It has been 60 years since the mass repatriation of Koreans in Japan was realized. The world hailed it as an “exodus of Koreans from capitalism to socialism”.

In the wake of Japan’s defeat in the Second World War and Korea’s liberation on August 15 1945, Korean compatriots in Japan hurriedly got aboard the ships heading for their homeland.

However, Japan resorted to every means to obstruct their return home. The Japanese reactionaries even massacred thousands of them by sinking their navy ship Ukishimamaru by an explosion on August 24 1945.

Many of compatriots who went to south Korea leaving the cursed alien land were compelled to return to Japan as they could not bear to live in their native places where foreign occupation forces styled themselves masters and treachery was rampant.

The Japanese government opened negotiations with south Korea in 1951 and forced south Korean citizenship on Koreans in Japan regardless of their opinions to forcibly send them back to the south.

President Kim Il Sung, in his report at celebrations marking the 10th anniversary of the founding of the DPRK, stated that the fellow countrymen in Japan have the legitimate right to return to their country and it is the national duty of the Korean people to provide them with all facilities to start a new life after their return to their homeland.

Encouraged by his statement, the Koreans in Japan turned out in a vigorous struggle for realizing their repatriation. Their widespread struggle aroused support and sympathy among the world’s people including the Japanese. The progressive political parties, social organizations and personages in Japan urged the government to attend to the issue of the Koreans’ repatriation with sincerity.

International democratic organizations and peoples around the world voiced active support and solidarity to the just struggle of the Koreans in Japan. Therefore, the Japanese authorities were compelled to consent to the talks between the Red Cross organizations of the DPRK and Japan in Geneva, Switzerland, and the agreement on realizing the repatriation of Koreans in Japan was signed in August 1959 in Calcutta, India.

Meanwhile, a reception committee for the repatriates was formed in the DPRK to go ahead with the preparations.

“Everywhere, I could see examples of the DPRK government’s measures of compatriotism for the returnees,” said a Japanese personage visiting the DPRK at the time. “A six-storey apartment building has been built in Pyongyang for repatriates to move in and lodgings and workplaces prepared for them by an agricultural cooperative near the capital city. Classes are being formed in consideration of including Korean students from Japan and, accordingly, labs and practice rooms are being enlarged at Kim Il Sung University and other universities and colleges.”

“Every December, I recollect the unforgettable day when the repatriation ship carrying the first batch of returnees set sail for the homeland,” recalled a Korean residing in Japan. “Looking at the ship sent by President Kim Il Sung entering the foreign port by a wharf, we shouted in tears ‘Homeland comes!’ and hurrah.”

The first repatriation ship departed from the port of Niigata on December 14 1959 with 972 compatriots on board and arrived at the home port in the spotlight of the world on December 16.

Later, cargo-passenger ships Mangyongbong and Mangyongbong-92 were built to ensure homecomings and visits of Koreans in Japan. Until February 1991, over 100 000 Koreans returned to the socialist motherland from Japan in 187 batches.