¹ Unless otherwise specified, for the purposes of this study ‘opium’ is defined as the juice of the white poppy (papaverum somniferum), which in its original state is called raw opium and when rendered suitable for smoking by a process of boiling is called prepared opium. ‘Narcotics’ is defined primarily as the opium derivatives heroin and morphine and their various salts, and to a lesser degree cocaine, which is derived from the coca leaf. Throughout this study, the term ‘drugs’ will be used alternately with ‘opium and narcotics’.Google Scholar

² Pritchard, R. John and Zale, Sonia Magbanua (eds), The Tokyo War Crimes Trial, vol. 20, Judgement and Annexes (New York: Garland Publishing Inc., 1981), 49, 160.Google Scholar

³ Merrill, Frederick T., Japan and the Opium Menace (New York: International Secretariat, Institute of Pacific Relations and the Foreign Policy Association, 1941), 77–9;Google ScholarGrajdanzev, Andrew J., Modern Korea (New York: Institute of Pacific Relations, 1944), 38–41, 212–19 passim.Google Scholar For an example of recent Japanese scholarship, see Kei'ichi, Eguchi, Nitchū ahen sensō [The Sino-Japanese opium war] (Tokyo: Iwanami Shinsho, 1988), 33–5.Google Scholar

⁴ Sankei, Nishigame, ‘Mayakurui no ranyō bōshi no shisetsu’ [Facilities for the prevention of narcotics abuse], in Sōtokufu, Chōsen, Chōsen sōran [Overview of Korea] (Seoul: Chōsen Sōtokufu, 1933), 751;Google ScholarTsunatarō, Aoyagi, Chōsen tōchi ron [Treatise on rule over Korea] (Seoul: Chōsen Kenkyūkai, 1923), 775;Google ScholarSōtokufu, Chōsen, Senbaikyoku, , Chōsen senbai shi [The history of monopolies in Korea] (Seoul: Chōsen Sōtokufu Senbaikyoku, 1936), 3:479.Google Scholar

⁵ Nishigame, , ‘Mayakurui no ranyō bōshi,’ 751.Google Scholar

⁶ Aoyagi, , Chōsen tōchi ron, 775;Google ScholarShingo, Nakamura, Chōsen shisei hatten shi [The history of the development of administration in Korea] (Seoul: Chōsen Hattensha), 603;Google ScholarSenbaikyoku, , Chōsen senbai shi, 3:479.Google Scholar

⁷ Nishigame, , ‘Mayakurui no ranyō bōshi,’ 751;Google ScholarSenbaikyoku, , Chōsen senbai shi, 3:479;Google ScholarAoyagi, , Chōsen tōchi ron, 775.Google Scholar

⁸ A lone exception was the United States, which followed a policy of complete prohibition of opium smoking in the Philippines.

⁹ Aoyagi, , Chōsen tōchi ron, 775;Google ScholarSenbaikyoku, , Chōsen senbai shi, 3:479. The use of the term ‘semi-compulsory’ in connection with the Japanese police in Korea is certainly novel.Google Scholar

¹⁰ Merrill, , Japan and the Opium Menace,15.Google Scholar

¹¹ Nishigame, , ‘Mayakurui no ranyō bōshi,’ 753.Google Scholar

¹² ‘Opium in Korea,’ The Korea Review 6 (07 1906): 248–51.Google Scholar

¹³ , H. I. J. M.'s Residency-General, The Second Annual Report on Reforms and Progress in Korea (1908–1909) (Seoul: H. I. J. M.'s Residency-General, 1909), 163.Google Scholar

¹⁴ For a description of the Opium Law, see below.Google Scholar

¹⁵ For the complete text of the regulations for the control of morphine, cocaine, and their salts, see Senbaikyoku, , Chōsen senbai shi, 3:503–5.Google Scholar

¹⁶ Nishigame, , ‘Mayakurui no ranyō bōshi,’ 756.Google Scholar

¹⁷ Ibid.. Most of the narcotics smuggled into Korea were produced in the Osaka area.

¹⁸ Foreign Office, The Opium Trade (Dover, Del.: Scholarly Resources, Inc., 1974), 4:XV, 01–06 1921, no. 126 enclosure;Google Scholar‘Moruhine chūdoku to tōkyoku no shinji’ [Morphine addiction and the thoughts of the authorities], Tōa Nippō, 29 10 1924, in Sōtokufu, Chōsen, Keimukyoku, , Toshoka, , Genbun shinbun sashiosae kiji shūroku [Collection of censored newspaper articles] (Seoul: Chōsen Sōtokufu Keimukyoku, 1932), 1:201.Google Scholar

¹⁹ Toraji, Kikuchi, ‘Ahen gaidoku undō ni kansuru iken’ [An opinion concerning the movement of the opium evil], in Toraji, Kikuchi et al. , Ahen mondai no kenkyū [Studies on the opium problem] (Tokyo: Kokusai Renmei Kyōkai, 1928), 9.Google Scholar

²⁰ Mantetsu, , Chōsakai, Keizai, Dai-Go-Bu, , Chōsen ahen mayaku seido chōsa hōkoku [Report on the investigation of the Korean opium and narcotics system], Mimeograph report marked ‘secret,’ 30 06 1932, National Diet Library, Tokyo, Japan, 22.Google Scholar

²¹ Nishigame, , ‘Mayakurui no ranyō bōshi,’ 753–4.Google Scholar

²² Kyūgōkai, Mayaku Chūdokusha, Mayaku chūdokusha kyūgokai nenpō: Shōwa jūsannen [1938 yearbook of the Society for the Relief of Drug Addicts] (Tokyo: Mayaku Chūdokusha Kyūgōkai, 1939), 1, 10. Although there were no national statistics on the number of Korean drug addicts in Japan, an investigation by the municipal government in 1929 revealed a total of 3,700 in Osaka. In 1932, a similar investigation by the Tokyo municipal authorities estimated that 3,000 out of a total of 34,000 Korean residents of Tokyo were drug addicts.Google Scholar

²³ Senbaikyoku, , Chōsen senbai shi, 3:513–15;Google ScholarSōtokufu, Chōsen, Shisei sanjū-nen shi [The history of thirty years of administration] (Seoul: Chōsen Sōtokufu, 1940), 217.Google Scholar

²⁴ Mantetsu, , Chōsen ahen mayaku seido,23;Google ScholarNishigame, , ‘Mayakurui no ranyō bōshi,’ 757. Two treatment methods were employed: gradual withdrawal, and a method discovered in 1926 by Suo Masasue, then head of Keiki Province's Hygiene Bureau. The Suo Method, which involved the use of a drug called ‘anchimoru’ in the treatment process, was reportedly highly effective and much quicker than gradual withdrawal.Google ScholarShingo, Tazawa (ed.), Ahen shiryō [Data on opium] (Taipei: Senbai Tsūshin, 1932), 50.Google Scholar

²⁵ Mantetsu, , Chōsen ahen mayaku seido, 23. However, in 1927 the Government-General began to make an annual budget appropriation of 20,000 yen for the maintenance of treatment centers in the 5 provinces with the most addicts. Beginning in 1931, the annual appropriation was increased to 30,000 yen.Google ScholarSōtokufu, Chōsen, Shisei sanjū-nen shi, 217;Google ScholarNishigame, , ‘Mayakurui no ranyō bōshi,’ 757–8.Google Scholar

²⁶ Nishigame, , ‘Mayakurui no ranyō bōshi,’ 757. On the lack of thoroughness in carrying out addict registration, see Mantetsu, Chōsen ahen mayaku seido, 25–6. Because of a lack of reliable data, estimates of the total number of drug addicts in Korea varied widely. Official sources put the figure at 10–15,000, while the Japanese Society for the Prevention of Opium Addiction came up with a much higher total of 70–100,000.Google ScholarNishigame, , ‘Mayakurui no ranyō bōshi,’ 750.Google Scholar

²⁷ Nishigame, , ‘Mayakurui no ranyō bōshi,’ 757–8;Google ScholarRingi, Ikeda, Chōsen no kōseijin o nozoku [A look at the regeneration of Korea] (Seoul: Katsubunsha, 1934), 88–9.Google Scholar

²⁸ Ikeda, , Chōsen no kōseijin, 88–9.Google Scholar

²⁹ Sōtokufu, Chōsen, Shisei sanjū-nen shi, 383.Google Scholar

³⁰ Ibid., 863.

³¹ Hiroshi, Saitō, 'Dai-Tōa no tokushu shigen (ahen)’ [Special resources of Greater East Asia (opium)], 09 1943, in Zoku: Gendai shi shiryō 12: Ahen mondai [Documents on modern history 12: The opium problem] (Tokyo: Misuzu Shobō, 1986), 23.Google Scholar

³² Senbaikyoku, , Chōsen senbai shi, 3:482.Google Scholar

³³ Despite an annual average demand of 43,000 kan (161,250 kilograms) of raw opium from 1915 to 1917, only 136 kan (510 kilograms) of opium were produced in Japan in 1918. Senbaikyoku, , Chōsen senbai shi, 3:482–3.Google Scholar

³⁴ Senbaikyoku, , Chōsen senbai shi, 3:483.Google Scholar

³⁵ Ibid., 3:481. Although official sources do not provide any data on the amount of opium produced, it is known that the total area of poppy cultivation in 1918 was 350 chōbu (347 hectares).

³⁶ Mantetsu, , Chōsen ahen mayaku seido, 3;Google ScholarAoyagi, , Chōsen tōchi ron, 776;Google ScholarSenbaikyoku, ,Chōsen senbai shi, 3:481–2.Google Scholar

³⁷ On the necessity of instituting a more thorough system of opium control, see Aoyagi, , Chōsen tōchi ron, 776;Google ScholarSenbaikyoku, , Chōsen senbai shi, 3:480.Google Scholar

³⁸ The Government-General planned to produce 10,000 kan (37,500 kilograms) of opium annually in order to achieve narcotics self-sufficiency in Korea and to export morphine and heroin to Japan, China (including Manchuria and Mongolia), and Nan'yo. Mantetsu, Chōsen ahen mayaku seido, 3–4.Google Scholar For more details on the narcotics self-sufficiency drive, see Senbaikyoku, , Chōsen senbai shi, 3:482–3.Google Scholar

³⁹ The Government-General's opium monopoly plan was subject to the approvalof the Japanese Government. Mantetsu, Chōsen ahen mayaku seido, 4.Google Scholar

⁴⁰ For the complete text of the Opium Law, see Senbaikyoku, , Chōsen senbai shi, 3:485–8.Google Scholar

⁴¹ Aoyagi, , Chōsen tōchi ron, 776; Mantetsu, , Chōsen ahen mayaku seido, 5–6;Google ScholarSōtokufu, Chōsen, Shisei sanjū-nen shi, 302.Google Scholar

⁴² Senbaikyoku, , Chōsen senbai shi, 3:526, 531. The postwar slump in opium prices is best reflected in the following statistics: in 1919, the unit price of the opium crop was 20 yen per tan (993 square meters), but in 1920 it dropped to 6.40 yen per tan. The average unit price from 1921–1930 was approximately 8 yen per tan. See appendix, table 3.Google Scholar

⁴³ Because the Opium Law was enacted after the 1919 planting season, the authorities granted a dispensation to poppy farmers for that year. Opium prices in 1919 continued to ride the wartime boom. Senbaikyoku, , Chōsen senbai shi, 3:524, 531.Google Scholar

⁴⁴ Mantetsu, , Chōsen ahen mayaku seido, 11;Google ScholarSenbaikyoku, , Chōsen senbai shi, 3:526. For annual statistics on opium production, see appendix, table 1.Google Scholar

⁴⁵ Mantetsu, , Chōsen ahen mayaku seido, 8, 11. The authorities encouraged the practice of poppy planting on barren and rocky soil, increasing the designated cultivation area in the plateau regions of Kankyō Nandō and Kankyō Hokudō provinces.Google ScholarSenbaikyoku, , Chōsen senbai shi, 3:526.Google Scholar

⁴⁶ Makoto, Matsumoto, ‘Chōsen ni okeru senbai jigyō no gaiyō’ [Outline of monopoly enterprises in Korea], in Chōsen sōran, 877;Google ScholarSenbaikyoku, , Chōsen senbai shi, 3:515.Google Scholar

⁴⁷ Senbaikyoku, , Chōsen senbai shi, 3:515.Google Scholar

⁴⁸ Ibid., 3:495, 515. The transfer of authority to the Police Bureau is probably due to the fact that the drop in production made the participation of the Monopoly Bureau in opium control unnecessary.

⁴⁹ Matsumoto, , ‘Chōsen ni okeru senbai jigyō,’ 878;Google ScholarSōtokufu, Chōsen, Shisei sanjūnen shi, 163;Google ScholarSenbaikyoku, , Chōsen senbai shi, 3:515.Google Scholar

⁵⁰ For a table listing the division of authority over opium control, see Senbaikyoku, , Chōsen senbai shi, 3:516–18. The opium control system was not revised again until May 1942, when jurisdiction over opium affairs was transferred from the Monopoly Bureau to the Welfare Bureau. The Welfare Bureau was then abolished in November 1942, and jurisdiction was transferred to the Hygiene Department of the Police Bureau. In an ironic conclusion, jurisdiction was finally returned to the Monopoly Bureau in April 1943.Google ScholarSōtokufu, Chōsen, Chōsen jijō: 1944 [Korean affairs, 1944] (Seoul: Chōsen Sōtokufu, 1943), 171–2.Google Scholar

⁵¹ For criticism of opium control at the local level, see Mantetsu, Chōsen ahen mayaku seido, 5–6, 11–12. The Mantetsu report also notes that local police were given instructions not to allow poppy cultivation around police stations, in order to avoid the misperception that they were encouraging opium production. As the report wryly notes, those instructions ‘conjure up an image of a policeman standing rigidly at attention in front of a police station, surrounded by poppy flowers in magnificent bloom.’Google Scholar

⁵² Details of the Taishō scandal and its impact on narcotics production are taken from Senbaikyoku, Chōsen senbai shi, 3:498–9. A similar scandal occurred in Taiwan at about the same time, when employees of the Hoshi Pharmaceutical Company were arrested for smuggling crude morphine to the Kwantung Leased Territory. Kwantung's port city of Dairen was a major source of illicit drugs smuggled into China.Google Scholar

⁵³ The Monopoly Bureau's production of heroin and morphine amounted to a de facto government monopoly, although it was apparently never put into law. Sōtokufu, Chōsen, Shisei sanjū-nen shi, 217;Google ScholarMantetsu, , Chōsen ahen mayaku seido, 17–18. Nishigame mistakenly states that narcotics became a government monopoly in 1929. Nishigame, ‘Mayakurui no ranyō bōshi,‘ 757.Google Scholar

⁵⁴ Mantetsu, , Chōsen ahen mayaku seido, 15–16, 19.Google Scholar

⁵⁵ For official opium and narcotics production statistics, see appendix, tables 1–2.Google Scholar

⁵⁶ For details on the implementation of the drug addict registration and treatment program, see above.Google Scholar

⁵⁷ Mantetsu, , Chōsen ahen mayaku seido, 16Google Scholar

⁵⁸ Iinkai, Ahen, Takumu Daijin Hara Shūjirō [The Opium Committee, Colonial Minister Hara Shūjirō], ‘Dai-ni gian: Taiwan Sōtokufu Senbaikyoku sosei moruhine no shobun ni kansuru ken’ [Second measure: concerning the disposal of Taiwan Government-General Monopoly Bureau crude morphine], Mimeograph manuscript marked ‘secret,’ dated 17 April 1931, in bound collection of unpublished documents titled Mayaku kankei bunsho [Documents concerning narcotics], Tōyō Bunka Kenkyūjo, Tokyo University.Google Scholar

⁵⁹ Ibid. At the end of 1930, the stocks were estimated to total 20,000 pounds (9,000 kilograms). In 1927, Taiwan began to export crude morphine to Japan, where it was also used for morphine production. However, Japan alone was unable to absorb the entire amount of crude morphine in the Taiwan Monopoly Bureau stocks.

⁶⁰ Japan, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Dai-jūichi Ahen Iinkai: Shōwa jūni-nen jū-gatsu jūroku-nichi (Doyōbi) gozen jū-ji sanjū-pun Naimushō dai-ichi kaigishitsu ni okeru kaisai su [The nth Opium Committee: held in conference room number one of the Interior Ministry on October 16, 1937 (Saturday) at 10:30 a.m.], Microfilm WT Series, Reel no. 81, 26, 33. For more on the suspension of narcotics production in Korea, see above.Google Scholar

⁶¹ Iinkai, Ahen, Shūjirō, Takumu Daijin Hara, ‘Dai-san gian: Chōsen Sōtokufu hōkan nama ahen oyobi Kantōchō hōkan moruhine no sōgo hōkan tenkan ni kansuru ken’ [Third measure: Concerning the mutual transfer of Korean Government- General raw opium stocks and Kwantung Bureau morphine stocks], Mimeograph manuscript marked ‘secret,’ dated 17 April 1931, in Mayaku kankei bunsho.Google Scholar

⁶² Ibid. Korean opium was used to adulterate high-grade Turkish and Persian opium in the mixing of smoking paste, but Kwantung smokers apparently found the mixture satisfying. Because the morphine content (the criterion for judging opium quality) of Korean opium was generally just over ten percent, it was not up to the level of vintage opium from India, Turkey, and Persia, but instead rated as a respectable vin ordinaire.

⁶³ League of Nations, Traffic in Opium and Other Dangerous Drugs: Annual Reports By Governments For 1938: Japan, C 13. M11. 1940XI, Geneva, 1940, 7.Google Scholar

⁶⁴ Merrill, , Japan and the Opium Menace, 109. Manchukuo official publications put the total number of drug addicts at approximately 900,000.Google ScholarFor example, see The Manchoukuo Year Book 1942 (Hsinking: The Manchoukuo Year Book Company, 1942), 966.Google Scholar

⁶⁵ The request was made to the Opium Committee, a body composed of representatives from the Foreign, Interior, Colonial, and Health Ministries and the Governments- General of Taiwan and Korea, which coordinated opium policy in the Japanese Empire. After deliberating on a particular issue, the Opium Committee would then pass on its recommendations to the Cabinet for final approval.Google Scholar

⁶⁶ League of Nations, Advisory Committee on Traffic in Opium and Other Dangerous Drugs (hereafter, OAC), Minutes of the Twenty-Third Session: Held at Geneva from June yth to 24th, 1938, C. 249. M. 147. 1938. XI, Geneva 1938, 54. The growth of the raw opium export trade had a salutary effect on the unit value of opium in Korea, which would have made it an increasingly attractive crop for farmers. See appendix, table 3.Google Scholar

⁶⁷ Sōtokufu, Chōsen, Senbaikyoku, , Chōsen Sōtokufu Senbaikyoku dai-nijūu-kai nenpō [The twentieth yearbook of the Korea Government-General Monopoly Bureau] (Seoul: Chōsen Sōtokufu Senbaikyoku, 1941), 115.Google Scholar

⁶⁸ Merrill, , Japan and the Opium Menace, 77–8.Google Scholar

⁶⁹ OAC, Minutes of the Twenty-Third Session, 54.Google Scholar

⁷⁰ Ibid., 63.

⁷¹ Commander-in-Chief United States Army Forces, Pacific, Summation of United States Military Government Activities in Korea, no. 6 (03 1946), 13.Google Scholar

⁷² Ibid., 11.

⁷³ For examples of contemporary references to the activities of Korean drug traffickers in China, see Merrill, , Japan and the Opium Menace, 94; ‘Japanese Fostered Morphine and Heroin Trade in the Peiping-Tientsin District,’ The China Weekly Review, 13 April 1935, 207–8;Google ScholarDai, Bingham, ‘The Opium Condition in Manchuria: The Report of an Investigation Conducted in May and June, 1929,’ Opium: A World Problem, 3 (04 1930): 7, 18.Google Scholar

⁷⁴ Susumu, Hōshuyama, ‘Kita-Man no ahen (1)’ [Opium in northern Manchuria (1)], Ro-A jihō [The Russia-Asia report], no. 154 (August 1932): 13–14.Google Scholar

⁷⁵ Sōryqjikan, Zai-Harubin Nihon [Japanese Consulate, Harbin], ‘Kita-Man zaijū Chōsenjin no jōkyō’ [The situation of Koreans living in northern Manchuria], 05 1922, in Kenkyōjo, Kankoku Shiryō, Chōsen tōchi shiryō dai-jū-kan: Zai-gai Kanjin [Historical materials on rule over Korea volume 10: Koreans living abroad] (Tokyo: Kyōwa Shuppansha, 1971), 289.Google Scholar

⁷⁶ Isao, Sanko, Ahen no hanashi [The story of opium], Mantetsu Panfuretto no. 6 (Dairen: Mantetsu Shomubu Chōsaka, 1924), 16–17.Google Scholar

⁷⁷ ‘Kita-Man zaijū Chōsenjin,’ 290.Google Scholar

⁷⁸ Ibid., 290–1.

⁷⁹ Merrill, , Japan and the Opium Menace,94.Google Scholar

⁸⁰ For example, the Japanese representative to the June 1938 session of the Opium Advisory Committee pointed to the expulsion of 60 Korean drug peddlers from Peking as evidence that the Japanese authorities were cleaning up the city. OAC, Minutes of the Twenty-Third Session, 48.Google Scholar

⁸¹ Powell, J. B., ‘Opium and Narcotics in Harbin and Mukden,’ The China Weekly Review, 30 11 1929, 489.Google Scholar