Forgotten People Memories of Koreans in the Marianas During Japanese Rule
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By Sung Youn Cho Professor Sociology Jeju National University, Korea chomin@jejunu.ac.kr
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Abstract: In the early 20th century, Japan dominated the Northern Mariana Islands, an area we called Nanyogundo. Research on this period has been carried out mainly by Japanese scholars, including recently the work of Imaizumi. During this era, many Japanese people moved to the Northern Mariana Islands, wanting to develop these Islands in order to make them their permanent territory. The Japanese brought Koreans to the Islands as a labor source, and, especially in the last stage of the Pacific War, tens of thousands of Koreans were pulled here by compulsion. Most of their stories have been forgotten. This presentation explains how Koreans made their own lives in the Northern Mariana Islands during the period of Japanese rule, including connecting with Japanese and native Chamorros. I will approach this topic through an analysis of a biographical manuscript written by Matsumoto (Chun Kyung Un). This study is about the Korean people who lived in the Mariana Islands during the Japanese occupation of Micronesia. While conducting the research, I asked the same questions repeatedly; “Since when and how many Korean people have migrated to the Mariana Islanders? Why did they leave their home and come here? How many people survived during the Pacific War and how many died? Where did they go after the war and how’s their reputation with local residents?”
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Today, most Korean people recognize Guam, Saipan and Tinian as popular destinations for vacation whilst not many of them know that thousands of Korean people were forced to work in the Marianas and died due to the aftermath of the war. Even the Mariana Islanders do not remember that. Most of them have an image of Korean immigrants who moved to the Marianas in the late 1970s to work in the tourism industry. In other words, Koreans in the Marianas during the Japanese occupation are forgotten people.
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Studies on this subject started in 2000s for the first time. Japanese scholar Imaizumi Yumiko (今泉裕美子 ) was one of the first to study this topic. Hye Gyeong Jeong ( 惠瓊) and Myeong Hwan Kim (全慶運 ) from Korea also have conducted studies and elucidated many facts regarding these forgotten people. Based on their studies, I have restructured the forgotten people’s lives in the Mariana Islands 2nd Marianas History Conference 2013 ・ !253