The Commodification of Water and Power Relations between Japanese Settlers and Koreans in Late Nineteenth-Century Pusan

Sungkyun Journal of East Asian Studies Vol.16 No.1 © 2016 Academy of East Asian Studies. 25-51 email of the author: sungwoo.kang1231@gmail.com 25 Introduction In the modern world, access to potable water is often taken for granted as an aspect of everyday life. However, this was not the case until the advent of modern technologies and a modern state in most countries. In fact, in the pre-modern world, “there were some saving customs that had served to render many of the people more or less immune to the disease germs that were so widely distributed... [and] cold water, for instance, was not the most common beverage as it is with us” (Oliver 1940, 353). Therefore, access to clean water still proves to be one of the fundamental bases for sustainable development and “an intrinsically important indicator for human progress” in today’s modern world (Kevin Watkins et al. 2006). The issue of urban water supply is important not only for securing convenient access to drinking water for citizens, but also for meeting the public health concerns of a “modern” state. However, the installation and maintenance of a water supply system requires a significant amount of time and money. Consequently, in modern states, especially in urban areas, clean water has become a commodity that can be bought and sold, and the distribution of water has come to create inequality, reflecting power relations among citizens (Connolly 1974, 117). In particular, the unequal distribution of water in cities produces the physical-spatial segregation of urban populations according to “race, culture, occupation, and socio-economic status,” which, along with social relationships, determines the quality of life and a This paper investigates how the construction of a water supply system in Pusan, Korea, changed the concept of water from a public good for communal use to a commodity for sale to residents. In doing so, it aims to analyze the shifting power relations between Japanese settlers and Koreans that occurred because of the construction and development of the water supply system. In tracing the process of the commodification of water, it will closely examine the construction and development of the water supply system in Pusan, centered on three phases of construction that took place in the years 1894-1895, 1900-1902, and 1907-1910. It will also analyze the impact of the water supply system on the everyday lives of local people at the time, including both Japanese settlers and Koreans in Pusan, in order to highlight how the power relations between them were shaped and defined as reflected in access to water and “hygienic modernity.”