By Here is an interesting article about the conscripted Korean laborers from World War II that still find themselves for various reasons living on the Russian island of Sakhalin:
“So, I have ended up with three names.”
Cho Yeong-jae, 78, spoke with a respectable Gyeongsang Province dialect. Our meeting took place in Boshnyakovo (called “Nishisakutan” in Japanese), at a mining village where I arrived after a six-hour car ride northwest from Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk, the largest city on Russia’s Sakhalin Island. The birch forests that surrounded the village had turned white from a few days of snowfall, and Boshnyakovo’s small harbor, facing the maritime province of Siberia, is said to still be frequented by Korean and Japanese boats bearing coal for burning at thermal power plants.
Cho was born in 1932 in Pungsan, a township in the county (now city) of Andong in North Gyeongsang Province. In 1942, he came to Sakhalin following his father, who had been conscripted into labor service as a coal miner. When he enrolled in the island’s Japanese school, the young man’s name became “Matsumoto Eisai,” and when Japan lost to the Soviet Union in 1945 and the entire island became Soviet territory, his name was changed once again, this time to “Yuri Cho.” Nearly 70 years have passed since then, but Cho has been unable to leave Sakhalin behind.
“When I came here in 1942, Koreans were packed into three hambajip (worker dormitories). Over here, they were mostly from Gyeongsang Province, and down at Shakhtersk they were mainly from North Korea. There were a lot of people at Kitakozawa (Telnovskiy), from Chungcheong Province and Jeolla Province. The coal is good here. If the Koreans did not follow orders, they were taken off to the takobeya (a detention facility for mine workers), and whenever someone went in there, he returned not right in the head.”
During the period of the Japanese Empire, Sakhalin was called Karafuto, which in the Ainu language means “island of birches.” Half of the island, the portion south of 50 degrees north latitude, was ceded by Russia to Japan after Japan’s victory in the 1905 Russo-Japanese War. Japan subsequently went to work exploiting the island’s rich natural resources. It made up for the lack of workers by bringing people in from Japan and Korea. It has been confirmed that 7,801 Koreans (6,120 of them miners) worked at 25 of the 26 mines operated in southern Sakhalin as of late July 1944. [Hankyoreh]
Read the rest at the link, but it is actually now possible for these exiled Koreans to now return home.
1:38 pm on February 10th, 2010 1
Do they speak Russian or Korean or both?
3:10 pm on February 10th, 2010 2
I have applied to a university (Dongseo U) in Busan for a job. I don't have that job yet, so I'd rather not give my name here.
Anyway, it has a "Sakhalin Program".
Have you heard of the word “Koreiski”? This is a Russian word indicating Koreans living in the Russian Yonhae-ju (Maritime Provinces) and central Asian regions. In our word, we call them "Koreans". Although there would have been various reasons for Koreans to have moved to Russia, most of the Koreans living in Sakhalin are those who were forced to move there against their will and develop the land during the Japanese invasion of Korea.
http://web.dongseo.ac.kr/~ipsi/dongseo_home/main_…
3:46 am on February 11th, 2010 3
Look at the way Yoshihiro Akiyama was treated by Korean nationals when he was in Korea.
Why would any Koreans in similiar situations want to come back to Korea?
For that matter, why haven't Koreans, born and raised in Japan flocked back to Korea in droves if Japan is such a bad place and Korea such a good place for them?
7:37 am on February 11th, 2010 4
What? Yoshihiro Akiyama? hahahaha do you even know any facts? and why Korea was hostile to him?
Yoshiro being a KOREAN joined the judo olympics representing JAPAN, and won 2 gold medals for Japan.
Now think about it, Korea and Japan at the time weren't so friendly, would you be friendly to someone that "betrayed" your country? Probably not, so please learn your facts, then compare the situation.
10:28 am on February 11th, 2010 5
It's YOU who should know what you're talking about before you make a comment. YOU are the one "who should think about it!" YOU know no facts. You're a hypocrite like most Koreans and their apologists!
He wanted to represent Korea and trained in Busan, but left because YOU KOREANS, if that's what you are, treated him like shit.
Starting in '98 he went to Busan to train. He was rejected by YOU Koreans who showed your true colors.
Here read this before YOU speak again and maybe YOU will LEARN something. This proves my point.
http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2008/…
So if Koreans have it so shitty in Japan, why don't they flock back to Korea? The reason is simple. His story is the reason why.
10:31 am on February 11th, 2010 6
Did I miss something? I thought Yoshihiro Akiyama was the current Super Korean, after he beat Denis Kang?
Even thought he was born in Japan, I thought he was more popular in Korea than Japan. The Japanese MMA fans were angry when he was accused of applying lubricants to his uniform before some of his earlier fights. Yet, I still see him in a lot of TV commercials in Korea, so I assumed he was very popular here.
I still don't understand how Koreans go about embracing or disowning 'other' Koreans. Denis Kang and Hines Ward, mixed-race Koreans, become instant national celebrities, yet mixed-race Koreans born and raised in Korea are treated shamefully. Fully ethnic Koreans raised outside South Korea, even North Koreans, are marginalized when they immigrate here, yet ethic Koreans who have never set foot in Korea and receive notoriety and status on their own, are held up as models of what it means to be Korean.
10:38 am on February 11th, 2010 7
He told his story of being discriminated against by Koreans, not just in the Judo world either, on Korean TV a couple of years ago. Obviously JOKE doesn't remember this, but Koreans also forget who saved their country three times, so don't expect them to remember.
11:48 am on February 11th, 2010 8
JoeC:
Korean's hypocrisy on such things is quite simple.
If a Korean not born and raised in Korea becomes rich and/or famous in another country, they are seen as a hero. How many Korean-American laundromat owners or even doctors and lawyers are hero's in Korea?
When dealing with biracial Koreans, Koreans are even more hypocritical!
If a biracial Korean becomes famous and/or rich in another country, they're Korean.
Hines Ward is the epitome of this. Was he famous in Korea when he was drafted into the NFL or before his team, not him alone like Koreans like to think, won the Super Bowl? Go online and see what his mother has to say about Koreans and Korea.
Koreans and their apologists may disagree with with me, but Koreans have proved it time and again.
12:02 pm on February 11th, 2010 9
JOKE is a perfect name for you! More Korean hypocrisy.