Tom Gill Lecture No

Meiji Gakuin Course No. 3505 Minority and Marginal Groups of Contemporary Japan Tom Gill Lecture No. 4 Koreans 在日コリアン HISTORY 1. Ancient History • Korean kings thought to be buried at Nara; many archaeological finds show Korean influence on Japan. • Also Chinese influence via Korea – Confucianism, kanji etc. • Koreans in Japan today like to point out Japan’s cultural debt to Korea. Ancient Japanese burial mounds … 塚・古墳 … may conceal remains of Korean kings? … the Japanese government doesn’t want to know. Radical emperor? During a news conference to mark his 68th birthday, Emperor Akihito mentioned a historical document showing that one of his eighth- century ancestors was a descendant of immigrants from the Korean Peninsula. He said he felt a close "kinship" with Korea. 『続日本記』によると The Emperor, quoting from the "Shoku Nihongi" ("Chronicles of Japan"), compiled in 797, said the mother of Emperor Kanmu (737- 806) had come from the royal family of Paekche, an ancient kingdom of Korea. 桓武天皇の母親はコリアの皇室出身者 It was the first time a member of the Imperial family had ever publicly noted the family's blood ties with 23 Korea. December 2002 韓国で大歓迎 His remark received a warm welcome in Seoul. South Korean President Kim Dae Jung praised the Emperor for his "correct understanding of history." 手を上げてください I wonder how many of the Meigaku students here today know that Emperor Akihito himself has stated that he is of Korean descent? 明学の学生たち、明仁天皇自身が朝鮮のルーツを認めているて、知っていますか？朝日だけ報道した Of the five national papers, the Mainichi, the Yomiuri, the Sankei and the Nihon Keizai Shinbun ignored the Emperor's Korea reference. Only the Asahi Shinbun ran a story highlighting its significance. 2. Medieval History Toyotomi Hideyoshi, C16th Japanese warlord, twice tried to invade Korea: 1592 and 1597-8. A famous 李 이 Korean 舜 순 admiral saw 臣 him off: YI 신 (RI, I) SUN SHIN (1545- 1598) A national hero of Korea… KOBUKSON ironclad ‘turtle ships’ + brilliant tactics Hideyoshi’s “Ear mound” (Mimizuka) in Higashiyama, Kyoto (formerly “nose mound” 3. Modern History 1876, Treaty of Kanghwa 明治9年、江華条約 An unequal treaty, forced upon Korea by Japan. Japanese in Korea no longer subject to Korean law, but Koreans in Japan still subject to Japanese law. Japanese get trading privileges too. 1910, Japan annexes Korea Korea is a Japanese colony for the next 35 years, 1910-1945. 朝鮮、日本の植民地に Assimilation policy (1) Religion: Attempt to convert Koreans to Shinto religion. (2) Language: attempt to replace Korean with Japanese, gradually outlawing Korean. (3) Identity: Koreans forced to adopt Japanese names （創氏改名）. The aim was to make Korea part of Japan. Mount Fuji overtaken… In Japanese schools during the colonial period, it was taught that the highest mountain in Japan was not Mount Fuji but Mount Yushan (The Jade Mountain). Indeed, Mount Yushan is 3,952m or 12,963ft high, slightly taller than Mount Fuji, which is 3,776 meters (12,390 feet). But Mount Yushan is not in Japan: it is in Taiwan. A very literal form of colonialism. Sohn Kee-chung, Son Gi-jung In 1936 a Korean man, Sohn Kee- Chung, won the Berlin Olympic marathon. He was forced to run under the Japanese flag and his win was counted as a gold medal for Japan. 손기정 孫基禎) (1912 - 2000) Cf. UK colonialism In the days of the British empire (often cited as an important model for Japan’s empire building) there was never any attempt to wipe out native languages, or to claim that India or Africa were ‘part of Britain’. Why? (Discuss) • Of course, Korea is much CLOSER to Japan than India is to Britain. • It’s also much smaller and hence easier to govern. • A better comparison might be England and Ireland. Incomplete assimilation • No intention to make Koreans full citizens of Japan. • They cannot vote in Japanese elections. • Distinction between ‘naichijin’ 内地人 (inlanders, i.e. Japanese living in Japan) and ‘gaichijin’ 外地人 (outlanders, ie. Those in Korea, Taiwan etc.) Migration begins • Under colonialism, numbers of Koreans coming to Japan to get work slowly rise. There are 80,000 living in Japan by 1923. 1885 1 (officially). 1910 3,542. Japan annexes Korea. c. Population passes that of Chinese, making Koreans the 1917 biggest ethnic minority in Japan. 1918: 22,262. 1920: Passes 30,000. 1922 59,865. Mostly single men coming to Japan as labourers. 1923 – The Great Kanto Earthquake kills 130,000-140,000 people in the Tokyo/Yokohama region. But also, 6,000 Koreans are massacred for ‘planning riots’ and ‘poisoning the wells.’ Some were killed by Japanese policemen and soldiers. 1923 6,000 Koreans massacred after Great Kanto Earthquake. Eyewitness sketch of the massacre Why were Koreans hated so much? (1) Government propaganda encouraged the idea that Koreans were inferior. (2) Ordinary Japanese people feared that they might lose their jobs to Koreans, who would work harder, and for lower wages, than themselves. There were many cycles of boom and bust in the 1920s and 1930s. A fast-growing minority 1930 300,000. Chain migration brings Korean workers’ families to Japan. 1936 690,501. 1938 800,000. Start of forced labour migration 強制連行 as war approaches. Yet still Korean migration to Japan expanded: … by a factor of ten over the next 15 years. By 1938, on the eve of World War II, there were 800,000 Koreans living in Japan. Early in the colonial period, it was mostly single men coming over to work; but as the years passed, they started to bring their families and relatives over, in a case of ‘chain migration’. Sweated labor “On average, Koreans were paid a third less than indigenous workers, and were regarded as inherently suited for tasks involving physical strength but little else.” Michael Weiner 1997, p. 84. If things were so bad for Koreans in Japan, how come they carried on migrating? • Because things were even worse in Korea. There was widespread poverty, and the country’s natural resources were exploited by the Japanese. Eg, Korea exported rice to Japan during the inter-war period, although there were often food shortages in Korea. Japan : Korea :: England : Ireland (I mentioned that Ireland was one of England’s first colonies. The staple food of Ireland was the potato. During the 19th century there was a series of potato famines in Ireland, but at the same time Irish potatoes were being exported to England by the English colonial landlords.) Colony 植民地 Famine 飢饉 Export 輸出 The Cheju connection A large proportion of migrants to Japan were from Cheju, an island to the south of the Korean peninsula that was poverty-stricken and discriminated against by other Koreans. It was the same with migrants from Japan to Latin America. They were mostly from the poverty class, and many were Okinawans. Cheju : Korea :: Okinawa : Japan. Cheju-do and Japan Forced labor in wartime Japan 1.5 million Koreans were brought to Japan between 強 1938 and 1945, mostly to work in factories, fields and 制 mines as substitutes for Japanese men called up to 連 join the army and because extra manpower was 行 needed for the war effort. The longer the war went on, the more desperate the Japanese government became, and a large proportion of these people were forced to go to Japan against their will and used almost as slave labor, though officially wages were supposed to be paid. Wartime growth 1941 1,469,230. 1943 1,882,431 1945 2,365,263. Population peaks at end of WW2. Japan defeated. Korean City Populattions Year Osaka Hiroshima Nagasaki Fukuoka 1910 206 24 173 335 1937 234,188 19,525 7,625 50,565 1945 333,354 84,886 61,773 205,452 Source: Michael Weiner 1997, p.87. Korean hibakusha • Of approx. 80,000 Koreans resident in Hiroshima, 30,000 were killed in the blast or died soon after. The other 20,000 survived as hibakusha. • In Nagasaki approx. 10,000 died and another 10,000 were irradiated. • See Weiner’s chapter on Korean hibakusha in Japan’s Minorities: The Illusion of Homogeneity. The struggle to secure health treatment and compensation for them continues to this day. The Korean monument in the Hiroshima Peace Park: A source of controversy. Who to commemorate, and how? The Korean monument was first established in the 1960s, by the government of South Korea (ROK, Kankoku 韓国). There is no monument associated with North Korea (DPRK Kita Chousen, 北朝鮮)… a legacy of the postwar troubles, the division of the Korean peninsula, and bad relations between Pyongyang and Tokyo. Who gets commemorated, and how? The monument is dedicated to the memory of atomic bomb victims from the Republic of Korea (Kankoku 韓国)… a country that did noｔ even exist at the time the bomb was dropped. And where? The monument used to be on the other side of the river from the Peace Park. It was moved to its present location inside the park after protests from the (South) Korean community. But since then, it has been vandalized several times by right-wingers who do not want Koreans to be remembered in the same park as Japanese. Issues left over from the War • Unpaid wages of Korean workers. • Compensation for the families of Koreans killed or wounded while fighting for the Japanese army. • Korean hibakusha • Korean comfort women. • Teaching of history in Japanese textbooks. 1946 600,000. Following repatriation of most forced labourers. 1947 Partition of Korea. 1948 Cheju Massacre. Mindan founded. 1950 750,000. U-turn effect as Korea is divided and heads toward war. 1950-3 Korean War. 1955 Chongryun (Chôsen Sôren) founded. Post-war events • Repatriation of c.

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