| 概要 |
The purpose of this article is to clarify employment policies and to provide some background regarding Chinese workers developing a colony in Sakhalin during the 1920s, paying attention to the whole l...abor policy including those directed toward Japanese and Korean workers. The data used in this analysis were the confidential documents produced by the Karafuto government and the local newspaper, 'Karafuto nichinichi shinbun', which were obtained from the diplomatic record office of the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Hakodate city library and the National Diet Library. The results of the paper can be summarized as follows. The employment of Chinese workers was caused by the need to develop the colony and the severe shortage of labor in Sakhalin. Namely, after world war I, in Sakhalin, a paper manufacturing industry developed, but labor to construct plants and infrastructure was in short supply. Therefore, the Karafuto government considered the use of Chinese workers. When the Karafuto government recruited Chinese workers, they assigned a quota to companies and contractors which expected to employ them and the authorities forced these employers to abide by this rule. Furthermore, the authorities prepared a detailed outline to manage Chinese workers and forced employers to abide by these laws. The main aspects of this outline were as follows: (1) to employ Chinese as seasonal workers in order to prevent them from permanent residence; (2) to force Chinese workers from having as little contact as possible with Japanese people, and (3) to gather Chinese workers from the same region or village in order to link friends and relatives which would serve as a deterrent to escape. Thus, Chinese workers were employed as seasonal workers from 1923 to 1927. They were gathered from around the province of Shandong in Northern China and were employed in various undertakings, such as railroad construction, plant construction, mining, and so on. Among these undertakings, the largest was the construction work of the Karafuto east coastal railroad leading from Otiai to Siritori. During construction, about 1,500 Chinese workers were employed. However, some local residents started movements against the use of Chinese workers on this project. Merchants in Toyohara, Maoka, and Tomarioru districts were especially opposed to the use of Chinese workers, on the grounds that they would not contribute to the local economy due to their tendency to save money and send wage remittances to China. In addition, labor disputes were often raised by Chinese workers regarding their employment. The main reasons for these disputes were poor working conditions, such as a low wage level, nonpayment of wages, contract discrepancies and charges paid to middlemen for their passage to Sakhalin. In those days, the wage levels of Japanese workers who were employed in the construction and labor sectors were 2.0 to 3.5 yen a day, and those of Korean workers, who were colonized under Japan, were 1.8 to 2.5 yen a day. However, those of Chinese workers were about 1 yen a day at first, but their wages were later raised by 0.2 to 0.3 yen. Furthermore, from their wages employers deducted food expenses, charges, and so on, thus reducing their net wage to only 0.6 to 0.7 yen per day. In spite of these movements against Chinese workers and the labor disputes raised by them, the Karafuto government allowed companies and contractors to employ Chinese workers for five years in order to attempt to halt the increasing population of Korean workers. According to the results of the national census taken in 1930, the Korean population in Sakhalin was 8,301, which accounted for 2.81 percent of its total population. Compared with the Korean population in 1920, which were 934, the number increased rapidly in 1930. The Karafuto government attempted to accomplish these employment policies toward Chinese workers on the grounds that Chinese workers were easier to manage as seasonal workers. China was not a colony of Japan so that they could if necessary be deported, which differentiated them from Koreans who were under colonial rule. Hence, while the Karafuto government had a policy of accepting Korean workers and excluding Chinese workers, which previous studies have clarified, the government in fact altered its policies toward Chinese and Korean workers arbitrarily, according to local conditions.続きを見る
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