The Population Characteristics And Living Condition Of Korean Immigrants In Northeast China In Puppet Manchukuo

In July 1931,the Wanpaoshan Incident broke out between the Korean immigrants and the local Chinese farmers.The Japanese police,inciting the Korean immigrants and intensifying the conflict between the Koreans and the Chinese,took this incident as an opportunity to intervene the disputes and suppress the Chinese farmers by force.And two months later,on September 18,the Japanese imperialists conspired to cause the Mukden Incident and launched the invasion of China.With the abdicated emperor Puyi recruited to serve as a figurehead,they established their puppet state,Manchukuo in 1932.In order to strengthen the Japanese colonial rule,Puppet Manchukuo,Kwantung Army,the South Manchuria Railway Company and the Governor-General of Korea promoted the policies that encouraged immigration directly or indirectly.The population of the Korean immigrants in Northeast China increased year by year.In Puppet Manchukuo,the population of the Korean immigrants in Northeast China increased annually.Before the Mukden Incident,the number of the Korean immigrants rose by less than 50,000 in three years,by an average of 16,000 per year,while that rose by 210,000 in three years,by an average of 71,000 per year after the incident;that is to say,the total population of the Korean immigrants rose by nearly six times after the incident.It can be concluded that the Japanese invasion of China fundamentally converted the Korean immigration,which was a natural course,into a compulsory one by policies.In addition,the sex ratio of the Korean immigrants in Northeast China was relatively high after the Japanese invasion.First of all,in the early days of immigration,men usually immigrated first.Once they settled down,they would move their whole family in the immigration area.Secondly,in order to fulfill the purpose of the invasion of China,the Japanese imperialists encouraged the Korean immigrants to move in Northeast China to serve their invasion.That was the reason why the male population of the Korean immigrants was generally larger than the female.And this article also reveals the history of the Korean immigrants in Northeast China during the Qing Dynasty and the Republic of China.In Puppet Manchukuo,the Korean immigrants in Northeast China were oppressed in many ways.As the political oppression,no matter when a Korean immigrant encountered a Japanese immigrant,the Korean was obliged to make way for the Japanese due to the Japanese's superiority and privilege.By means of the concentration villages and the baojia system,the Korean immigrants were constrained under Japanese colonial rule,so they were forced to serve the Japanese invasion at full strength.As the economic oppression,since the Korean immigrants' top priority was still to support the Japanese invasion,their career choices were limited by the Japanese imperialists.As a result,they can only be engaged in agriculture and hard labor with low wages.As the cultural oppression,the Japanese imperialists used education as a tool for enslavement and promoted “Japan and Korea as One” to brainwash the Koreans into being proper “Imperial Citizens” and loyal to the Empire of Japan.From the above,it can be concluded that the Japanese imperialists encouraged the Koreans to immigrate to Northeast China not for improving their living conditions,but for supporting the Japanese invasion of China,which was their conspiracy to dominate and exploit the Korean people and the Chinese people.