Japanese people in North Korea
Encyclopedia
Japanese people in North Korea consist mainly of four groups: prisoners-of-war in the Soviet Union, Japanese
accompanying repatriating Zainichi Korean
spouses, defectors, and kidnapping victims
. The number who remain alive is not known.
and the collapse of the Empire of Japan
, 200,000 Japanese colonists
were stranded north of the 38th parallel
; however, they were repatriated to Japan soon after. The earliest and largest post-war influx of Japanese to North Korea
was involuntary: 27,000 prisoners-of-war from the Soviet Union
. Their current whereabouts are unknown; documents from Russian archives suggest that only the physically ill were sent to North Korea, while able-bodied men were retained by Russia to perform forced labour there.
. Chongryon received the tacit support of the Japanese
and American
governments, who saw Koreans in Japan as "Communists" and "criminals", in the words of the US ambassador to Japan at the time, Douglas MacArthur II
; they welcomed the repatriation campaign as a way of reducing the ethnic minority population. In total, 6,637 Japanese people are estimated to have accompanied Korean spouses to North Korea, of whom 1,828 retained their Japanese nationality. The numbers of both Japanese and Koreans going to North Korea dropped sharply in the 1960s as knowledge of the poor economic conditions, social discrimination, and political repression faced by both Korean and Japanese migrants filtered back to Japan by word of mouth.
According to North Korea defector Kang Chol-Hwan
, himself the son of participants in the repatriation campaign, Japanese wives of Korean men led Pyongyang
's first anti-government demonstration in North Korean history, when they staged a protest appealing for permission to return home. Kang also relayed an anecdote about Kim Il-sung
being shocked when one Japanese woman showed up when he was making a "spot visit" to a mine in South Hamgyong province and personally begged to him to be allowed to go back to Japan. These two events are said to have been the impetus for the 1970s purges of migrants from Japan, in which many Chongryon members and their families were sent to detention camps or killed. Two-thirds of the Japanese who migrated to North Korea are estimated to have gone missing or have never been heard from. However, in spite of the harsh political situation, migration to North Korea did not stop completely until 1984. , North Korea had refused to provide Japan with a list of surviving Japanese in the country, and had only permitted a few small groups of 10-15 to travel to Japan. They further objected to the Japanese practise of referring to such trips as "visits home", instead preferring to call them "temporary visitors" or even "government delegations".
) who hijacked Japan Airlines Flight 351
are known to have received political asylum in Pyongyang in 1970; of those, two were later arrested by Japanese police
in Thailand
, two died in North Korea, and five are still believed to reside in Pyongyang. Four were confirmed to be alive in 2004 when they were interviewed and photographed by Kyodo News
. North Korea is also believed to have kidnapped between 70 and 80 Japanese citizens
between 1977 and 1983 in order to teach the Japanese language
to North Korean intelligence operatives; however, the government of North Korea officially admits to only 16 such kidnappings.
In 2003, Kazumi Kitagawa, a Japanese citizen and former member of Aum Shinrikyo
, jumped overboard from a Chinese tourist boat on the Yalu River
and swam to North Korea where she requested asylum. Her actions made her the first Japanese defector to North Korea since the Flight 351 hijacking. However, after two years of living in a hotel where she reportedly had complaints about her hotel room, clothing, and constant surveillance by guards, she arranged to be returned to Japan.
Japanese people
The are an ethnic group originating in the Japanese archipelago and are the predominant ethnic group of Japan. Worldwide, approximately 130 million people are of Japanese descent; of these, approximately 127 million are residents of Japan. People of Japanese ancestry who live in other countries...
accompanying repatriating Zainichi Korean
Zainichi Korean
Koreans in Japan are the ethnic Korean residents of Japan. They currently constitute the second largest ethnic minority group in Japan. The majority of Koreans in Japan are Zainichi Koreans, also often known as Zainichi for short, who are the permanent ethnic Korean residents of Japan...
spouses, defectors, and kidnapping victims
North Korean abductions of Japanese
The abductions of Japanese citizens from Japan by agents of the North Korean government happened during a period of six years from 1977 to 1983. Although only 17 Japanese are officially recognized by the Japanese government as having been abducted, there may have been as many as 70 to 80...
. The number who remain alive is not known.
Background
In 1945, with the end of World War IISurrender of Japan
The surrender of Japan in 1945 brought hostilities of World War II to a close. By the end of July 1945, the Imperial Japanese Navy was incapable of conducting operations and an Allied invasion of Japan was imminent...
and the collapse of the Empire of Japan
Empire of Japan
The Empire of Japan is the name of the state of Japan that existed from the Meiji Restoration on 3 January 1868 to the enactment of the post-World War II Constitution of...
, 200,000 Japanese colonists
Korea under Japanese rule
Korea was under Japanese rule as part of Japan's 35-year imperialist expansion . Japanese rule ended in 1945 shortly after the Japanese defeat in World War II....
were stranded north of the 38th parallel
38th parallel north
The 38th parallel north is a circle of latitude that is 38 degrees north of the Earth's equatorial plane. It crosses Europe, the Mediterranean Sea, Asia, the Pacific Ocean, North America, and the Atlantic Ocean...
; however, they were repatriated to Japan soon after. The earliest and largest post-war influx of Japanese to North Korea
North Korea
The Democratic People’s Republic of Korea , , is a country in East Asia, occupying the northern half of the Korean Peninsula. Its capital and largest city is Pyongyang. The Korean Demilitarized Zone serves as the buffer zone between North Korea and South Korea...
was involuntary: 27,000 prisoners-of-war from the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
. Their current whereabouts are unknown; documents from Russian archives suggest that only the physically ill were sent to North Korea, while able-bodied men were retained by Russia to perform forced labour there.
Spouses of repatriating Zainichi Koreans
Voluntary migration of Japanese to North Korea began in 1959, under a repatriation campaign for Zainichi Koreans sponsored by ethnic activist organisation and de facto North Korean embassy ChongryonChongryon
The General Association of Korean Residents in Japan , abbreviated to Chongryon The General Association of Korean Residents in Japan (Chae Ilbon Chosŏnin Ch'ongryŏnhaphoe in Korean or Zai-Nihon Chōsenjin Sōrengōkai in Japanese), abbreviated to Chongryon The General Association of Korean Residents...
. Chongryon received the tacit support of the Japanese
Japan-Korea relations
Korea-Japan relations are the relations between Korea and Japan. In a modern context, these relations pertain to three states: Japan, North Korea, and South Korea. Japan and Korea have had cultural interactions for over a thousand years and direct political contact almost as long...
and American
North Korean-American relations
North Korea–United States relations developed primarily during the Korean War, but in recent years have been largely defined by the United States' suspicions regarding North Korea's nuclear programs and North Korea's desire to normalize relations with the U.S., tempered by a stated perception of an...
governments, who saw Koreans in Japan as "Communists" and "criminals", in the words of the US ambassador to Japan at the time, Douglas MacArthur II
Douglas MacArthur II
Douglas MacArthur II was an American diplomat.MacArthur was the son of Captain Arthur MacArthur III and Mary McCalla MacArthur, and was named for his uncle, General Douglas MacArthur. He was born in Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania. He married Laura Louise Barkley on August 21, 1934, the daughter of future...
; they welcomed the repatriation campaign as a way of reducing the ethnic minority population. In total, 6,637 Japanese people are estimated to have accompanied Korean spouses to North Korea, of whom 1,828 retained their Japanese nationality. The numbers of both Japanese and Koreans going to North Korea dropped sharply in the 1960s as knowledge of the poor economic conditions, social discrimination, and political repression faced by both Korean and Japanese migrants filtered back to Japan by word of mouth.
According to North Korea defector Kang Chol-Hwan
Kang Chol-Hwan
Kang Chol-Hwan is a defector from North Korea. As a child he was imprisoned in the Yodok concentration camp for 10 years; after his release he fled the country, first to China and eventually to South Korea...
, himself the son of participants in the repatriation campaign, Japanese wives of Korean men led Pyongyang
Pyongyang
Pyongyang is the capital of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea, commonly known as North Korea, and the largest city in the country. Pyongyang is located on the Taedong River and, according to preliminary results from the 2008 population census, has a population of 3,255,388. The city was...
's first anti-government demonstration in North Korean history, when they staged a protest appealing for permission to return home. Kang also relayed an anecdote about Kim Il-sung
Kim Il-sung
Kim Il-sung was a Korean communist politician who led the Democratic People's Republic of Korea from its founding in 1948 until his death in 1994. He held the posts of Prime Minister from 1948 to 1972 and President from 1972 to his death...
being shocked when one Japanese woman showed up when he was making a "spot visit" to a mine in South Hamgyong province and personally begged to him to be allowed to go back to Japan. These two events are said to have been the impetus for the 1970s purges of migrants from Japan, in which many Chongryon members and their families were sent to detention camps or killed. Two-thirds of the Japanese who migrated to North Korea are estimated to have gone missing or have never been heard from. However, in spite of the harsh political situation, migration to North Korea did not stop completely until 1984. , North Korea had refused to provide Japan with a list of surviving Japanese in the country, and had only permitted a few small groups of 10-15 to travel to Japan. They further objected to the Japanese practise of referring to such trips as "visits home", instead preferring to call them "temporary visitors" or even "government delegations".
Defections
The nine members of the Japanese Communist League-Red Army Faction (the predecessor of the Japanese Red ArmyJapanese Red Army
The was a Communist terrorist group founded by Fusako Shigenobu early in 1971 in Lebanon. It sometimes called itself Arab-JRA after the Lod airport massacre...
) who hijacked Japan Airlines Flight 351
Japan Airlines Flight 351
Japan Airlines Flight 351 was hijacked by nine members of the Japanese Communist League-Red Army Faction on March 31, 1970 while flying from Tokyo to Fukuoka, in an incident usually referred to in Japanese as the...
are known to have received political asylum in Pyongyang in 1970; of those, two were later arrested by Japanese police
Police system of Japan
Law enforcement in Japan is provided by the Prefectural Police under the oversight of the National Police Agency or NPA. The NPA is headed by the National Public Safety Commission thus ensuring that Japan's police are an apolitical body and free of direct central government executive control...
in Thailand
Thailand
Thailand , officially the Kingdom of Thailand , formerly known as Siam , is a country located at the centre of the Indochina peninsula and Southeast Asia. It is bordered to the north by Burma and Laos, to the east by Laos and Cambodia, to the south by the Gulf of Thailand and Malaysia, and to the...
, two died in North Korea, and five are still believed to reside in Pyongyang. Four were confirmed to be alive in 2004 when they were interviewed and photographed by Kyodo News
Kyodo News
is a nonprofit cooperative news agency based in Minato, Tokyo. It was established in November 1945 and it distributes news to almost all newspapers, and radio and television networks in Japan. The newspapers using its news have about 50 million subscribers. K. K. Kyodo News is Kyodo News' business...
. North Korea is also believed to have kidnapped between 70 and 80 Japanese citizens
North Korean abductions of Japanese
The abductions of Japanese citizens from Japan by agents of the North Korean government happened during a period of six years from 1977 to 1983. Although only 17 Japanese are officially recognized by the Japanese government as having been abducted, there may have been as many as 70 to 80...
between 1977 and 1983 in order to teach the Japanese language
Japanese language
is a language spoken by over 130 million people in Japan and in Japanese emigrant communities. It is a member of the Japonic language family, which has a number of proposed relationships with other languages, none of which has gained wide acceptance among historical linguists .Japanese is an...
to North Korean intelligence operatives; however, the government of North Korea officially admits to only 16 such kidnappings.
In 2003, Kazumi Kitagawa, a Japanese citizen and former member of Aum Shinrikyo
Aum Shinrikyo
Aum Shinrikyo was a Japanese new religious movement. The group was founded by Shoko Asahara in 1984. The group gained international notoriety in 1995, when it carried out the Sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway....
, jumped overboard from a Chinese tourist boat on the Yalu River
Yalu River
The Yalu River or the Amnok River is a river on the border between North Korea and the People's Republic of China....
and swam to North Korea where she requested asylum. Her actions made her the first Japanese defector to North Korea since the Flight 351 hijacking. However, after two years of living in a hotel where she reportedly had complaints about her hotel room, clothing, and constant surveillance by guards, she arranged to be returned to Japan.