The Repatriation of Ethnic Koreans in Japan: A Project of Deception

​By Timothy Goo, HRNK Research Intern
Edited by Rosa Park, HRNK Director of Programs and Editor and Benjamin Fu, HRNK Research Intern
​
August 6, 2020

Between December 1959 and July 1984, more than 93,000 ethnic Koreans living in Japan returned to Supreme Leader Kim Il-sung’s communist state, North Korea, in hopes of securing a better future for themselves.[1] The assistance provided by the North Korea-affiliated General Association of Korean Residents in Japan, an organization that gained the support of more than 90% of ethnic Koreans in Japan and was often referred to as chongryun in Korean or soren in Japanese, allowed the regime to deceptively publicize itself as “paradise on Earth.”[2] One of the most effective forms of propaganda was distributing an image that included beautiful women removing luscious apples from a tree while surrounded by North Korea’s “modern” cityscapes.[3] Considering how the ethnic Korean population historically endured an arduous life in Japan due to pervasive ethnic discrimination, an absence of civil rights, and limited educational opportunities, one can deduce that this campaign motivated many Koreans to relocate to North Korea.

​The most surprising and ineluctable reality is that the vast majority of these Koreans migrating to North Korea from Japan were originally from the southern half of the Korean Peninsula.[4] However, returning to South Korea was not a viable alternative for ethnic Koreans living in Japan. Syngman Rhee, the president of South Korea at the time, refused to accept them because the country was still struggling to recover from the violent contention that occurred between 1950 and 1953.[5] As a result, many of these Koreans moved to a country that they had never actually been to before. After examining the data of the first 5,936 individuals who returned to North Korea beginning from December 1959, the social composition of those returning predominantly included workers as well as merchants, owners of small businesses, scientists, persons in the arts, specialists, office workers, peasants, students, and unemployed people.[6]

Upon arriving in North Korea, these migrants experienced a lifestyle that was completely different from what they had originally expected. North Korea was not a country that ensured prosperity and jubilation for these migrants. Instead, the country caused countless individuals to experience intense agony and live under destitute conditions that were even worse than what these migrants had experienced in Japan. They were consigned to the lower ranks of North Korea’s socio-political classification system (songbun).[7] Hiroko Sakakibara, an ethnic Korean who grew up in Japan but eventually moved to North Korea with her parents in May 1961, explained how officials coerced her father, who was a former construction worker in Japan, to perform manual farming in the countryside. Sakakibara’s father was constantly debilitated and struggled to deal with the stress of meeting his quotas. Unable to withstand the psychological and physical torment in North Korea, “he suffered a mental breakdown and was locked in a hospital for the mentally ill, where he died in 1964.”[8] Manabu Ishikawa was another individual who moved to North Korea at the age of 14 with his older sister in 1972.[9] He shared how his sister was excited to live in North Korea because she was unable to advance towards a college education in Japan and had seen an advertisement that claimed that anybody could study in North Korea. Upon arrival in North Korea, authorities informed his sister of the devastating news that women were unable to seek a college education in North Korea. The oppression in North Korea, which these two stories have demonstrated, was exacerbated by the fact that a great number of ethnic Korean migrants even received arbitrary penalties and ended up in the kwan-li-so and kyo-hwa-so prison camps.[10] Cases that involved vanishing prisoners were associated with the kwan-li-so.[11] While the North Korean government is public about operating kyo-hwa-so detention centers, they deny all former and current allegations that kwan-li-so facilities exist.[12] However, first-person testimonies from former guards, inmates, and neighbors convincingly refute North Korea’s claims concerning the kwan-li-so.[13] There is little to no doubt that many ethnic Koreans regretted their decision and sought to return to Japan. Tragically, the repatriation project was a one-way trip that intended to recruit more laborers for Kim Il-sung and diminish the ethnic Korean population in Japan.[14] At the end of the day, approximately 93,000 ethnic Koreans residing in Japan were lured to North Korea, and most were never allowed to return to Japan.[15]

However, there were some, such as Hiroko Sakakibara and Manabu Ishikawa, who were fortunate enough to escape. The escapees’ courage to risk their lives and speak publicly about their personal experiences with the media and at human rights conferences has provided valuable insight into North Korea’s past and present crimes against humanity. It is vitally important that the world makes the best use of this information by reprimanding the regime for its cruelties and demanding change, including freedom of travel for those ethnic Koreans from Japan still trapped in North Korea. Without the world’s unified cooperation and intervention, the most unimaginable and inhumane conditions will continue in North Korea. The rest of the world, undoubtedly, has the moral, ethical, and legal obligation to assist.

Timothy Goo recently completed his B.A. in International Relations at Wheaton College.

[1] Keun Woo Nam, “Rethinking the Korean Repatriation Program: The Change from an ‘Aid Economy’ to a ‘Hostage Economy’,” Korean Social Sciences Review Vol. 2, No. 2 (2012): 219-251, 
http://s-space.snu.ac.kr/bitstream/10371/79840/1/07_Nam%20Keun%20Woo_OK2.pdf.
[2] Rennie Moon, “Koreans in Japan,” Stanford Program on International and Cross-Cultural Education (2010), 
​https://spice.fsi.stanford.edu/docs/koreans_in_japan.
[3] Simon Denyer, “They were promised a ‘paradise’ in North Korea. They are now suing over the lies.,” Washington Post, September 30, 2018, 
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/they-went-to-north-korea-promised-a-paradise-they-are-now-suing-over-the-lies/2018/09/28/b6a4765a-b246-11e8-a810-4d6b627c3d5d_story.html.
[4] Tessa Morris-Suzuki, “Exodus to North Korea Revisited: Japan, North Korea, and the ICRC in the ‘Repatriation’ of Ethnic Koreans from Japan,” The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus Vol. 9, No. 2 (May 24, 2011), https://apjjf.org/2011/9/22/Tessa-Morris-Suzuki/3541/article.html.
[5] “N. Korea Faces Calls to Apologize for Repatriation of Korean Japanese in 1959,” KBS World, November 11, 2013, 
http://world.kbs.co.kr/service/news_view.htm?Seq_Code=149340&lang=e.
[6] “Journal of Soviet Ambassador in the DPRK A.M. Puzanov for 4 February 1960,” History and Public Policy Program Digital Archive, AVPRF fond 0102, opis 16, delo 6 (February 4, 1960): 28-61, Translated for NKIDP by Gary Goldberg, 
https://digitalarchive.wilsoncenter.org/document/116276.
[7] Robert Collins, Marked for Life: Songbun, North Korea’s Social Classification System (Washington, DC: The Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, 2012), https://www.hrnk.org/uploads/pdfs/HRNK_Songbun_Web.pdf.
[8] Simon Denyer, “They were promised a ‘paradise’ in North Korea. They are now suing over the lies.,” Washington Post, September 30, 2018, 
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/asia_pacific/they-went-to-north-korea-promised-a-paradise-they-are-now-suing-over-the-lies/2018/09/28/b6a4765a-b246-11e8-a810-4d6b627c3d5d_story.html.
[9] “Sixty years on, ‘returnees’ to North Korea from Japan increasingly forgotten,” The Japan Times News, December 10, 2019, 
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2019/12/10/national/history/returnees-to-north-korea-from-japan-forgotten/.
[10] David Hawk, The Hidden Gulag IV: Gender Repression and Prisoner Disappearances (Washington, DC: The Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, 2015), 
https://www.hrnk.org/uploads/pdfs/Hawk_HiddenGulag4_FINAL.pdf.
[11] Tessa Morris-Suzuki, “Japan’s Hidden Role in the ‘Return’ of Zainichi Koreans to North Korea,” History News Network, Last Accessed July 26, 2020, http://hnn.us/articles/10199.html.
[12] David Hawk, The Hidden Gulag IV: Gender Repression and Prisoner Disappearances (Washington, DC: The Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, 2015), 
https://www.hrnk.org/uploads/pdfs/Hawk_HiddenGulag4_FINAL.pdf.
[13] United Nations Human Rights Council, “Report of the commission of inquiry on human rights in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea,” UN Doc. A/HRC/25/63, February 7, 2014.
[14] Elizabeth Shim, “North Korea defector seeks justice for ‘wrongful’ repatriation,” UPI, March 19, 2020, 
https://www.upi.com/Top_News/World-News/2020/03/19/North-Korea-defector-seeks-justice-for-wrongful-repatriation/2491584588369/.
[15] Yoshi Yamamoto, Taken! North Korea’s Criminal Abduction of Citizens of Other Countries (Washington, DC: The Committee for Human Rights in North Korea, 2011), 
https://www.hrnk.org/uploads/pdfs/Taken_LQ.pdf.