三菱端島における労働者の性格について: 敗戦から1960年代後半までの石炭産業

The purpose of this paper is to examine the basic characteristics of miners, especially career, age, and origin, analyzing individual data of miners working in Hashima coal mine. In the latter half of the 1940s, many natives of the western regions of Chugoku and Shikoku worked in Hashima coal mine in northern Kyushu, just as they did in prewar days. However, in the first half of the 1950s when the coal industry was thriving, young people from the agricultural areas in southern Kyushu moved to northern Kyushu to work in the coal mines. The latter half of the 1950s witnessed a different phase when the coal industry became structurally depressed. Hashima coal mine mainly employed workers born in southern Kyushu who had worked in other northern Kyushu industries or collieries. In addition, three facts were proven by the analysis of miners' careers and occupations. First, workers from the agricultural areas were employed as untrained labour, and workers who had work experience in other industries or collieries were employed as skilled labour. Second, many workers' children were employed in Hashima coal mine as apprentices to skilled workers. Finally, in many cases miners with work experience in small- and medium-sized collieries were employed later in major colliery companies like Hashima coal mine.