House in Somak Village of Uam-dong, Busan

After Liberation, in order to provide housing for returning compatriots and for the refugees who poured into Busan during the Korean War, cattle sheds — so-maksa, meaning "cattle barns" — were converted into dwellings, and the village vividly illustrates the lives of refugees at the time. It can also be regarded as modern heritage in that it has continued, down to the present, to serve as living space for the workers drawn to the area by the factories and port facilities built nearby during the period of industrialisation. During the Japanese colonial period, the Japanese reclaimed land from the sea around what is now the Uam-dong area of Busan and built industrial facilities together with a quarantine station and cattle sheds for exporting Korean cattle to Japan. The name "Uam-dong" is said to derive from a rock in the shape of a cow that once stood here, though changes to the terrain caused by the land reclamation mean the rock can no longer be found. Records show that nineteen cattle sheds were built at the time, of which the Uam-dong cattle shed is one. It served first as a shelter for cattle during the Japanese colonial period, then as housing for refugees after Liberation and during the Korean War, and subsequently, as industrialisation drew impoverished labourers into the city, as their living space — a role it continues to play today, carrying with it a distinctive historical background.

AI Translation

Where it is

Region

Nam-gu, Busan

Designation

Registered Cultural Heritage · 국가등록문화유산