910s. We confirmed that the number of Korean immigrants more than doubled over the next 10 years. At the time, Japan was strengthening its colonial rule through manufacturing, capital exports, and financial control. It is considered an extremely rare case that a Japanese-published book on the Kamchatka Peninsula fisheries industry in 1924 included a record of Korean immigrants. The author, Hayashi Komao (林駒生), who had extensive knowledge of Korea, also seems to have acknowledged the diligence and sincerity of the Koreans he met on the Kamchatka Peninsula in the Russian Far East. This evaluation is similar to the Russians' evaluation of Korean immigrants, suggesting that Korean immigrants have adapted surprisingly well to their new environment.