태평양전쟁 말기의 수인(囚人) 동원 연구(1943~1945) -형무소 보국대를 중심으로-

A Study on the Mobilization of Prisoners in the Late Wartime Period (1943~1945) -with a focus on the National Protection Corps of Prisoners-

This article aims to shed light on the wartime labor mobilization of prisoners on a large scale in/across colonial Korea and beyond during the late wartime period. More specifically, this article reveals the logic and mode of mobilization, and sorts out nationwide mobilization cases in colonial Korea. To this end, this article draws on documents and magazines published by the criminal administration of the Japanese Government-General of Korea, as well as the memoirs of prisoners and prison staff including prison administrators and prison chaplains. With the onset of the wartime system, the labor work in prisons centered on the production of military supplies. In 1943, the labor mobilization began to organize the National Protection Corps and dispatch them to remote workplaces. For example, at the requests of the military, prisoners were selected and sent to Hainan Island, while others were sent to military factories and mining fields in the northern part of the country. The authorities specified and adjusted the criteria for imprisonment based on education, physical strength, and other physical and mental conditions. Unconverted ideological offenders were excluded from the mobilization, and instead put under separate control. In preparation for mobilization, the prisoners trained in military drills, received Japanese language education, and underwent assimilation as imperial subjects through the preaching in prison. In order to induce prisoners to volunteer, a legislation system based on the shortening of the prison terms, including the parole system, was also promoted under the wartime system. As a result, prisoners were forced to work harder and faster even under the lowest of wages, poor food and poor housing conditions, and they also filled vacancies in managerial positions by serving as supervisory assistants. The reward system for them, however, did not function properly towards the end of the war, and the number of escapes and infectious outbreaks, as well as mortality rates rapidly increased under the harsh conditions.