KOREAN CONSULATE GENERAL, SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA.
FULL FACTS OF THE DUPLICITY OF THE JAPANESE GOVERNMENT IN THEIR PROPOSALS TO DEPORT KOREAN RESIDENTS IN JAPAN TO COMMUNIST NORTHERN KOREA.
Events have now reached the stage where the plight of Korean people in Japan should be known throughout the free countries of the world. Quite definitely the Government of the Republic of Korea desire to live at peace and in brotherhood with Japan as with all other free nations of South East Asia, for this is the first and obvious step whereby the free countries can present a solid front against any further inroads by the evil creed of Communism.
The solution of the problem of the Korean people in Japan is not complex, merely calling for the genuine humanitarianism which is the hallmark of the way of life of free peoples as distinct from the brutal dictatorship of Communism.
None of the Korean people in Japan have ever lived under Communism and the Government of the Republic of Korea requests that those Korean people should have the freedom of choice to return to South Korea as distinct from being ruthlessly bludgeoned into deportation to Communist Northern Korea.
The Japanese Government has chosen to create a facade of misrepresentation and, in some cases, downright falsehood, in order to cloud the issue, thus attempting to justify their wicked policy regarding the Korean residents in their country. This facade of misrepresentation is, from time to time, enhanced by drawing a "red herring" across the trail. One illustration of this trend is the recent publication by the Japanese of a garbled and distorted version of the incidents regarding the Japanese fishermen taken by the Korean Government for consistently violating the Peace Line around the Korean coast. This should be on the agenda of the Korean-Japan conference now in recession. It has no connection at all with the deportation problem.
The real facts of this very grave situation should be known, and in the remainder of this communication, those facts are stated concisely.
1. On January 30, 1959, Japanese Foreign Minister Fujuyama announced his country's unilateral decision to deport to Communism many of the Korean residents that Japan had misused an forced labourers. This decision also included the dependents of such Koreans. Announcement was made at a moment when the Korean Government was preparing to resume the recessed discussions with Japan regarding these very residents and other outstanding problems. On February 13, the Japanese Cabinet gave its endorsement to Mr. Fujiyama's intentions.
2. On April 13, 1959, utilizing the name of the Japan Red Cross Society, Japan opened Geneva negotiations with the puppet regime of Communist-occupied northern Korea on this mass deportation plan. The Geneva site was chosen in the hope of providing an International Committee of the Red Cross facade behind which the scheme could be carried out. At first, there was ostensible debate on the possible role of ICRC, but it soon developed that Japan was not interested in impartial supervision, but merely wanted ICRC as camouflage for the fact of forcible mass deportations - a cloak for Japan's lack of humanitarianism. When the Communists objected to a reel voice for ICRC, the Japanese quickly accepted a meaningless advisory assignment for the international organization.
3. The case of the Korean residents in Japan is unique. Some two million Koreans were compelled to go to Japan during the 1905-45 period of the Japanese occupation, most of then during the period that Japan was engaged in aggressive warfare against the Allied nations. From 1942 to 1945, approximately 520,000 Koreans were taken to Japan for forced labour in munitions plants. In 1939, there were 961,591 Koreans in Japan, but by 1944 this number had increased to 1,936,843. After the Japanese surrender in 1945, about 1,340,000 Koreans were repatriated to the territory of what is new the Republic of Korea. They received no compensation for their years of forced labour, their property losses, and their mistreatment. Consequently, some 600,000 Koreans chose to remain in Japan
4. International law is fairly well entablished and clear with regard to the status of immigrants and alien residents. But the situation of the Korean residents differs from both of these categories in that they were forced to immigrate, that they were utilized as forced labour, and that Japan classed them as Japanese nationals, although not on a basis of equality with Japanese-born citizens. Special and privileged treatment should have been accorded them after the restoration of Japanese independence in 1952. Instead, the Japanese Government has studiously discriminated against them in employment, in education, in welfare, in law enforcement, in social acceptance, and so on.
5. The Republic of Korea has followed the policy of accepting the individual, voluntary repatriation of Koreans in Japan. This Government has declared repeatedly that it will accept a voluntary mass repatriation, provided the Japanese Government pays just and due compensation and thus affords them with opportunity to make a new start in life. The amount of such compensation would be established through negotiation. But instead of discussing this proposal and thus observing the Korea-Japan agreement of December 31, 1957, the Japanese decided to deport as many Koreans as possible to the Communists.
6. Ordinary diplomatic usage should have estopped Japan from ever raising the deportation issue. The status and future of the Korean residents has been on the agenda of four Korea-Japan Conferences held during the last seven years, and is still scheduled for discussion and settlement at the fourth conference, now in recess. Precedent clearly identifies this as a political issue to be approached only through bilateral negotiations of Korea and Japan and without the involvement of any third party. Japan's action in abandoning these talks with the Republic of Korea and attempting to enter into a bargain with Communism is a violation of international courtesy and stipulated agreement. To date the only Japanese excuse has been that the situation changed - in other words, that it suddenly suited Japan's convenience to attempt the deportations to Communism.
7. Japan has sought to distinguish between the deportation plan and other Korea-Japan issues on the grounds that to send the residents to Communism is "humanitarian," whereas the other problems are of a political nature. It is also interesting that to accomplish these "voluntary repatriations," the Japanese Government is prepared to spend the sum of 130,000,000 yen (About $360,000), and that the Japanese Cabinet had to make the "repatriation" decision, although Japan maintains that no issue except "humanitarianism" is involved.
8. This now "humanitarianism" of Japan is reminiscent of the 400,000 Korean farmers who "voluntarily" went to Japan between 1910 and 1918 when Japanese land policies created a surplus agricultural population. Japan has also tried to excuse itself for the massacre of thousands of Korean residents at the time of the Tokyo earthquake in 1923, and for incarcerating Koreans in concentration camps without charge, trial, or hope of release during the last few years.
9. To keep up the humanitarian pretence, Japan has sent representatives of its Red Cross Society to Geneva and has maintained that the Red Cross is entirely responsible. Yet from the very beginning, the deportation scheme has been directed by personnel from the Japanese Foreign Office and the Ministries of Justice and Social 'welfare. In Japan, this is admitted freely, but the same confession is never made abroad.
10. Japan's effort to hide its intentions behind the International Committee of the Red Cross is apparent in the Japanese agreement with the Communists. That accord, already initialed by the Japanese representatives, does not provide any role for ICRC and does not require ICRC approval. The myth of ICRC participation and approval is entirely of Japanese origin -a unilateral declaration of Japan that Japan can repudiate at any time. Even the Communists, understanding the motives of this dual Japanese diplomacy, have become so impatient as to reveal Japan's duplicity and bluntly declare that they care nothing about ICRC and that ICRC has no part in the bilateral proceedings.
11. Another Japanese camouflage is the Declaration of Human Rights and its provisions for free choice of residence. Aside from the fact that Japan itself is violating the Declaration by forcible attempts to deport the Korean residents, it is also true that the Declaration could never be used to defend the sending of human beings to Communism. Once there, the individuals will have no freedom to depart, and this is the antithesis of the assurance provided in the Declaration.
Japanese commentators and others also have tried to compare the deportation of Koreans with the repatriation agreement set forth in the Korean Armistice Agreement and carried out under the Neutral Nations Repatriations Commission. There are many differences between the two situations: that one involves civilians resident in a foreign country - and one that claimed them as nationals - for a long period of time, and that the other involved prisoners of war, etc. But the most important point was that the truce stipulations were designed to prevent the involuntary return of human beings to Communism. Under the Japan-Communist agreement, precisely the opposite is true. Innocent people will be importuned to leave the Free World, and they will have no protection against forcible measures.
12. Japan claims that many Korean residents have "freely" expressed their will to go to the Communist-hold north. This misinformation stems from a registration procedure conducted by the Communists themselves. Japanese sources have attested that those who said they wanted to go were bribed, were lied to, were intimidated, and in some cases even forced to sign. The Communists spent approximately 600 million yen on this campaign, but their own hard-core members did not sign. This effectively destroys the Japanese argument that it wants the deportations in order to expel Communists or Communist sympathizers. It also must be noted that 97% of the Korean residents are from the southern half of Korea or of south Korean ancestry. Even those few who came from the north have never lived under Communism in Korea, nor in any other country. Thus they know nothing of Communism, and in most cases the deportations could not be considered "repatriations" in either a political or geographical sense.
13. In maintaining that there is no political involvement in the deportations, Japan has chosen to ignore the fact that the Communists of the north are desperately short of manpower for their military and labour forces. That, aside from propaganda values, is the reason the Communists want the Korean residents. Such augmentation of Communist manpower would seriously threaten the security of the Republic of Korea and the Free World defence position in North East Asia. Tenseness of the Korean theatre has already boon demonstrated in a series of Demilitarized Zone incidents and the shooting down of a U.S. Navy patrol plane over the Eastern Sea. Ironically, any strengthening of the north Korean Communist forces also will increase the danger to Japan.
14. Japanese intent to be rid of Koreans at minimum cost is also revealed in the announcement that illegal Korean entrants will not be indicted and tried if they agree to deportation to Communism. This is without regard to where they came from. Aside, From callous immorality, this gesture has aspects of giving direct espionage aid and comfort to the Communists. Instead of risking the mountain passes of the Demilitarized Zone or the sea lanes, returning agents could go to Japan and thence to the north.
15. The Republic of Korea has the only lawful government on the Korean peninsula and is so recognized by the United Nations. The Korean Government thus has the right and the obligation to protect Korean nationals wherever they may be, and especial if their future and their vary lives are jeopardized. Japan's deportation attempt is tantamount to a denial of the Republic of Korea's sovereignty over the peninsula, and a step toward recognition of the Communist regime whose aggression was resisted by the United Nations and which was denounced by the U.N. as an international gangster.
16. International law and justice prohibit slavery. Yet Japan is now literally conspiringte send scores of thousands of people into a slave system - many of them through compulsion - to suit its own convenience. It refuses to consult with the legal, duly recognized government of these people, and takes refuge in false clains of humanitarian motivation. The Government of Japan realizes all this, and is also aware that the deportation schene is undermining all hope of friendship and co-operation between Korea and Japan. This Government can only conclude that Japan has no present intention of settling the problems and differences that exist between the two countries, and that Japan may further have ulterior designs and motives affecting this sovereignty and Korean soil.
In conclusion, our friends must not overlook the real facts. Koreans wore forcibly taken to Japan as industrial labourers during the war, and that Japan is attempting to realize the deportation of these people in order to avoid paying any compensation to them. If compensation were paid to them, these Koreans would have no desire to go to North Korea.