[1] Michael Weiner divides his study of this history into three phases of migration, 1910-1925, 1925-1938, and wartime. This last stage he divides into company-directed recruitment (1939-41), government-assisted recruitment (1942-44), and forced draft (1944-45). While a distinction can be made in principle between “voluntary” and “forced” labor procurement, Weiner adds that “there were numerous instances where recruiting agencies made no attempt to distinguish voluntary recruitment from involuntary conscription” even between 1939-44. See his Race and migration in imperial Japan, London: Routledge, 1994, pp. 194-5.

[2] The Korean population in Japan more than doubled during this period. See ibid., p. 197.

[3] A 1924 survey found Japanese-Korean wages differing by 5-50%, depending on the profession. See Higuchi Yuichi, Nihon no chosen-kankokujin [Japanese north Koreans-south Koreans], Tokyo: Shinkosha, 2002, p. 93.

[4] Michael Weiner, The origins of the Korean community in Japan, 1910-1923, Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1989, p. 53.

[5] John Hodge's most infamous statement was labeling the Korean as “the same breed of cats as the Japanese,” an idea that he reportedly obtained from a Japanese general. See Mark Gayn, Japan diary, Rutland, VT: Charles E. Tuttle, Co, 1981, p. 359.

[6] USAFIK G-2 Periodic Reports, 14 December 1945.

[7] One of the gravest misunderstandings on the part of policy makers was to assume that Japan-based Koreans had been considered “Japanese nationals” up to the end of the war. For this reason many entertained the possibility that these people would eventually be able to choose acceptance of Japanese “citizenship” or maintenance of Japanese “nationality” as future options.

[8] Office of Strategic Services, “Aliens in Japan,” 29 June 1945. Included in “Occupation of Japan” United States Planning Documents, 1942-1945, Volume III of set located in the Japanese National Library.

[9] Ibid., pp. 5-13 and 15-6. The report did acknowledge recent tendencies for Koreans to seek permanent settlement by noting a small rise in their intermarriage with Japanese as well as in the number of Koreans having been born in Japan, ibid., p. 16.

[10] Ibid., p. 14.

[11] Ibid., p. 35.

[12] Ibid., pp. 36-8.

[13] “Basic Initial Post-Surrender Directive to Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers for the Occupation and Control of Japan,” Division of Special Records, Foreign Office, Japanese Government. On-line version was available.

[14] Utsumi Aiko reports that there were 23 Koreans and 21 Taiwanese among the 984 individuals who were executed for war crimes. And of the 3,419 people sentenced to life or limited imprisonment, 125 were Korean and 147 were Taiwanese. See Utsumi Aiko, “Korean ‘Imperial Soldiers’: Remembering Colonialism and Crimes against Allied POWs,” in T. Fujitani, Geofrey White, and Lisa Yoneyama, Perilous memories: the Asia-Pacific war(s), Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2001, p. 211.

[15] Foreign Office Japanese Government, “Japanese Nationals in Detached Territories and the Peoples of those Territories Residing in Japan,” in Records of the United States Department of State relating to the internal affairs of Japan, 1945-49, Reel 6, February 1948, pp. 9-10, Japanese National Diet Library, Kensei Room.

[16] Richard B. Finn, Winners in peace: MacArthur, Yoshida, and postwar Japan, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1992, p. 238.

[17] See, for example, documents concerning the 1948 Kobe-Osaka Riots following the School Education Law that closed many Korean schools as contained in Records of the United States Department of State relating to the internal affairs of Japan, 1945-1949, Reel 3, Japanese National Diet Library, Kensei Room. General William F. Dean, Military Governor of Korea, interpreted these riots as a communist effort to disrupt the electoral process in southern Korea. He wrote that the “Communist-inspired Koreans in Japan can only lose by such suicidal defiance of law as illustrated in the industrial areas of Kobe and Osaka…. Election day is just four days from now…. The activities of some Koreans in Japan are nothing but attempts to influence their native land's first democratic elections.” See “General Dean's Answer to Written Press Questions of 6 May 1948,” in Records of the United States Department of State, Reel 3.

[18] See Changsoo Lee, “The Period of Repatriation, 1945-49,” in Changsoo Lee and George De Vos, Koreans in Japan: ethnic conflict and accommodation, Berkeley: University of California Press, 1981, p. 62.

[19] Bruce Cumings, The origins of the Korean war: liberation and the emergence of separate regimes, 1945-1947, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1981, pp. 197, 351.

[20] The 1948 “staff study” on Koreans in Japan noted, “Koreans moving between Korea and Japan serve as the link between Japanese communists and those of the continent of Asia—Korean, Chinese, and Russian. See “Staff Study Concerning Koreans in Japan,” 16 August 1948, in Records of the United States Department of State, Reel 3.

[21] “Subject of Nationality and Treatment of Formosans,” in Records of the United States Department of State, Reel 1. Richard L-G Deverall, Chief of Labor Education in SCAP, writes that the Japanese government estimated that 3.5 million people engaged in black market activity. It repeatedly informed the Occupation that all Koreans in Japan were a “bunch of black-marketeers.” They failed to add, he continues, that “behind the black marketeering Koreans were sly Japanese politicians, purgees, and racketeers who found the Korean post-war status of “Friendly ally” useful… in alluding Japanese police detection or arrest.” See his Red star over Japan, Calcutta: Temple Press, 1952, p. 256.

[22] This was reported in a memo titled “Critical Refugee Situation” and sent to the Governor General, Headquarters, USAFIX in Seoul by the Commanding General of the 40th Division on 26 December 1945. See Gillette Papers, vol. 1, Seoul: Hanlin University, Asian Culture Research Center, 1996, pp. 370-2.

[23] Changsoo Lee, “The Period of Repatriation,” p. 59.

[24] “Staff Study Concerning Koreans in Japan,” pp. 2-3.

[25] Ibid., pp. 3-4.

[26] Ibid., pp. 4-5.

[27] Ibid., pp. 8-9.

[28] The majority of Japan-based Koreans originally came from towns in the southern half of the peninsula. See Sonia Ryang, North Koreans in Japan: Language, Ideology, and Identity, Boulder: Westview Press, 1997, p. 3.

[29] Tessa Morris-Suzuki, Exodus to North Korea: Shadows from Japan's Cold War Lanham: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2007, 22.

[30] Solutions are listed in “Staff Study Concerning Koreans in Japan,” pp. 7-9.

[31] William J. Sebald, “Status of Koreans in Japan,” interoffice memo dated 18 February 1949 from the United States Political Advisor for Japan. Located in Records of the United States Department of State relating to the internal affairs of Japan, 1945-1949, Reel 15.

[32] Ibid., p. 4.

[33] William J. Sebald to Secretary of State, 15 August 1949, in ibid.

[34] Richard B. Finn, “Memorandum of Conversation: Koreans in Japan,” 3 February 1949, in Records of the United States Department of State relating to the internal affairs of Japan, 1945-1949, Reel 15.

[35] Letter and enclosure from the Korean Diplomatic Mission in Japan to the Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers, Tokyo dated 7 April 1949, contained in Records of the United States Department of State relating to the internal affairs of Japan, 1945-1949, Reel 15.

[36] “Cheil Choson munhwa undong,” [The Cultural movement of Japan-based Korea] Cheil Choson munhwa nyon kan, April 1949, pp. 50-61.

[37] “Chaeil kyop'o munje,” [The Japan-based Korean resident problem], P'yonghwa ilbo, 4 January 1950. This editorial in particular noted the leftist ideology of this group as problematic.

[38] HQ, USAFIK G-2 Periodic Reports, 7 September 1946.

[39] Terms of this “Agreement” are taken from the “unofficial translation of the gist of the agreement” carried in “Accord on Status of S. Koreans here,” Japan Times, 23 June 1965.

[40] Tessa Morris-Suzuki, “An Act Prejudicial to the Occupation Forces: Migration Controls and Korean Residents in Post-Surrender Japan,” Japan Studies 24, no. 1 (May 2004); 5-28.

[41] Determining the exact number of Koreans that this provision affected is problematic because a sizeable number of this group was registered with both the pro-South Mindan and the pro-North Chongryun. Sonia Ryang estimates that around 220,000 Koreans were affected. See introduction to Koreans in Japan: voices from the margin, London: Routledge, 2000, p. 5. The 18 June 1965 issue of the Japan Times estimated that over half of the 600,000 Japan-based Koreans belonged to Chongryun. Tessa Morris-Suzuki verifies this figure as the perceived percentage of Chongryun Koreans in Japan. Tessa Morris-Suzuki, Exodus to North Korea, pp. 92-3. See also her Japan Focus article “The Forgotten Victims of the North Korean Crisis”.

[42] The Japanese Government had encouraged repatriation to the DPRK from 1959. This action, which returned over 93,000 Koreans (and their Japanese spouses) to the DPRK, lasted through 1967. Initially this had infuriated the ROK government and stalled normalization negotiations. For discussion see Sonia Ryang, “The North Korean homeland of Koreans in Japan,” pp. 35-9; Tessa Morris-Suzuki, Exodus to North Korea.

[43] The 1947 Alien Registration Ordinance and the 1952 Alien Registration Act were both modeled on the US Smith Act of 1940 introduced to register and fingerprint foreign residents. In Japan, fingerprinting was introduced in the latter 1952 Act, which went into effect in April 28, 1952, the day the occupation ended. Takemae Eiji, Inside GHQ, pp. 450, 499.