User:Chiy610/Oriental Development Company

Oriental Development Company (Shinjitai: 東洋拓殖株式会社, Hangul: 동양척식주식회사, Hanja: 東洋拓殖株式會社), established by the Empire of Japan in 1908 is a national enterprise which was built as one of colonial exploitation policies towards the Korean Empire and other countries in East Asia.

Foundation


In 1905, the Empire of Japan made a treaty with the Korean Empire called Eulsa Treaty. As a result, the Korean Empire became a protectorate of the Empire of Japan of Japan. This treaty deprived Korea of its diplomatic sovereignty. Not only that, this treaty also allowed the Empire of Japan to build the Japanese Government-General Building in Seoul, and dispatched a resident-general there.

This treaty gave rise to the the foundation of Japan-Korea Annexation Treaty of 1907, and soon, the National Diet of Japan passed the bill about the establishment of Oriental Development Company on March 1908. After the law was passed, the Imperial Japan forced the government of Korea to sign up the treaty. Even though it used to be managed by both the Korean Empire and the Empire of Japan, when the headquarter was moved to Tokyo in 1917, it became owned by only the Empire of Japan. In 1927, a Korean independent movement activist, Seokju Na, threw bombs to the Oriental Development Company building in Seoul and killed a few managers. However, soon, Oriental Development Company started to build another branches on other foreign areas such as Taiwan, Manchuria, Sakhalin, South Pacific Mandate. Eventually, they had built nine branches and hired over 800 people in 1938.

Migration Business
Due to the decreasing number of farmable lands in Japan, the Imperial Japan decided to establish migration policies which would help people to move to the Korean Peninsula to farm. This gave rises to a number of Japanese farmers coming to Korea. By 1917, Oriental Development Company accepted 1,000 families annualy, and by 1926, they had god 260 families per year too. Therefore, Oriental Development Company accepted about 9,000 families in total by 1926.

Land Investment
After the Cadastral Survey had been done by the Imperial Japan, Oriental Devlopment Company has bought one third farmable lands in the Korean Peninsula by late 1920s. Soon, they forced tenants who are farming on their lands to pay over 50% of their production for farm rents, also, when they loan money to petty farmers, they imposed over 20% of interet rates. As a result, about 299,000 Joseon farmers moved to northern Gando.

Other Investments
After the occurence of Mukden Incident in 1931, the Imperial Japan started to plan on transforming the Korean Peninsula into a supply base. Soon, Oriental Devlopment Company also participated in these plans by investing on electricity and railroads to exploit mines in the Korean Peninsula.

Aftermath
After Korea was liberated by the Allies, the United States Army Military Government in Korea decided to confiscate all the properties from Oriental Development Company in 1945. Soon, this became Shinhan Gongsa, and after the Republic of Korea was established, the lands belonged to Oriental Development Company were distributed to farmers in 1949 by the Land Reform.