Background From 1910 to 1945,
Korea was a colony of the
Empire of Japan. During this time, Japan banned aspects of traditional Korean culture, mandated education be in Japanese only, and
encouraged Koreans to adopt Japanese names. Following the
surrender of Japan, the majority of ethnic Koreans (1 to 1.4 million) returned to the peninsula. The ones who stayed in Japan did so for a variety of reasons. Some were apprehensive of returning to the poor conditions and political instability on the peninsula, others could not afford the journey back to the peninsula, and some even had successful careers. Koreans who had already somewhat assimilated into Japanese culture, with Japanese spouses or Japanese-speaking children, were incentivized to stay there. They were first moved to the area in 1943. The airfield was unfinished when the war ended in 1945. Afterwards, workers were given no compensation or means to return to Korea. In addition, conditions on the peninsula were also difficult due to the
division of Korea around that time. Stuck, around 1,300 Koreans stayed in the area as
squatters, as they had no legal ownership of the land or the properties on it. Residents used non-flush toilets, Other Koreans in Japan also congregated in the area, which became an
ethnic enclave.
Conflict over eviction Around the 1960s, the land was owned by the Nissan affiliate
Nissan Shatai. The company held several negotiations with the settlers, sometimes via the North Korea–aligned organization
Chongryon, to have them leave, but no conclusions were reached. The settlers applied to the Uji government for access to the public water supply because the wells they had been using were salty, but the government deferred the decision to Nissan Shatai. Nissan Shatai rejected this on the grounds that it would confirm the occupancy of the squatters. The conflict over drinking water became a key issue over the following decades. In 1984 and 1985, Nissan Shatai offered several deals to the Head of the Area Council, Hirayama Masuo (Korean name Ho Ch'ang-gu; ), to evict and resettle the residents, but these offers were rebuffed. In 1986, Nissan Shatai proposed that the land be sold to a company which Hirayama could set up, with current residents being able to buy land from the company. Hirayama accepted the offer, Hirayama never told the other residents about the deal that he had struck. In 1993, Harvard students protested the eviction of Utoro's residents at the Japanese consulate in Boston. Villagers pooled $25,000 to buy a full-page ad in
The New York Times. The ad was purchased at a discount rate facilitated by Herb Gunther, head of an American advertising company Public Media Center, who had seen the protestors while on a business trip in Kyoto. When legal efforts stalled, Japanese supporters laid out a "Community Building Action Plan". Numerous awareness and fundraising campaigns were held in South Korea, and have even continued through the 2010s. In December 2016, the
National Memorial Museum of Forced Mobilization under Japanese Occupation in Busan, South Korea, held an exhibition on Utoro, and appealed for more donations. In 2005,
Ban Ki-moon, the
U.N. Secretary General and
South Korean Minister of Foreign Affairs, promised the residents aide if private donations were insufficient for the purchase of the land. Around the mid-2000s, the population of the village had dropped to 230, as young people left and did not return. Around that time, negotiations with the Japanese government began to progress after decades of stalling. In December 2007, the Japanese government founded the Council for Improving Living Environment of Utoro District. Saitō Masaki predicted that, as the new buildings were public housing owned by the government, the proportion of ethnic Koreans living in the district would gradually decrease over time. == Utoro Peace Memorial Museum ==