The Chosun Governor General Office's Administration regarding Official Documents

조선총독부 공문서(公文書) 제도 -기안(起案)에서 성책(成冊)까지의 과정을 중심으로-

In this article, the elements usually included in the official documents issued by the Chosun Governor General office, the process of a certain document being put together and legally authorized, and its path of circulation and preservation are all examined. In order to create an official document of the Governor General office with legal authorization, a draft of a bill had to go through several discussions and a subsequent agreement before it was finally approved. Personnels involved in the discussion stage had the authority to ask for modifications and retouching of the draft, and the modifying process were all recorded in order to make clear who was responsible for a certain change or who objected to what at any given stage of the process. The approved version of an official document was called the 'Completed one(成案), and it was issued after the contents were turned into a fair copy by the office that originated the draft in the first place. With the original finalized version left in custody of that office, the fair copy was handed over to the Document department which was responsible for issuing outgoing documents. After the document was issued and the contained orders were carried out, the originally involved offices began to classify the documents according to their own standards and measures for safekeeping, but it was the Document department that was mainly responsible for document preservation. The Document department classified the documents according to related offices, nature of the documents(편찬류별), and most suitable preservation methods(보존종별). The documents were made into books, and documents to be permanently destroyed were handed over to the Account office where they would be demolished. The manners of document processing of the Chosun Governor General office was in fact a modified version of the manners of the Japanese government. Modifications were made so that the process would be more suitable to the situations and environment of the Chosun society. The office's managing process was inherited by the Chosun government after the Liberation, and cast a significant impact upon the document managing manners of the Korean authorities. The official document administration of the Chosun Governor General office marked both the beginning of the colony document administration, and also the beginning of a modernized document managing system.