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Niigata (Japan) (AFP)
Harunori Kojima still remembers the warm tears of joy that warmed his face when two Soviet ships left the Japanese port of Niigata in December 1959.
Destination: North Korea, which has attracted nearly 100,000 Koreans from Japan with fantastic propaganda, promising returnees a "paradise on earth".
Today, 88-year-old Kojima remembers how a brbad band performed patriotic songs praising North Korean leader Kim Il Sung as nearly 1,000 people boarded the ships for the first time. new life.
They were part of a large repatriation program that continued until 1984, led by the Red Cross Societies of Japan and North Korea and funded by Pyongyang.
A total of 93,340 people – mostly Koreans, but also Japanese spouses – emigrated enthusiastically to North Korea, happily ignoring the fact that it was a country without return.
Initially reluctant, the Japanese government also supported the project, the media touting it as a humanitarian campaign for Koreans struggling to build a life in Japan.
But Kojima, who was in the communist era and helped supervise the repatriation, has never been to North Korea and is now looking at the project bitterly.
"I was actively involved in the project, believing it was something positive, but as a result, I led people to hell," he said. at AFP.
During the colonial rule of the Korean peninsula by Tokyo between 1910 and 1945, millions of Koreans emigrated to Japan either voluntarily or against their will.
When Japan returned, hundreds of thousands of ethnic Koreans remained, reluctant to return to their devastated country. They were stripped of their Japanese nationality and became stateless.
According to journalist and expert Yoshiaki Kikuchi, Kim's North – economically better off than the South after the 1950-53 Korean War – wanted to use mbadive repatriation to emphasize the "superiority" of socialism over the southern puppet.
Most Koreans in Japan came from the south of the 38th parallel, but South Korean President Syngman Rhee left them behind. The former colonial leader, Japan, offered no help to fight against poverty and discrimination.
For these reasons, many thought that propaganda films portrayed an idyllic life in North Korea and were subject to the agents of the General Association of Korean Residents or Chongryon – the de facto North Embbady in Japan – while they went door to door. .
– To starve –
But the reality in "Paradise" was far from propaganda.
Eiko Kawasaki, now 76 years old, was shocked to see people come together to greet them in the northeastern port of Chongjin.
"The locals looked heartbreaking, both men and women had lifeless faces, dark, dry skin, and all wore the same humble work clothes," recalls Kawasaki.
She was 17 years old and had traveled alone, accompanied by her family, convinced by Chongryon's propaganda.
"They would say that North Korea is a wonderful country where we can help build a socialist state and then return home proudly after the unification of North and South," she said.
"They would encourage us to go, saying we were disgraced and bullied (in Japan), unable to get decent jobs."
The agents promised him "at least three months of rice" and "a furnished house and beds" would be waiting for him.
The reality was famine and famine.
But even if people were hungry, "no one protested," Kawasaki said, adding, "No one has ever asked about the cause of hunger."
She tried to suggest to her family not to come in letters, hoping to deceive the censors who immediately imprisoned and often "purged" anyone complaining.
It took him 10 years – and 18 months hidden in China – but Kawasaki ended up escaping to Japan.
– & # 39; National Abduction & # 39; –
Manabu Ishikawa, 60, formerly known as Lee Jay Hak, recalls living in poultry farms with bits of grain considered improper, even for animals.
He has never managed to erase the memory of a little girl, perhaps nine or ten years old, starving in the street.
"In reality, she was smiling … with relief, holding a piece of bread in her hand," he said.
Ishikawa escaped to China in 2001 – his wife and two sons followed later – but many others were not so lucky.
The Chongryon does not accept any criticism of the program.
"It was a campaign to protect the rights of Koreans in Japan, the freedom to return to their homeland," said AFP O Gyu Sang, pro-Pyongyang body historian.
"If they had lived without discrimination and had jobs to earn a living, few of them would have left … Japanese politicians also had to think that it was a good opportunity to get rid of the annoying Koreans. "
The effects are always reflected.
Last year, five former returnees, including Kawasaki and Ishikawa, filed a lawsuit against North Korea and the country's leader, accusing them of "national kidnapping" and demanding that returnees who had left for countries are free to travel.
The Tokyo District Court is expected to hear the case, said Atsushi Shiraki's attorney.
"I abandoned my Korean name a long time ago," said Kawasaki, partly to remain anonymous and protect his four children who still live in the North.
"I do not want to die without seeing my family again, but I will not be able to see them without North Korea putting an end to its rights violations."
© 2019 AFP
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