October 29, 1959

GIST OF TALKS TWENTY-FIRST SESSION COMMITTEE ON PROBLEMS OF KOREAN RESIDENTS IN JAPAN
1. Time and Place: 10:30 - 12:10 a.m., October 20, 1959, at Room 411, Foreign Ministry Japanese Government
2. Conferees:
Korean side: Dr. YU Chin-O
Mr. LEE Chai Hang
Mr. CHIN Pil Shik
Mr. OHM Young Dal
Mr. LEE Won Dal
Mr. ROH Chae Won
Mr. KWON Tae Woong
Japanese side: Mr. KATSUNO Yasusuke
Mr. HIRAGA Kenta
Mr. MIYAKE Kijiro
Mr. HASEGAWA Shinzo
Mr. MORI Junzo
Mr. HIRATSUKA Nenoichi
Mr. NAKAJIMA Toshijiro
Mr. NAKAGAWA Toyokichi
Mr. NAGAHASHI
Mr. IKEBE Ken
3. Gist of Talks:
Dr. Yu
As for the Japanese views which were stated at the previous meeting regarding the scope and nationality problem of the Korean residents in Japan, they are under examination now.
At today's meeting, I would like to hear Japanese views regarding those Korean residents returning to the ROK, as was provided in the Korean proposal of last October. Furthermore, I would like to know views of the Japanese side on the Korean government's proposal, as was presented orally in September or as was stated after my recent return from Seoul, to facilitate the repatriation to the ROK of as many Korean residents in Japan as possible to the ROK within a shoretast period.
Mr. Katsuno
Two categories of the Korean residents - the one who want to return to the ROKM, the other who want to remain in Japan - have been concurrently discussed at this Committee. In presenting views of the Japanese side on the problem of the Korean residents returning to the ROK, I hope that Korean views be also given as to such questions as 'concrete date of the termination of hostilities of the Pacific War', 'definition of the descendant', and the scope of the Korean residents in Japan', which were repeatedly asked by our side. Korean views thereon, when given, will serve much for the progress of this Committee's works.
The Japanese side hopes too that as many Korean residents as possible be able to return to the ROK. Noting that they are nationals of the ROK who return to the ROK, I believe that the motive force for their return depends, not upon what facilities the Japanese government affords to them, but upon what extent the Korean government makes preparations and offers facilities for their re-settlement in terms of its domestic policy. For our Japanese side, we will give every possible assistance to facilitate their repatriation.
As regards the transportation when they return en masse, the Japanese government has readiness to offer such facilities as billeting, meals, first-aid medicine and transportation to a gathering place where the repatriates embark.
Dr. Yu
Korean views regarding 'the concrete date of the termination of hostilities of the Pacific War, the scope of the descendant', etc., will be presented later after over-all views of the Japanese side are heard.
You now stressed that the Korean government should work out practical policy for the re-settlement of the repatriates. It is a matter of course that our Government should make full preparation for receiving the repatriates in case a great number of the returns to Korea. However, in this respect, it is quite unnecessary to discuss at this Committee what measures have to be taken by our government in return for the facilities which your government offers.
I have to repeat again that our government is ready to prepare fully for receiving the repatriates, and that our government receives them regardless of their past political activities.
Mr. Katsuno
I did not mean that your government has no planned programme for receiving the repatriates. However, how many Korean residents would return to the ROK is, I think, maily dependent on what practical policy be planned out by the Korean government, besides the policy of disregarding their political activities in the past, though number of repatriates may, in part, be affected by the extent of what facilities the Japanese government affords.
I was told that your government was carrying out such practical policy as housing programme, cultivation programme of salt-farms, etc., for the refugees from north Korea. So I believe that it is the time for the Korean government to work out technical programme in preparation for those Koreans who return from Japan.
Turning back to the transportation facilities, vessels have to be arranged at the expense of the Korean government. It is a quite exceptional case that the Japanese government arranged vessels for the illegal Korean entrants. As there is the regular shipping service between Japan and ROK, vessels for the repatriation should be provided by the Korean government.
As regards the funds to be taken home, not more than 45,000 Yen shall be settled through Japan-ROK Open Account in a for of 'traveler's letter of credit'. The funds in excess of 45,000 Yen shall be deposited in Japanese banks in the name of the owner, and be afterwards settled, upon owner's application, through Japan-ROK Open Account in accordance with the provisions of Japanese laws and regulations.
As regards the property to be taken home, which can be classified as hand baggages, personal belongings, occupational instruments, etc., they shall be permitted to be taken home unless their exportation is prohibited by the provisions of Japanese laws and regulations. Such valuable papers as stocks, bonds, deposits, securities, etc., shall not be permitted to be taken home because their exportation is prohibited by the provisions of the Japanese laws and regulations concerned.
And the Japanese government shall not impose any kind of export tax on any of the property which the repatriates takes home. The proprietary rights of the property which may leave in Japan shall, as a matter of course, be legally recognized.
What was stated above is, in general substance, the maximum possible facilities which the Japanese government can affords.
Dr. Yu
You have just stated the Japanese views on the practical procedures of how to remit the funds and of how to take the property to Korea.
Our views on these matters will of course be presented later: However, I would like to draw your attention on two points now.
First, though opinions may devide concerning such procedures, I believe no difference of opinions exist as to the principle that the whole value of the property be taken home. Since the Japanese government can never seize nor confiscate the property, supposing that some property be left in Japan as a result of a ROK-Japan arrangement, it is possible in the end to take the property home in different forms.
Therefore, 1 believe that the principle of taking home the whole value of the property is not affected at all.
I would like to hear Japanese views on this matter.
Second, I hold that the remittance of funds and the taking home of property of Korean residents in Japan shall not be regulated by the provisions of Japanese laws and regulations, but by special arrangements between the two countries.
Mr. Katsuno
I would like to answer your question on the principle of taking home the whole value of property, at later meetings after consultation with Japanese ministries concerned.
What I just stated covers the whole points of the Japanese views on the matter.
The financial obligations covering such expenses as transportation, billeting, meals, medicine, in case of the mass repatriation, mean a considerable burden to the Japanese government.
I think the Korean residents in Japan may roughly devided into two groups, excluding those who return home individually at their on expense: the one who want to return to the ROK if transportation fee is available; the other who hesitates to return in fear of how to make living after their arrival in Korea. Therefore, I believe that, if the Japanese government provides the transportation facilities to a gathering place and the Korean government works out practical policy for their re-settlement in Korea, the number of the- Korean residents who want to return home will be much increased.
Dr. Yu
What you have just stated so far makes me feel that you figured the problem of the repatriation under normal circumstances, centering around the measures to be taken for the repatriates.
Though I withhold to repeat the historical backgrounds, the problem of the Korean residents in Japan is a unique case.
The Korean residents in Japan whose number amounted to as many as two million when the Pacific War ended, did riot come to Japan as immigrants nor did they come to Japan to engage in commercial activities as aliens.
Their treatment, which should have been settled by agreement upon the termination of the Pacific War, remains unsettled so far. As fourteen years have elapsed since the end of the War, it might be forgettable that the settlement of their treatment is part of the special post-war arrangements. For this reason, the problem of either their repatriation to the ROK or their continued residence in Japan has to be settled not by unilateral measures of the Japanese government in accordance with the provisions of Japanese domestic laws, but by agreement between the ROK and Japan.
In the past, our government concentrated on the problem of their treatment, because the remaining Korean residents - about 1,400,000 Korean returned home under the control of the SCAP - were considered to have settled or to have intended to settle in Japan. Nevertheless, most of them are so miserably poor that some of the poverty-stricken Korean residents are said to have expressed their will to go to the communist-controlled north Korea.
Under such situation that cannot be left to develop any further, the Korean government, seeking a thorough-going solution to the problem, has decided to take as many Korean residents in Japan as possible to home. And in case a large number of the Korean residents in Japan be able to return to the ROK, I believe that the relation of the ROK and Japan will be much improved, and that none but real communist would go to north Korea.
Therefore, I hope that the Japanese side give deep considerations to the Korean residents in Japan so that their treatment may be governed, not by general regulations that are applicable under ordinary circumstances, but by special regulations to be arranged between the two countries. You must not forget that the repatriation problem is a part of the post-war arrangements.
Mr. Katsuno
I do not want to refer to the historical backgrounds of the Korean residents in Japan, either. It is admitted that they did not come to Japan as foreign immigrants.
However, the investigation of the Japanese side revealed that 1,400,000 of two million Korean residents returned to the ROK, and the rest of them remained in Japan of their own free will. As most of them are not war-time draftees, the remaining Korean residents in Japan are to be treated as ordinary aliens. So, as you say, it is not in accordance with the prevailing practice, but belongs to a special case that the Japanese government undertakes, in connection with the proposed mass repatriation, such financial obligations as is necessary for repatriates to get to a gathering place.
I think it is the duty of the ROK government to protect its own nationals. Therefore, it is quite a matter of reason that leading role in the mass repatriation of the Korean residents to the ROK be played by the Korean government, while the Japanese government offers every possible assistance.
Dr. Yu
I hold the problem of the Korean residents in Japan has to be settled by the cooperation of the two countries. In view of the current situation, they tends to become a minority race in Japan. Such tendency is not a favourable phenomenon for the Korean residents themselves nor for your country. I am not going to quote such foreign precedents as the Versailles treaties or the treatment of the Irish in England, because I believe that the problems of the Korean residents in Japan should be solved, not by mere mechanical application of the foreign precedents, but by specific methods which would be arranged by agreement of the two countries.
I do not deny that some facilities which the Japanese government affords for the mass repatriates are also a kind of special ones. But stronger considerations must be given them, taking into account of the fact that the settlement of such treatment is part of the post-war arrangement.
Mr. Katsuno
For our Japanese side, it is up to the free will of the Korean residents whether they return to the ROK or remain in Japan. When they choose to return to the ROK, the leading role to facilitate their return should be undertaken by the Korean government.
There were about two million Korean residents in Japan when the Pacific War ended. During the period of August 1945 - March 1946, 900,000 of them returned to Korea by means of the vessels which the Japanese authorities offered, while 500,000 of them returned individually at their own expense. Thereafter, the Japanese government offered again to the remaining Korean residents whose number amounted to about 650,000 the last available opportunity to return to the ROK. Of 500,000 applicants, 160,000 actually returned.
Therefore, as the rest of the Korean residents remained in Japan of their free will, the Japanese side believes that the post-war arrangement for them was completed.
In the meantime, as the Korean government decided to receive mass repatriatess the Japanese government, corresponding to the decision, is ready to give possible assistance to them. However, I believe that unless practical policy for receiving them, besides the political considerations, is worked out by the Korean government, their return en masse to the ROK will not be much encouraged.
Dr. Yu
You just contended that the post-war arrangements for the Korean residents in Japan was completed. However, I hope you to understand that they were done unilaterally by the Japanese side. As no measures have so far been done for the Korean residents through mutual agreement of the two countries, and the problems of the Korean residents in Japan have been discussed at this Committee as an item of the agenda of the ROK-Japan talks, I consider that the problem of Korean residents in japan has never reached a settlement so far.
With respect to the free will of the Korean residents which Mr. Katsuno now referred to, the Korean government by no means intends to compell them to return to the ROK.
As regards the active policy which required to encourage their return, I think it is matter of course for the Korean government to work out detailed plans in preparation for them. However, such measures are not of such character as to be discussed at this Committee.
Mr. Katsuno
At next meeting, Japanese views regarding the treatment of the Korean residents remaining in Japan will be presented. Thereafter, I would like to hear views of the Korean side.
(Remarks)
1. It was agreed that next meeting be held at 11:00 a.m., November 2, 1959.
2. The following press release was agreed: " At today's meeting, substantial matters regarding the repatriation of the Korean residents to the ROK and others were continuously discussed."
(Observation)
The views formally expressed by the Japanese side at today's session are much stiffer than those which have so far been expressed by the Japanese side at informal meetings.

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