People of Korean heritage who were living in Japan and then moved to North Korea, some of whom with their Japanese wives, were interviewed on the 60th anniversary of a historical repatriation programme.

The programme began in 1959 when the Red Cross societies of both countries signed a repatriation agreement with the governments’ consent. By the end of the programme in 1984, about 93,000 people went to North Korea under the programme, although some later defected.

An Osaka-based association comprising researchers and journalists, among others, was established in August last year to collect stories from some of these defectors, a number of whom are elderly or approaching old age.

“Many more people should know about the real situation in North Korea and the repatriation programme itself,” said Manabu Ishikawa, 61, a defector who decided to participate in the association’s project.

Around the time the programme was launched, North Korea had embarked on a propaganda campaign, promoting the country as a “paradise on earth”. However, those who went to North Korea struggled under poor living conditions.

Repatriates were classified as members of the lower class. They were also placed under surveillance by authorities and experienced discrimination.

“It was a paradise for those in the privileged class, but for us, it was hell,” said Ishikawa, now a resident of Adachi Ward, Tokyo.

His father was a first-generation Korean resident in Japan and his mother was Japanese. Ishikawa is his mother’s maiden name. His elder sister, who was unable to go to university in Japan due to financial difficulties, signed up for the programme, believing the propaganda that “education was available to all in North Korea”.

Persuaded by his sister, Ishikawa went to North Korea with his sister and elder brother in 1972, when he was in the third year of junior high school.

They soon learned that the reality of life in North Korea was completely different from what they had imagined.

His sister was not able to go to university. Ishikawa lived with his siblings in Ryanggang province on the Chinese border in accommodations designated by the authorities.

In the winter, temperatures plunged to as low as 30-45 degrees below zero. The three lived in an apartment provided by authorities that had a floor area the size of about eight tatami mats – about 13sqm. They shared a small amount of rice, cereal grains and potatoes that were distributed once every 15 days.

After graduating from high school, Ishikawa became a mechanic, married a woman from the province and had two sons. Throughout his life there, however, Ishikawa’s predicament remained unchanged.

Ration deliveries were unpredictable in the 1990s due to a series of famines, among other factors. The bodies of people who had died of starvation could be seen lying on the streets.

Many local people tried to make a living by stealing copper wires at factories and selling them. Ishikawa’s family barely survived starvation by eating corn flour, available as chicken feed, mixed with water. His sister, who had suffered from a mental disorder, died in 1991.

Ishikawa’s distrust of the North Korean government deepened as the regime continued its missile development program despite the prevailing starvation. Ishikawa defected from North Korea with his brother in November 2001, crossing the frozen Yalu River into China.

In China, Ishikawa obtained Chinese citizenship illegally and managed to return to Japan for the first time in about three decades as a Chinese citizen with his brother in September 2002. His wife and sons also defected in 2006. With the support of lawyers and other associates, Ishikawa finally obtained Japanese nationality in March last year.

He had worked mainly as a security guard in Japan. However, his wife and sons, who did not adjust to their lives in Japan, relocated to South Korea in search of work.

Ishikawa, who has been living on welfare, expressed his anger at the North Korean regime. “No matter how hard we tried, we could not make our lives better in North Korea. The regime ruined not only my life but also many other people’s lives,” he said.

There are believed to be around 200 repatriates like Ishikawa in Japan who went to North Korea but later defected, and between 300 and 400 in South Korea.

The Osaka-based association plans to conduct interviews with more than 50 such people residing in the two countries before publishing a collection of their memoirs by 2021.

THE YOMIURI SHIMBUN (JAPAN)/ASIA NEWS NETWORK