This text reflects on actions taken during the chaos following Japan’s defeat and explains why many people from the Korean Peninsula chose to remain in Japan despite repatriation recommendations.

This essay recounts a delayed realization about events that occurred in the immediate aftermath of the war.
It focuses on why some residents chose to remain in Japan and how postwar chaos enabled actions that later became normalized.

2017-06-21
Amid the confusion following Japan’s defeat, some Zainichi Koreans and Chinese appropriated land near train stations as if it were their own.
A person born and raised in Nipponbashi, Osaka, whom I came to know through my work, spoke of this every time we met.
At the time, I did not understand the significance of what he was saying at all.
Now, it is perfectly clear to me.
Despite the GHQ’s repatriation recommendations, those who remained in Japan knew that the Korean Peninsula would return to its former state.
I am now convinced that many of them belonged to the Baekjeong class.
I will discuss this later, but according to Wikipedia, the Baekjeong were people considered outside state administration, without household registration, and exempt from taxes and military levies.
Naturally, without household registration they also had no land, so it is understandable that they had no desire to return.
Those who happened to be in Japan at that time took the opportunity to stretch ropes around land near train stations and claim it as their own.
It was only after August three years ago that I first came to understand that this was what had happened.