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It further suggested that many Koreans entered Japan illegally, a problem to which Japanese officials responded by establishing a campaign, “Stop Smuggling Week,” complete with posters and advertisements. It estimated that by 1940, about 200,000 Koreans had illegally entered Japan. Strapped for labor by wartime conditions, in March 1945 the Japanese government lifted all restraints on Korean immigration, causing a sharp rise in the Japan-based Korean population, which soon grew to more than two million people.

My inability to speak Korean as I wished truly broke me up. In the end, distressed, I decided to temporarily return to Japan to study before once again returning to Korea to make a fresh start” (Choe 2004: 42). As the eldest son, his decision was not easy and drew his father’s protests. Ultimately Choe would not return to visit the ROK until 1980, after his father had died. The confused situation wrought by Japan’s defeat brought hardship to those who had maintained residency on the peninsula; the addition of two million returnees only exacerbated an already difficult situation.

In addition, the dire circumstances that Korean families faced in meeting basic living needs—a roof over their heads, food to eat, and a job—prevented their return. S. inability to define Korea as friend or foe. The State, War, and Navy departments’ joint directive to Supreme Commander General Douglas MacArthur regarding Japan’s minority populations—issued in October 1945—only confused matters further. ” Thus, if necessary, they “may be treated . . as enemy nationals” (United States Joint Chiefs of Staff 1945).