In the Japanese colonial period, educational facilities which were established and operated are classified into government, public and private schools.
Government schools were operated with financial supports by the Japanese Colonial Government and i...
In the Japanese colonial period, educational facilities which were established and operated are classified into government, public and private schools.
Government schools were operated with financial supports by the Japanese Colonial Government and its provincial agencies. Public schools were done so under the school fund and the school union. And private schools were established and operated by individuals of the private sector. Government school were mostly middle and high in level. In contrast, public schools were mostly elementary in level and rarely middle.
The Japanese colonial government used two state-run union bodies, school fund and school union to operate public schools whose funds were collected from residents within the bodies' respective jurisdiction. Funds were collected from Chosun people within the jurisdiction of the school fund, and used to educate children of the people. While, within the jurisdiction of the school union, funds were collected from Japanese people to be used to teach their children. This seemed reasonable. But in fact, it was the very fundamental factor that made possible discrimination between Chosun and Japanese people. It was the key to Japanese colonial education that sought to make permanent the colonial rule of Chosun.
Previous studies were made mainly about colonial and discriminative aspects of Japanese colonial education and Chosun people's resistance to them. But those studies focused only on such aspects, but did never dealt with factors that caused the problems.
Thus the purpose of this study is to analyze the finance and operation of the school fund and the school union both of which were responsible for public education in the Japanese colonial period, clarifying factors fundamentally making educational discrimination between Chosun and Japanese people in the same period.
Busan was merely a quiet port at the time of its opening. But it was developed as Japan set up a settlement within the city and Japanese immigrants flocked there. Therefore, the formation and development of Busan may be greatly attributed to the existence of Japan and Japanese people residing in Chosun.
The population of Japanese residents was even more in Busan than any other major cities of Chosun. In Busan, once, the number of Japanese people was higher than people with the nationality of Chosun. The numbers of students and schools under the control of Japanese people were more than twice as higher as those under that of Chosun people. The total budget of the school union was only about 20% of that of the school union. As the local autonomous system was implemented in 1931, the school fund and the school union were integrated into Busanbu. Prior to the integration, the school union was the only autonomous body in Chosun.
In Busanbu, the school fund was in charge of educating Chosun people while, the school union, Japanese residents. The two bodies were critically different in that the school fund was a governmental agency which could provide advice only to the governor of Busanbu, but the school union was an autonomous agency with rights of deliberation and resolution. Analyzing financial situations of the two bodies in the Japanese colonial period would make clear factors that caused discrimination under Japanese colonial education.
In terms of revenue and expenditure, both the school fund and the school union forcedly imposed and collected charges from residents within their respective jurisdiction. Such charges were funded from Japanese people even more than from Chosun people. This was because the former people were even wealthier economically than the latter. The imposition was put in proproption to income.
The school union had lots of property that were handed over by the former federation of Japanese residents in Chosun. In contrast, out of the total revenue of the school fund, income from its own property accounted for only less than 1% and that from issued bonds or subsidies, more than 40%. This indicates that the school fund was very poor financially and restricted the education of Chosun people to elementary and common levels.
Because it was very sufficient in finance, however, the school union could operate educational facilities meeting needs from different social classes, including kindergartens, commercial schools, girl's high schools and supplementary technical schools.
Considering that education is critically influential to movement among social classes, such separation and inequality of educational fiance in the Japanese colonial period made the people of Chosun hand over their poor life from generation to generation, falling to the low class.
In conclusion, the key of Japanese colonial education lay in the permanence of the Japanese colonial rule of Chosun.