KOREAN EMBASSY
36, Cadogan Square,
London S.V.1.
Telephone: KENsington 8025
For Immediate Release
FACTS THAT MUST BE KNOWN ON THE JAPANESE MASS DEPORTATION OF THE KOREAN RESIDENTS IN JAPAN TO THE COMMUNIST NORTH.
1) The Japanese decision to carry out a group deportation of a certain number of the Korean nationals residing in Japan for more than some 15 years was made and announced by the Government of Japan without any consultation whatsoever with the government of Republic of Korea which is the only legal government in Korea and which has been a party to the bilateral talk for some years. The question of the Korean residents in Japan was one of the major agenda items mutually accepted by the two governments in the agreement of December 31, 1957 signed in Tokyo, under which the 4th bilateral talk was opened in an effort to settle various outstanding problems between Korea and Japan by diplomatic negotiations.
2) The Government of the Republic of Korea lodged immediate and strongest protest to the Government of Japan against their unilateral and unjustifiable action taken with regard to the Korean nationals residing in Japan, pointing out that any differences existing between the two countries would have to be settled at the bilateral talk as previously agreed. When the first government announcement of the mass deportation plan was made by the Japanese Foreign Minister on 30th January 1959, the Korean Delegation, in contrast, was preparing for the resumption of the bilateral talk which was then on a short holiday recess at the end of 1958.
3), Despite the repeated and strong protests made by the Korean Government, Japan, in April 1959, utilising her Red Cross Society, opened in Geneva a negotiation with the representative of the Communist puppet regime in the northern Korean in an effort to carry out their mass deportation plan of the Korean nationals to the Communist north. In entering into the negotiation in Geneva, it was asserted by the representative of the Japanese Government that the negotiation would be conducted by the Japanese Red Cross Society, free from politics on the ground that the Deportation scheme to the Communist north was originated from n humanitarian consideration, and that the deportation would be carried out only under the impartial supervision by the International Committee of the Red Cross.
It was obvious then that Japan undertook the Geneva negotiation in full knowledge that she was dealing with an unlawful puppet regime which has been condemned by the United Nations as the aggressor in the Korean war and which always defied the authority of the United Nations dedicated to freedom, justice and world peace. It was also guite obvious to Japan that she was dealing with the enemy regime of the Republic of Korea which was a party to the bilateral talk.
4) Since the opening of the Geneva negotiation on 13th April 1959, it was often asserted by the Government of Japan that the negotiation was being conducted by the Red Cross Society of Japan independent of their Government. It was pretended that negotiation was a nongovernmental affair. The truth was, however, that the Japanese Red Cross representative in Geneva negotiating an agreement with the Communist representative was under the direction of the Japanese Ministries of Justice, Social Welfare as well as Foreign Affairs, and that the Japanese cabinet also often met to guide the negotiation taking place in Geneva. In Japan, this is freely admitted, but the same fact is never made public abroad.
5). In concluding an agreement with the Communist representative in Geneva in late June this year, Japan has already abandoned her well announced condition of inviting the impartial supervision of the International Committee of Red Cross in the deportation. On the other hand, the International Committee of the Red Cross in Geneva has lately indicated its position that I.C.R.C. could not assume any responsibility in the deportation agreed upon between Japan and the Communist puppet regime in northern Korea. The motive of Japan to secure the approval and participation of I.C.R.C in the operation vies evidently to preserve an instrument to hold I.C.R.C. responsible for the deportation of the Korean residents.
6) The case of the Korean residents in Japan is unique. Some 2 million Koreans moved to Japan from Korea during the Japanese occupation which ended in August 1945, most of them during the period when Japan was engaged in aggressive warfare in Asia.
From 1942 to 1945. approximately 520,000 Koreans were taken to Japan for forced labour in various industrial plants and mines. In 1939 here were 961,511 Koreans in Japan, but by 1944 this number had increased to 1,936.843. After the Japanese surrender in August 1945, about 1,340,000 Koreans were repatriated to their homeland. They received no compensation from Japan, however, for their sacrifices, property loss and their mistreatment. Some 600,000 Koreans chose to remain in Japan and they are neither stateless people nor prisoners of war, but are the citizens of the Republic of Korea regardless of their individual political belief. It is to be remembered that during the Japanese occupation of Koren the Japanese had complete freedom in travelling between Japan and Korea, but the same freedom was denied for Koreans in travelling to Japan from Korea as a result of an extremely rigid screening system enforced by the notorious Japanese police which had the authority to issue travel permits for Koreans going to Japan.
7) International law is fairly well established and clear with regard to the status of immigrantsand alien residents. But the case of the Korean residents in Japan differs from both of these categories in that they were taken to Japan in order to supplement the shortage of Japanese manpower at various industrial plants and mines and that Japan once classified them as Japanese nationals although not on an equal basis to the Japanese born citizens. Special and privileged treatment should have been accorded to them by the Japanese authorities but in the actual fact they have been grossly discriminated in employment, in education, law enforcement, social life, and so on. That Japan is attempting to deport the Korean residents in Japan is, therefore, an effort to abandon her responsibility to allow the Korean residents Who have made unwanted sacrifice for Japan in the past to peacefully earn their living. The information available to the Korean source reveals that the Government of Japan is prepared to spend a sum of 130,000,000 yen (about ＄360,000) in order to carry out the deportation.
8) The Republic of Korea has followed the policy of accepting individual, voluntary repatriation of Koreans in Japan. The Korean Government has often declared that it will accept a voluntary mass deportation of Koreans in Japan provided that the Japanese Government pays just and due compensation thus affording them with the opportunity to make a new start in life. The method and amount of the compensation is one of those problems that can be discussed at the bilateral talk which was to resume in early 1959.
9) Japan claims that many Korean residents have expressed their desire to go to the northern Korea and therefore their deportation scheme is based on a humanitarian consideration. The truth is, however, that some of the Korean residents in Japan were made easy victims of the Communist propaganda intensively operating in Japan with a large sum of fund supplied by the Communist puppet regime in northern Korea. The Federation of the Korean Residents in Japan, who urges the Japanese Government to comply with their request for the so-called group repatriation of these innocent Korean residents, is affiliated with the Communist regime in Pyongyang and has obtained the signature of some Koreans on the petitions they prepared asking for repatriation to "home" in exchange of a small sum of allowance, empty promises of good employment in the Communist north, free movement in Korea, and so on.
The Communists already spent approximately 600 million yen in this campaign agitating their innocent and illiterate fellow-countrymen to say that they wanted to go "home", but their own hard-core members did not sign the petition. Some 97 percent of the Koreans residing in Japan today are from the southern part of Korea and even those few who came from the northern part of Korea have never lived under the Communist rule in Korea nor in any other country. It is, therefore, quite unreasonable to assume that these Korean residents who have practically sold their signatures for the petition asking for repatriation to "home" are really desirous of going to the Communist-held north to settle permanently by abandoning their present residency in Japan which is more than 15 years old. It is not to be overlooked that the Communist-puppet regime in northern Korea and Japan have now found a mutual interest in deporting the Korean residents in Japan to the Communist north no matter what may happen to the welfare of the prospective deportee concerned in the future. The word "humanitarian" that has been used by Japan in the deportation issue is nothing but a propaganda slogan which aims at appealing to the emotion of the mass abroad who are not informed of the whole background of the somewhat complicated relations between Korea and Japan.
10). During his recent tour to Europe, the Prime Minister of the Japanese Government declared that Japan will not adopt neutralism and will protect her own safety by association with other free nations of the world. He said "Japan is on the side of the free nations". In clarifying the position of Japan toward the countries of Asia, he also declared "Japan, in the middle of last century had to struggle against numerous handicaps in the period of intense competition among great powers.
We have, therefore, full sympathy with the national aspirations of these young countries"
In Resolution No.489V of February lst, 1951, adopted at its General Assembly, the United Nations, affirming its determination to continue its action in Korea to meet the aggression, has called upon all States and authorities to refrain from giving any assistance to the aggressors in Korea (the Communist puppet in northern Korea and the Communist China ).
If the mass deportation of the Korean citizens residing in Japan to the Communist north is to be allowed as being planned by Japan, the consequence will be first to deprive the innocent Koreans of their individual freedom by pushing them into the Communist slavery, second to elevate the prestige of an aggressor regime who defies the United Nations as well as the Free World and third to strengthen the manpower resources of the Communist aggressor regime in northern Korea, and finally to open for the Communist espionage a safe communication channel between the Republic of Korea and the Communist -held north.
In Korea, some 6 million people have fled from the Communist rule in the north to the free south between 1945 and 1950 alone and still many more are anxious to rid themselves of the Communist yoke. The issues involved in the mass deportation plan are so serious that it is not a small matter which can be lightly disposed of with any small legal technicality such as the freedom in the choice of individual residence. It is completely useless to talk of any freedom with the Communist world which only depends on even dictatorship. It must also be pointed out that,/even apart from all the moral and humanitarian considerations, to allow the deportation of the Korean residents to the Communist rule would result in playing a losing game from the standpoint of the Free World in the global struggle against the Communist captivity. Japan ; should, therefore, practice what she preaches.

24th July, 1959