Manchukuo and Chinese Laborers

Author: Xue Xue Shi et al. / Country:
Publisher:
Publishing Date: 2003-01-01
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2. During the recruitment of laborers under the management, the employer must report the purpose of recruitment, the number of people, labor conditions, and other necessary matters for recruitment control, and mediate if necessary.
3. Pay attention to the wages and treatment of laborers, especially taking appropriate measures to eliminate the exploitation of intermediaries, and prevent labor disputes among employers by having them sign agreements to stabilize the implementation of business.
4. Quickly investigate refugees, released persons, and those who have changed careers, as well as other laborers who can be utilized through special guidance and mediation, and closely cooperate to make full use of them as much as possible.
5. When the required number of laborers cannot be met during recruitment, a compulsory recruitment method can be adopted according to the purpose of use. In such cases, the wages and treatment of laborers, etc., are particularly ensured not to cause regrets. All of these are clearly measures taken to ensure laborers, and the fifth item explicitly records the implementation of "compulsory recruitment." So, what specific methods were considered? According to the "Explanation" of the order, the steps to ensure laborers are as follows:
First, each administrative agency conducts "preparations for mediation" to investigate the possible supply of laborers. As the first supply possibility, it confirms the number of refugees, released persons, and those who have changed careers within the jurisdiction, as well as other laborers who can be provided through special guidance and mediation (the specific meaning of "special guidance and mediation" is unclear). The second supply possibility is: the unemployed, family members receiving support, and those who can be persuaded to become laborers, etc. The third supply possibility is "to investigate the current status of various industries within the jurisdiction, complete the survey of the maximum possible number of compulsory recruitments, and establish connections." Regarding the mobilization of refugees and the unemployed, large-scale implementation has been carried out later (Urban Population Evacuation Emergency Countermeasure Outline, 1943). However, it is astonishing that, in addition to refugees and the unemployed, the possible number of other "compulsory recruitments" must also be calculated.
Second, the supply methods and standard labor conditions for laborers were proposed. The recruitment method is to determine the organizational standard for laborers as supply units, with the standard being the organization of laborers' teams (for example, setting one responsible person for every 10 laborers), and supplying them according to the required number of laborers in organizational units. As for the steps of laborer mediation, the first step is to determine the laborer recruitment organization. The recruitment organization, for example, is the head of the village and neighborhood during voluntary recruitment, and the head of the police station during compulsory recruitment. It is clear that recruitment is carried out with the help of administrative and police forces. The order also records that when laborers are mediated by private businesses, attention should be paid to supply capacity, etc., and it is requested that provinces and the Special City of Xinjing decide whether it is appropriate to carry out compulsory recruitment. Especially for the supply of laborers through compulsory recruitment, attention is paid to employment time, labor conditions, food, clothing, and housing issues, as well as the handling of illness and death, and the "proper guidance of laborers' national awareness," etc.
In contrast, the anxiety and resistance of laborers are quite strong. Therefore, in practice, after laborers are sent, if the place of work and the labor supply place are the same, the police at the place of work "continuously monitor whether they can complete the supply conditions according to the supply conditions and rely on communication from the organizational liaison person for internal monitoring, while fully protecting the laborers, and suppressing the unreasonable demands of laborers." In short, the protection of laborers is clearly stipulated, and it can be seen that the recruitment unit is in contact with the police and arranges the labor under strict supervision. If the place of work and the labor supply place are different, then the "responsible agency" of the mediation is responsible (the identity of the responsible agency is not clearly stated).
At the end, regarding the case of accepting from North China, two points are specially added. The first is about entry, "through the Kwantung Army, to the extent possible, absorb the laborers into Daito Company"; the second is to instruct the suppression of going abroad from "Manchukuo," that is, to encourage laborers to settle down through employment, and to prohibit going abroad if necessary. Since early on, the South Manchurian Railway (SMR) has been committed to improving the living conditions of its employees, mutual aid systems, medical facilities, and consumer cooperatives, as well as various welfare systems for employees. The consumer cooperatives provide relatively cheaper daily necessities to employees working and living in various parts of Manchuria. However, employees other than Japanese were only allowed to join the cooperatives after a period of time. As mentioned above, in this aspect, the principle of prioritizing Japanese employees has been implemented. Despite this, the Chinese workers of the South Manchurian Railway are still in a better position than general workers. The labor organization of the South Manchurian Railway's civil engineering work gradually formed during railway construction; its organizational form is closely related to the contracting enterprises (groups) that undertake the construction of railways, and the two rely on each other to form an integral whole.
1. The labor organization of the South Manchurian Railway's civil engineering work First, since the South Manchurian Railway adopts a contracting method for railway civil engineering work, with each contracting enterprise organizing the construction separately, the South Manchurian Railway is not concerned with labor issues in civil engineering work. In the organizational structure of the South Manchurian Railway, including the General Railway Bureau and its branches, only departments related to civil engineering, such as civil engineering, construction, and track maintenance, are set up, responsible for the basic tasks of constructing railways, railway auxiliary buildings, and track maintenance engineering, and mainly undertake tasks such as route selection, surveying, and inspection of technology, quality, and progress during construction, as well as the formation of engineering teams on-site, responsible for distributing materials such as rails supplied by the South Manchurian Railway, including operations, communication, and other specific tasks. In 1930, due to the impact of the world economic crisis on Northeast China, the South Manchurian Railway was severely affected, and labor issues became tense. At the same time, the anti-imperialist struggle of the people in Northeast China rose, and the Northeast Transportation Committee announced the long-planned plan for the three major railway lines, thereby exacerbating the labor issues of the South Manchurian Railway. Therefore, when the South Manchurian Railway carried out the eighth reform of its personnel system, it first added a labor department within the General Affairs Department, but its existence lasted only one year.
Second, after Japan occupied Northeast China and established a puppet government, "entrusted" the South Manchurian Railway to operate and construct railways throughout Northeast China. For this purpose, the South Manchurian Railway added a Railway Construction Bureau and a Railway General Bureau to its Railway Department (operating "company lines"), responsible for the construction of "company lines" and "national lines." Later, the operation of "company lines" and "national lines" was unified, and the Railway General Bureau was changed to the General Railway Bureau, which, in addition to unifying the operation of railways throughout Northeast China, also took charge of the construction, improvement, and maintenance of railways, and set up Railway Bureaus in Jilin, Harbin, Qiqihar, Jinzhou, and Mudanjiang to be responsible for the operation and construction of railways in each jurisdiction. During this period, the recruitment of road construction workers increased year by year, and the number of farmers from North China working in Northeast China also showed an increasing trend year by year. To prevent a large number of farmers from North China from entering Northeast China, the Kwantung Army Special Affairs Department established a Labor Control Committee to try to curb this trend. The committee required the South Manchurian Railway to submit the number of workers needed each year for centralized supply. At this time, the South Manchurian Railway also regarded labor issues as general business and did not add labor organizations.
Third, the July 7 Incident broke out, and the full-scale invasion of China by Japan began, and the labor supply issue became increasingly tense. At the same time, starting from 1938, incidents such as the Zhaogufeng, Nomunkan, and "Kwantung Special Performance" occurred successively, and the South Manchurian Railway undertook military engineering for the Kwantung Army in these areas (the civil engineering work of the South Manchurian Railway was contracted by enterprises; the military engineering of the Kwantung Army was contracted by the South Manchurian Railway), and the labor supply became even tighter. The South Manchurian Railway began to establish a Labor Countermeasure Committee to study the supply, adjustment, and preservation of labor workers. In April 1939, it first established a labor department within the Mudanjiang Railway Bureau to handle negotiations, preservation, and recruitment of laborers. In 1940, the "Outline for the Concentrated Management of Laborers" (8 points) and the "Principles for the Concentrated Management and Use of Laborers in Mudanjiang" (12 points) were formulated. According to this, in 1941, the first labor office was first established in the Linkou section of the Mudanjiang Railway Bureau, and then gradually another 10 were established, becoming the professional labor agencies of each Railway Bureau of the South Manchurian Railway. Their main tasks were to recruit, allocate, and reserve laborers. In 1943, during the 20th reform of the South Manchurian Railway's personnel system, a labor department was officially established in the General Affairs Bureau, responsible for all labor issues of the South Manchurian Railway until Japan's surrender.
Fourth, the labor organization of track maintenance work is also related to civil engineering labor. Initially, it was carried out by the track maintenance department, and later changed to the Railway Construction Office, to carry out construction work. Several track maintenance areas are divided for business lines, and track maintenance teams are set up under each area. Each area has one chief and one deputy, as well as one foreman, responsible for guiding and supervising the daily maintenance and facility improvement of the lines. Each team has one foreman, and one technician may be added as needed to manage the business of the team. Under them are earthworkers and woodworkers, that is, several labor workers, all of whom are recruited. Although each team has a small number of people, with a team set up every 5 to 12 kilometers, there are at least 1,000 teams on more than 10,000 kilometers of railways. Each team has 5 to 10 people, and the number of workers is between 5,000 and 10,000, which is a large number. Their work conditions are different from those of railway construction workers, and they are long-term recruited workers, mostly local people, so their labor conditions are also slightly different.
(1) Loading and unloading operations First, the loading and unloading operations of the Chinese laborers of Fukachang Company have the following three types: mother ship operations, ground operations, and coal loading and unloading operations. In the first half of the 1920s, there were almost no mechanical equipment such as cranes and tractors at the Dalian wharf, and "all operations were completed using the physical labor of Chinese laborers." Mother ship operations consist of loading operations and unloading operations, and the Chinese laborers engaged in the operations are organized into Chinese labor teams of about 50 people each, specializing in one ship's mouth, divided into four parts: outside the ship, along the ship's side, on the deck, and inside the ship, each performing their respective tasks. Ground operations consist of three parts: the storage of goods that have arrived, the transportation of goods, and miscellaneous tasks. The storage operation is to unload the goods that have arrived from the inland from the trucks and load them into the storage warehouse. The transportation operation is a unique operation of the wharf, connecting the storage area and the shore and the wharf, transferring goods from point A to point H within the wharf. The loading and unloading of railway freight cars are led by "two heads" (see below) and their subordinates, 17 or 18 Chinese laborers, organized into a group, responsible for two freight cars, respectively engaged in unloading, transportation, and loading operations. In addition, miscellaneous tasks are generated along with the above transportation, such as "reform" and "printing marks," most of which require some skilled labor. Coal operations are operations related to coal loading and unloading, which can be divided into two types: one is that each Chinese laborer carries a pole and a basket; the other is that each carries a shovel. The former uses a gangway to transport coal into the ship, and the latter fills the basket with coal. Each load of coal carried by the Chinese laborer is about 84 jin (about 50 kilograms).
(2) Chinese laborer income and the function of the small laborer head system The Fukachang Company deducts 20% to 30% from the total operation wages paid by the Dalian wharf office and pays the rest to the Chinese labor heads. The Chinese labor heads deduct 1.0% and the share of one Chinese laborer, and the rest is allocated as wages for their subordinates. A Chinese labor team of 60 people, each person's share is equivalent to 1.7%, so the Chinese labor heads can deduct 11.7% from the wages paid by the Fukachang Company. For example, in 1924, the total wages paid by the Fukachang Company to the Chinese labor heads were 15,210,111.32 yuan, and 11.7% of it was 1,779,583.2 yuan, which was the share of 284 Chinese labor heads, with an average income of about 626.61 yuan per Chinese labor head. The income of the Chinese laborers used by the Fukachang Company is slightly inferior to that of Chinese laborers in other enterprises. Because the total wages for loading and unloading labor paid by the wharf office must be deducted by the Fukachang Company (20% to 30%) and the Chinese labor heads (11.7%) before reaching the hands of each Chinese laborer. Moreover, the Chinese labor heads, who manage the daily lives of Chinese laborers, also exploit them under various names. The average daily income of each Chinese laborer is 0.47 yuan in small silver from the number of Chinese laborers in Jushi Mountain Village and 0.69 yuan in small silver from the number of Chinese laborers attending Dalian wharf. The average monthly working days of Chinese laborers are about 22 days, and the monthly income of Chinese laborers is about 13.74 yuan, with an average annual income of about 152.92 yuan. Each Chinese laborer receives his own wages three times a month. The wages of the Chinese laborers of the Fukachang Company are relatively low compared to other enterprises, but to a certain extent, Chinese laborers can stay in the Fukachang Company. The reason is that according to the survey of the Chinese labor system of the wharf office (January 1926), mainly: , winter is the peak season for loading and unloading operations at the wharf, which is different from other businesses in "Manchukuo," so Chinese laborers engaged in civil engineering contracting can fully utilize their off-season. Second, within a certain range, food, clothing, and housing can be guaranteed. These conditions make it possible for the Fukachang Company to force Chinese laborers to engage in loading and unloading labor. At the same time, through the above "small laborer head system," the function of governing Chinese laborers has also played an important role in the recruitment and stability of Chinese laborers. The small Chinese labor head "leads the subordinates, gives them work, and commands and supervises them in other aspects." The number of Chinese laborers under each Chinese labor head is about 30 to 60 people, and it is said that some Chinese labor heads also have two or three "helps." In a "help" under the jurisdiction of a Chinese labor head, in addition to most Chinese laborers, there are usually two "two heads," one "teacher," and one "big laborer" and one "small laborer." The so-called "two heads" are "divided the laborers into two parts according to the instructions of the Chinese labor head, and take them to the loading and unloading site to receive and engage in the assigned tasks, arrange, command, and supervise the operations, and be responsible for all communication and negotiation related to the operations, so that their subordinates can fully complete the tasks. At the same time, the two heads also participate in labor themselves, both commanding the labor of the Chinese laborers and directly engaging in labor," which is a field position. They can avoid the 0.245 yuan fee collected by Jushi Mountain Village because they engage in field labor supervision. The so-called "teacher" works under the leadership of the Chinese labor head, engaged in clerical work, records the amount of work at the site of loading and unloading operations, adjusts the excess or shortage of laborer workloads; in Jushi Mountain Village, responsible for accounting and payment of wages for Chinese laborers. "Big laborer" and "small laborer" are responsible for the canteen of Chinese laborers in Jushi Mountain Village. The Chinese labor head maintains the "help" through direct instructions and manipulation of the above "two heads," "teacher," "big laborer," and "small laborer," and comprehensively governs the labor and life of Chinese laborers.