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A Study on River Improvement Projects in Colonial Joseon

  • Journal of Humanities, Seoul National University
  • 2018, 75(2), pp.225-269
  • DOI : 10.17326/jhsnu.75.2.201805.225
  • Publisher : Institute of Humanities, Seoul National University
  • Research Area : Humanities > Other Humanities
  • Received : April 12, 2018
  • Accepted : May 2, 2018
  • Published : May 31, 2018

Choi, Byung Taek 1

1공주교육대학교

Accredited

ABSTRACT

The Japanese Government-General of Joseon considered it necessary to start river improvement projects in order to make Koreans recognize the authority of colonial rule from an early period. Accordingly, a river survey was carried out during the first half of the 1920s. At the time, the Japanese authority carried out Emergency River Restoration Works, but this was limited to the flood zones. However, this work was badly carried out by contractors. They pocketed the workers’ wages, and stole construction materials. At the same time they conspired to win the contracts for the river construction works. The governor of Joseon wished to solve this problem and so the Japanese authority began stream works at the government’s expense (the Government-financed River Construction Project). This project was not a regional river system project but a district-based construction project. Due to this, the Japanese authorities did not produce a positive result in terms of flood management. In the 1930s, the Japanese colonial government began emergency relief work in response to the Great Depression. As part of the project, the colonial government initiated small and medium-sized stream improvement projects. But these projects also failed due to corruption by the Japanese civil contractors.

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This paper was written with support from the National Research Foundation of Korea.
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