Matsumoto Takenori and Chung Seung-Jin

10.18399/acta.2017.20.1.008

Japanese settlers Korean tenants river improvement irrigation associations droughts floods

The Man’gyŏng River is a medium-sized river passing through the southwestern Chŏlla region, one of the most productive rice cultivation areas of Korea. This article analyzes projects related to water management, such as the construction of irrigation facilities, river improvement, and farmland rearrangement, conducted in the river basin during the period of Japanese colonial rule (1910–1945), with an emphasis on the reactions of local Korean peasants. Immediately after the Russo-Japanese War (1904–1905), Japanese immigrants began to acquire land around the middle and lower reaches of the river, and by the time of the colonization of Korea in 1910, large Japanese landowners had established modern-style irrigation associations for supplying water to their farms, which were tilled by Korean tenants. However, construction of developmental infrastructure, such as railways, roads, and irrigation facilities induced the exacerbation of flood damage once the river overflowed because of the obstruction of water drainage. The interests of local Korean peasants and those of large Japanese farm owners clashed over the issue of preventing flood damage. Eventually, the colonial government decided to proceed with the river improvement project proposed by the Japanese-led irrigation associations.