Exodus to North Korea: Shadows from Japan's Cold War

by Tessa Morris-Suzuki

Ranging from Geneva to Pyongyang, this remarkable book takes readers on an odyssey through one of the most extraordinary forgotten tragedies of the Cold War: the "return" of over 90,000 people, most of them ethnic Koreans, from Japan to North Korea from 1959 onward. Presented to the world as a humanitarian venture and conducted under the supervision of the International Red Cross, the scheme was actually the result of political intrigues involving the governments of Japan, North Korea, the Soviet Union, and the United States. The great majority of the Koreans who journeyed to North Korea in fact originated from the southern part of the Korean peninsula, and many had lived all their lives in Japan. Though most left willingly, persuaded by propaganda that a bright new life awaited them in North Korea, the author draws on recently declassified documents to reveal the covert pressures used to hasten the departure of this unwelcome ethnic minority. For most, their new home proved a place of poverty and hardship; for thousands, it was a place of persecution and death. In rediscovering their extraordinary personal stories, this book also casts new light on the politics of the Cold War and on present-day tensions between North Korea and the rest of the world.

Genres: Japan, History, Nonfiction, Japanese History, Asia

302 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

Tessa Morris-Suzuki is Professor of Japanese History at Australian National University and the author or co-author of more than a dozen books, including most recently East Asia Beyond the History Wars, with Morris Low, Leonid Petrov and Timothy Y. Tsu, and Borderline Japan, and a recipient of the 2013 Fukuoka Prize.

Reviews

[Stephen Rowland · Rating 3 out of 5]

The "repatriation" of Koreans in Japan to North Korea is an interesting topic, and I believe this is the most comprehensive book in English one can get. I just hate the way Morris-Suzuki wrote it -- so melodramatic, so much about HER. She liberally padded the book with irrelevant observations and clearly believes she is a much better writer than she actually is. At any rate, it's annoying, but I'm grateful for the information included.

[Benemint · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 stars. It is an engaging writing but overly emotional and dramatic here and there. She writes this like a detective novel -- and I myself think historians are like detectives, but it is only well-established scholars like her and Bruce Cumings who can make themselves a protagonist of the story. (We, young researchers can only blog!)

Anyways, I guess the issue this book treats is sensitive and highly political, and what she found is very informative. But I would be more cautious in equating the responsibility for driving those Koreans out (of Japan) and the responsibility for their hardship in North Korea. People in general had very different type of information regarding North Korea in the 50s, let alone what would eventually happen to them after the deportation. There is also some naive tone to it when she accuses Japanese officials of using humanitarianism to hide Japan's national interests.

[Mallory · Rating 3 out of 5]

Fascinating read, but occasionally Morris-Suzuki goes off on unnecessary tangents. Also was a little dry with too much info-dumping at some parts. However, I enjoyed tagging along for Morris-Suzuki's research process, as well as how she recounted the stories of interviewees' in third person accounts.

[Darius · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting account of a Cold War sidebar not known to many in the West (or likely outside of Japan or Korea). I agree with the description other reviewers have given - this is a textbook that reads like a novel. For those with an interest in history or East Asia, it is a fascinating read and highly recommended.

The book does drag in parts where the author explores the minutiae of the many political dealings involved. I felt this detracted the from overall informativeness of the book as the reader becomes drowned in details - more than once I found myself asking the big-picture questions eg 'how many people were repatriated?' or 'why couldn't those originally from South Korea return there?'. The author of course covers these questions, but in the general scheme they can get easily lost as we cover so much ground.

The focus of the book seems to pivot in places as well. Justifiably Morris-Suzuki wants to give a comprehensive picture, but I felt parts of the book seemed to make explicit that its objective was to cover the Red Cross' role, and then other parts deviated from this focus. That being said, this doesn't detract from the enjoyment of the book at all.

Finally I didn't take issue with the author's 'detective-style' narrative or penchant for inserting herself and her musing into the story. I think this grounded the book's progression and provides a reprieve from the complex and detail-rich research narrative which forms the core of the book.

An immensely impressive piece of scholarship which deserves to be read, Morris-Suzuki elevates her work above a dry replication of the facts and illuminates a sad and fascinating chapter of East Asian history for the English-speaking world.

[Revere · Rating 4 out of 5]

Tessa Morris-Suzuki tells the little-known story of the repatriation of Zainichi Koreans to North Korea at the height of the Cold War, one of the most compelling yet tragic stories I have ever read. I appreciated the refreshing nature of her storytelling where she broke the fourth wall, weaving her research process and discovery seamlessly into the story. By including her thoughts and revelations into her research, I felt like I was right beside her uncovering every new detail in the puzzle.

My favorite detail of the book is that the first page begins with the repatriates at the dock of Niigata in 1959 and the last page ends with Morris-Suzuki at the same Niigata dock, almost 50 years later and metaphorically looking out over the East Sea out to North Korea. Though every detail is crucial in understanding the story, she gets in the weeds rather often and some parts were dry. Overall, Morris-Suzuki does a good job in establishing the main organizations at play in the entire book and her last chapter laying out potential future research was a nice finishing touch.

[Ruby · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well researched, but reads conversationally, not like a textbook. Takes a look at Japan's racist motivations for creating a program to move Korean descendent people to North Korea (although most of these people had lived in Japan for generations or decades, and were from Southern regions like Jeju and Busan). To further complicate matters, many of the Korean folks were sympathetic to the north and didn't realize how things were really going to turn out for them.

[Atharv G. · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5 Stars

This was a really interesting read. Although the descriptions of the various government interactions and subterfuges could be tedious at times, the author has a real skill for describing the human costs of government actions.

[Sam Wolfe · Rating 1 out of 5]

We really don't need to know how many times you went to Geneva to do research. love that you have a cool life, but this book could've been way shorter and we could've been assigned something with more connections to various aspects of Japanese society rather than this tangent

[Miles Huh · Rating 5 out of 5]

Exactly up my alley. Engaging read and built on what I learned on my semester abroad.

[avery]

For my japanese history class. Interesting, but I hate reading books online.

[meeners · Rating 4 out of 5]

a remarkably clear and persuasive account of the cold war politics involved in the repatriations of koreans from japan to north korea. should note that tessa morris-suzuki's narrative is overwhelmingly focused on Big Guns (national governments, red cross societies, chongryun, etc.). as S.C. points out, it reads like a detective story - not something i am opposed to (in fact i quite liked it) but it does put morris-suzuki herself square at the center of it all. for example, early on she mentions the story of "mr. yoon," a would-be returnee who wrote down all of his answers instead of speaking them to officials in the red cross center in niigata. one statement - My rights have been disregarded . . . There is no other way to express my mind . . . Surely you will understand . . . - comes back repeatedly to haunt morris-suzuki as a personal rebuke. makes for a compelling read but . . . isn't this doing a disservice to mr. yoon, once again? to reduce his passionate protests and complicated experiences to a sound byte in service of the author's own narrative?

i wonder if the author has seen the documentary dear pyongyang (produced in japan). putting this book and that documentary next to each other reveals one huge question that is left unanswered (in fact, it is not even asked) in both: that of class/political privilege, and how that has affected returnees' experiences.

[Viet · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you ever want to learn about the fate of the Korean Japaneses who were tricked by the North Korean government into returning to North Korea, where they were sent to concentration camps, this book, together with Aquariums of Pyongyang by Kang Chol-Hwan, is a must read.
Personally, it is rather depressing for me to see what human are capable of doing to each others in those relatively modern days.

[Robert Tuton · Rating 3 out of 5]

Tessa Morris-Suzuki paints a complex picture of the intrigue behind cold war diplomacy. 90,000 Koreans, branded as foreigners and considered a post-colonial nuisance to Japan, were "repatriated" to North Korea. At times understandably emotional, the author's research appears thorough but remains readable and understandable for a general audience. This is a must for any scholar of cold-war Asia or Korea-Japan relations.