The museum is proof that two seemingly irreconcilable communities – Japanese and Korean – can come together to face and heal the scars of history. Koreans have lived in Utoro since World War II, when they brought workers from the Korean peninsula to build an airport. When construction work ended after Japan’s defeat in 1945, 1,300 Koreans were abandoned in their ruinous bunks. Residents of Utoro after the Second World War. Photo: Utoro Peace Memorial Museum By the end of the war, which also ended Japan’s 35-year colonial rule on the Korean peninsula, more than 2 million Koreans lived in Japan. About two-thirds returned to the Korean peninsula, but hundreds of thousands remained and would turn the zainichi—literally “living in Japan”—into a significant ethnic minority in a largely homogenous country. Those who stayed in Utoro endured poor housing and sanitation, poverty and unemployment, and accusations of “illegally occupying” their 2-hectare neighborhood. Their homes lacked proper plumbing, forcing them to draw water from wells. Weeks before the museum’s opening in April came a reminder that hostility toward Japan’s large Korean population has yet to be consigned to the past. Utoro after the war. Photo: K Nakayama/Utoro Peace Memorial Museum Shogo Arimoto, a 22-year-old, pleaded guilty in May to an arson attack that damaged or severely damaged seven houses in Utoro and destroyed dozens of items intended for the museum. The Kyoto District Court sentenced him last month to four years in prison. Arimoto said his crime, committed in August last year, was designed to “intimidate and coerce” the Korean residents, who he described as an “unacceptable presence” in the neighborhood. Ku Ryang-ok, a third-generation resident of Utoro, told reporters: “For me, Utoro is my identity. Seeing houses burning is like being told that you are not needed, that you are in the way. I felt like I had been set on fire.” Akiko Tagawa, the museum’s Japanese director, said: “What he [Arimoto] it was unacceptable, but it was not an isolated incident – it is a disease in Japanese society. But the museum is proof of how Koreans and Japanese can come together to protect their neighborhood.” The arson attack was a reminder of the long struggle of Korean residents to establish their right to remain in Utoro. They were nearly forced out when a property developer ordered them out in the late 1980s, sparking a lengthy legal battle. Their situation prompted intervention by the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, which said it was “concerned about the forced evictions, especially of those displaced from their temporary housing and those who have occupied homes for a long time in the area Utoro “. The residents won a reprieve a decade ago when the South Korean government and its backers in Japan raised enough money to buy some of the land, where public housing was built to replace the residents’ remaining 80 aging homes. Traditional Korean music and dance at the museum’s opening ceremony in April. Photo: K Nakayama/Utoro Peace Memorial Museum
“The far right is getting stronger”
While anti-Korean groups have become less visible on city streets in recent years, there has been an alarming increase in hate speech online, according to Jinwoong Kwak, the joint spokesman for Utoro Private Fund. “The voices of the Japanese far-right are getting louder and there is a movement to deny the truth of the story,” he said, referring to conservative politicians and activists who insist Japan did not use sex slaves – known as comfort women – and forced laborers from the Korean peninsula before and during the war. “They are becoming very aggressive about denying Japan’s wartime actions, and you can see that in the hate speech and hate crimes in Utoro and other places across Japan,” Kwak said. “This was clearly a hate crime.” A rise in anti-Korean sentiment prompted Japan’s government to introduce a law banning hate speech in 2016. But critics say the law lacks teeth as violators face no punishment. Only Kawasaki, a city near Tokyo with a large Korean community, has made hate speech a criminal offense, punishable by a fine of up to ¥500,000 ($3,690). “Japan has ratified international conventions to eliminate racism, so it must impose appropriate punishments for hate speech,” said Shiki Tomimasu, a lawyer representing victims of last year’s arson attack.
“They take courage from their identity”
Tagawa, who moved to Utoro 40 years ago, has mixed feelings about the new residence, which will be completed next year. “It means that part of the community and their history will disappear – some may even want to pretend they never existed,” he said. However, the museum, he added, will ensure that the first generation of Koreans in Utoro – the last of whom died in November – will never be forgotten. “Koreans who visit the museum say they feel proud and take courage from their identity. And Japanese people who knew nothing about Utoro say they are learning for the first time how locals fought against discrimination. And how they survived.”
