The planning and construction process of the Donghae line during the Japanese colonial period reflected the ‘understanding of the empire’, which was the industrial development and the railroad on the Korean peninsula of the Chosun Governor General...
The planning and construction process of the Donghae line during the Japanese colonial period reflected the ‘understanding of the empire’, which was the industrial development and the railroad on the Korean peninsula of the Chosun Governor General. And it reflected the ‘understanding of the local’, which is the prosperity of Wonsan, Daegu, and Busan as the development and benefits of Gangwon-do and Gyeongsang-do. However, after the Manchurian Incident, the Chosun Governor General decided to build the railway to North Korea, and the Donghae line was delayed. As a result, Donghae line has stayed in the three-way local railway that can partly serve the empire and local understanding in industrial development. However, the connection between the Jungbu Line and the Nambu Line led to a rivalry between the base cities and reorganized into subordinate cities. This means that the ‘understanding of the local’ was the product of ‘understanding of the empire’.
Although this is limited, the same was true for the operation of the third line of the Donghae line. First, the Donghae line was opened not by the connected trunk line but by separate branch lines, so the colonial role of the trunk line was insignificant in terms of operation. Passenger traffic, however, was more prominent than cargo traffic except for the five trunk lines, which was due to local traffic and tourism. Particularly, it can be said that it was partly responsible for the new role of 'tourist colonization' in passenger transport. On the other hand, in cargo transportation, the outflow of forest products, aquatic products, minerals through the Bugbu Line, the outflow of agricultural products through the Nambu line, and the influx of industrial products from the whole railway stand out. In the end, the opening of the Donghae line is also a process of regional development and the spread of civilization, but as a result, it deepened the subordination of the rural economy or the imperial dependency of the colonial economy.