1940年代における樺太農業移民政策の転換 : 樺太からみる近代日本の植民地農業移民(2008年度シンポジウム 20世紀世界の農業と移動-移民・入植・難民-)

抄録

One of the current issues of the historical researches on the agricultural emigrants in modern Japan is to draw a total view of the emigrants from mainland Japan to each colonial area of the Japanese Empire. This article analyzes the agricultural emigrant policy of Karafuto, or South Sakhalin, in 1940s so that the result of the analysis will contribute to the issue. In Karafuto, they adopted a policy that the emigrants from mainland Japan were to be settled in the southern part of Karafuto, promoting the beets production, until 1940. In reality, however, the majority of the agricultural emigrants were settled in the northern part of Karafuto, and they found it difficult to conduct the beets production there. In addition, the sugar company which purchased the beets from the emigrants ran a deficit in 1940. Then, they changed the agricultural emigrant policy in 1940. The new policy promoted the large-scale mechanization agriculture which did not require the emigrants as labor power. The statutory company was established as an organization to conduct the agriculture section in 1941. The agricultural section was expected to run a deficit so that the company set up other several sections to compensate the agricultural section's deficit. As a result, the forestry section and the fur industry section grew to be the core business of the company, and the agricultural section was stagnant until 1945. In 1930s, the statutory companies were established in each colonial area. These companies promoted the policy of the agricultural emigrants from mainland Japan. This case study on Karafuto suggests that the integrated comparative studies on these statutory companies are required in order to totally understand the agricultural emigrants from the mainland Japan to the colonial areas.