도쿄(東京)제국대학 농대와 1910년대 조선총독부 농업고등기술관료 그룹의 형성

Abstract

This article showcases the formation, evolution, function and curriculum of the College of Agriculture at Tokyo Imperial University, which was the best higher education institution and research institute for training governmental officials. The article will also examine career paths of the alumni of this college who came to play a significant role in designing colonial agricultural policies as senior agricultural technocrat of the Government-General of Joseon. After the Meiji Restoration, the Imperial Japan established Imperial University to foster competent human resources that could greatly contribute to the management of the Empire and devise strategies for colonial invasions. The College of Agriculture was established as a part of such talent training program. A number of the alumni of the College of Agriculture became senior technocrats of the Government-General of Joseon and participated in designing colonial policies. Based on their sense of superiority as Japanese with diploma from the best university in Imperial Japan, these senior technocrats dominated the Government-General of Joseon and established the authority and hierarchy of the colonial regime. Colonial agricultural policies of the Government-General of Joseon were only at their initial phase in the 1910s. The Bureau of Agricultural Administration and Kwonupmobumjang of the Government-General were in charge of creating the system of agricultural policies, and all of the technocrats (gisa) of these bureaus were alumni of the College of Agriculture at Tokyo Imperial University. Some of the key figures include Honda Kosuke(本田幸介) and Nakamura Hiko(中村彦). All nine gisa of the Bureau of Agricultural Administration in the 1910s were alumni of the Imperial University’s College of Agriculture. Equipped with professional knowledge in agriculture, these officials settled in Joseon, rotating in different positions at the Government-General, district governments and Kwonupmobumjang. Five out of these nine officials assumed crucial roles in chartered companies and governmental organizations for overseeing agriculture in Joseon and were influential even after the 1930s. Some other alumni worked as more practical technocrat at Kwonupmobumjang and school of agriculture and forestry. Twenty eight technocrats were appointed to these organizations in the 1910s and except for five of them, all of them were alumni of the Imperial University’s College of Agriculture. They were the most renowned experts in rice-producing, cotton-producing, sericulture and fruit gardening and served as mangers of different branches and the head office of Kwonupmobumjang. After their retirement, these officials became professors of agricultural experiment stations and schools of agriculture in local cities and prefectures. It was the Japanese elite officials that shaped and controlled the colonial rule in Joseon, and even the high-class Joseon people were merely their subordinates that assisted their efforts.