Colonial Industrialization and Labor in Korea: The Onoda Cement Factory

by Soon-Won Park

Overview

This book is a study of labor relations and the first generation of skilled workers in colonial Korea, a subject crucial to the understanding of modernization in twentieth-century Korea. Born in rural Korea, these workers confronted both the colonial experience and the modern workplace as they interacted with Japanese managers and workers. Based on the archives of the Onoda Cement Factory and interviews with surviving workers, this work analyzes the complex relationship between colonialism and modernization.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780674142404
Publisher:	Harvard University Press
Publication date:	08/31/1999
Series:	Harvard East Asian Monographs , #181
Pages:	325
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Soon Won Park is a lecturer in Korean studies at Keio University in Tokyo.

Table of Contents

Tables, Figures, and Maps

Introduction

Structural Changes in the Workforce of Colonial Korea

Rural Exodus: The Shift to the Nonagricultural Sector

South to North Regional Migration and Urbanization

Overseas Migration to Manchurian and Japanese Labor Markets

The Labor Market Structure of Colonial Korea

The Labor Policy of the Japanese Colonial Government

Labor-Management Relations in the Onoda Sunghori Factory

The Cement Industry and Colonial Development

Labor Relations in the Onoda Sunghori Factory

Social Hierarchy in the Colonial Factory: A Collective Drama

Labor Turnover

Wages and Other Forms of Compensation

Labor Responses

Growth of a Factory Town: Sungho up

The War and Korean Workers: Disintegration of the Colonial System

Wartime Changes in the Colonial Labor Force

War and the Sunghori Workers

Workers in Liberated Korea: The Onoda Samch'ok Factory

The Onoda Samch'ok Factory in 1945

From Self-Governing Council to Government Management

Samch'ok Cement as a Government Enterprise

The Privatization of Samch'ok Cement

Inauguration and Success of the Tongyang Cement Company

Conclusion

Works Cited

Index