This paper is a trial to explain political and social meanings about a group we have called 'Pro-Japanese Group' so far. If Pro-Japanese Group has its own 'position', I will focus on it and see 'its goal' and 'the process' it had made together.
There...
This paper is a trial to explain political and social meanings about a group we have called 'Pro-Japanese Group' so far. If Pro-Japanese Group has its own 'position', I will focus on it and see 'its goal' and 'the process' it had made together.
There was a flow of three political movements, which pursued independence, autonomy, participation in the national administration during the period of Japanese imperialism. This paper will explain Pro-Japanese problems in the aspect of demanding suffrage. A suffrage is a right for people in modern state to participate in the government, main contents of which are rights to vote and run for an election. but there was no suffrage in Chosun.
Considering that the argument about 'the autonomy' as well as 'the independence' was based on the premise that Chosun was separated from Japan, 'the suffrage' was a movement of 'Pro-Japanese' in that it hoped the combination of both sides. In other words, the argument about the suffrage was based on internalizing the consciousness of Japanese people. From this premise, the movement of suffrage went forward to demand the rights of people.
However, the studies about the suffrage movement were limited on the 'petition' for it. It was the action of turning in a petition for the suffrage to Japanese parliament and Japanese government. This way, however, did not carry any legal binding force. Petition was not a purpose but one way 'to acquire' a suffrage. This paper will establish the whole image of suffrage movement in Chosun by reconstructing the developing process of 'suffragist' forces and the change of their characteristics through all the period of Japanese imperialim, under the view of 'the acquisition' of this political right.
Chosun's suffrage movement in the period of Japanese imperialism can be divided before and after the Second Sino-Japanese War. The National Association developed a movement of petition for suffrage as 'a movement for people's right' at the very first in the prewar period, but it ended with gaining a Japanese Parliament's agreement in principle. The National Association organized the Union of Interested Person from Each Faction(各派有志聯盟) as a way of breaking a deadlock, and built a United Front against the socialism and independence movement, but it turned out to be a failure. Organizing a Dong-Min Association meant the realization of solidarity of Koreans and the Japanese who were living in Chosun. In the second half of 1920s, they developed the movement of petition for suffrage together through The Public Official's Conference in Chosun.(全朝鮮公職者大會)
In 1929, when Japanese Government tried to establish the Ministry of Colonization(拓殖省) as a supervision which administer Chosun, Taiwan, Saghalien and etc., some Korean executives of Dong-Min Association left the association, because they thought Japanese Government treated Chosun as a colony. They interpreted the union of Chosun and Japan as an action taken by a method of 'handing it over according to an agreement', peacefully by both emperors, not the result of war. Therefore, they developed the movement of excepting Chosun from the Ministry of Colonization(拓殖省朝鮮除外運動) under a standpoint that Chosun was the extension of Japan, not its colony.
The Manchurian Incident and establishing Manchukuo produced a new stage - an appearance of Shi-Joong Association. Shi-Joong Association developed a movement for demanding conscription system in cooperation with the Dong-Min Association and the National Association, based on the new sect of Cheondogyo. This showed that the characteristic of suffrage movement changed from 'demanding nation's right' to 'demanding nation's obligation'. In other words, the suffragist who demanded the rights only in former times turned their object then to gain their rights after performing their duty.
The suffrage movement in the latter period has a characteristic of 'performing national duty movement'. The volunteer system, the conscription system, the student soldier system, and the drafting system were enforced continuously in this period. It was the operating the military service that the suffragist requested in the former period. Therefore, they cooperated actively to mobilize a manpower during the war-time. This was the 'performing national duty movement'. In this process, some bureaucrats, businessmen, educators, writers, doctors, and lawyers participated in this movement with the members of the Advisory Committee of Governor-general(中樞院), the local assembly, the class of which was the power base of suffragist, as the central figure. Moreover, a majority of people converted from nationalism and socialism also participated in this movement as cooperators. They were collaborators of the war and it was a converging process to the suffrage movement and the power extension of suffragist at the same time.
On September in 1944, Japanese Government declared the allowance of giving the suffrage to Chosun, Taiwan and like places at last, so Korean suffragist and their cooperators organized 'the movement to thank for the improvement of the treatment'. The Dae-Wha Alliance was organized as a result of converting this movement to a permanent system, and they turned this 'grateful' mind into a motive of cooperating in the war by developing 'the Imperial citizen movement'.(皇道公民運動)
Giving the suffrage to the people in Chosun was a compensation for conscription and a measure to mobilize Korean people to the war they confronted, the content of which was discriminative and restrictive. However, the suffragists and the cooperators who would be the electors and candidates of new electoral law welcomed it, thinking it as 'the integration of Japan and Chosun'(內鮮一體). They acquired the suffrage, the modern rights, by offering Korean people's blood and life as a security, but the suffrage, Japan gave, was their own share, in that it was limited for the people who can pay more than 15 won of national taxes.