A Study on the Staffs of the Governmental Organization of Construction in the Old-Korean Empire - focused on the Architectural Office controlled by the Ministry of Finance -

구한국시대(舊韓國時代) 정부공사기구(政府工事機構)의 직원(職員)에 관(關)한 연구(硏究) - 도지부건축소(度支部建築所)를 중심(中心)으로 - .

This study focuses on the staffs of the Governmental Organization of Construction who actually led this organization. Two main points of this study are as follows; 1) The composition and appointment of staffs, before and after the Korea-Japan Treaty in 1907, are evaluated, and 2) The working and academic career of each personnel are analyzed in connection with understanding of internal characteristics of this organization. Special attention is given to Korean personel and Japanese engineers who undertook a leading role. Korean engineering staffs were very few in number. It is thought, viewing their records of careers, that almost all of them didn't have any engineering basis, and simply they had some relations to Japan. It is certain that their role in this organization was interpreters using their Japanese language ability, and their roles were only limited to non-technical areas, if any. The early engineers from Japan were selected among the officials with comparatively rich careers of the Temporary Architectural Dept. or the Temporary Engineering Dept. of Custom House in Japan. But, in later days, the quality of Japanese engineers changed to the level of premature without practical experiences who unwillingly came to Korea to have a job under the depression of construction economy of Japan. The academic careers of Japanese engineers were various, from self-taught to regural college education, but the leading engineers were from Tokyo University. The civil engineers became high-level technical officials in the Government-General after the Japanese Annexation of Korea. But, sometimes later, many of the architectural engineers became practicing architect managing design offices on private basis.