뉴스레터

Students of small Chōsen gakkō schools in Fukui Prefecture

Students commute to school for more than two hours.

The Japanese government has announced that the “Childcare Support Act” will go into effect in October 2019. This means that Japan will offer Free Education for Preschoolers and Free Tuition for High School Students. However, Korean Immigrant Kindergartens were excluded from this program. Preschoolers, as well as high school students, were ousted from the Equal Protection of Laws and Institutions. When Japan introduced a policy for free tuition for high schoolers in 2010, Kihei Maekawa, then deputy director-general of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, called this “hatred and discrimination” led by the hate government. Since 2010, there have been cold-blooded attacks in which the state pushes minority groups out of the boundaries of laws and institutions in Japan. It is no exaggeration to say that this is going beyond “government-made hatred” and more towards “government-made bullying” and “government-made racial discrimination.” It is important to focus on the fact that the target is especially Korean immigrants in Japan (Chōsen) before we can discuss the Japanese system that has facilitated the creation of this situation. 

Right after Korea’s liberation, (pro-North Korean) Korean immigrants residing in Japan (Chōsen) became “foreigners” with “Japanese nationality.” They were classified as “Chōsen nationality” (at the time, governments had not been established in either South or North Korea) under the Foreign Registration Decree in 1947. In preparation for the day they would return home, the residents set up 500 “Korean language schools” and reformed them as “Chōsen gakkō schools.” In 1948, a year later, the Japanese government and U.S. occupation forces in Japan ordered Chōsen gakkō schools to be closed in order to contain the menacingly emerging “Federation of Korean Residents in Japan,” or Joryeon. This prompted a backlash strong enough to lead to the first declaration of a state of emergency since World War II. Nearly 3,000 Chōsen residents in Japan were detained, 200 of them arrested, while Kim Tae-il, 16, who had lived in Osaka, was shot to death. The so-called, “April 24 Education Struggle” erupted. Faced with a strong opposition from the Chōsen people in Japan, the Japanese government acted as if it would step back, but instead came forward to disband Joryeon and close Chōsen gakkō schools. It was believed that Chōsen residents in Japan, Japanese nationals, should not have the right to an independent education. The Japanese government began to apply a different standard from the time “Chōsen nationality” became defined as “foreign.” Over the next six years from 1949 to 1955, Chōsen gakkō schools became incorporated and operated as state facility “public Chōsen gakkō schools.” However, when the Treaty of San Francisco went into effect in 1952, Chōsen residents in Japan were deprived of “Japanese nationality” unilaterally, along with the freedom to choose their nationality. After all, “Chōsen nationality” was imposed on these individuals, while Joseon was in fact stateless. “Chōsen nationality” was merely a sign that made them aliens who must always possess foreign registration certificates and could be deported at any time for failing to carry them when questioned on the street.

Chōsen residents, who had been deprived of Japanese nationality, were no longer Japanese nationals. This meant that executing an “independent national education” was possible and Chōsen gakkō schools were returned to Koreans in Japan. Joryeon, which had endured the dark ages for six years, began to support the “Democratic People’s Republic of Korea,” established in the northern half of the Korean Peninsula. Joryeon also turned into the “General Association of Korean Residents in Japan (Chongryeon)” by establishing the direction that it would contribute to improve the human rights of Koreans in Japan and “developing the fatherland” as “citizens of the republic.” It was the last resort to survive, given that ethnic Koreans in Japan were seen as one entity as a whole. Chōsen gakkō schools also opted for the last resort, enduring poverty and suppression as part of a “movement to obtain licenses as miscellaneous schools.” There were reasons for obtaining such licenses rather than those for national, public, and private schools under Article 1 of Japan’s education law. Obtaining licenses for miscellaneous schools did not require ethnic Koreans to comply with guidelines of the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology and namely, they could obtain licenses from the heads of local autonomous bodies instead of the central government. In other words, the schools had the intention to receive legal and institutional protection, while pursuing independence in national education. Starting in 1953, it took about 20 years for 155 Chōsen gakkō schools to obtain the status of miscellaneous schools in Kyoto.

It was only in 1994 that Chōsen students were able to get commuter discounts, as commuter students. This was the outcome of a movement launched by mothers of Chōsen gakkō schools students in Chiba Prefecture. Their participation in official sports competitions, in which every middle and high school student in Japan could take part, was possible only after 1995. This was no thanks to Japan’s plan or goodwill, but due to “administrative mistakes.” Chōsen gakkō schools did not miss out on these mistakes and appealed to the people’s conscience across Japan before launching the movement. What is more important, however, is that Chōsen gakkō schools are still considered only “quasi-members” in various middle and high school sports federations, not regular members, even today in 2019.

It is important to address the issue of “college admission qualifications,” which had been reported to be resolved in the early 2000’s. Initially, the Japanese government removed restrictions on college admission qualifications of foreign schools to only Asian schools. As criticism mounted, foreign schools of Asian descent were released from such restrictions, but Chōsen gakkō schools remained excluded. Would this mean that discrimination against Chōsen gakkō schools was not considered “discriminatory,” despite an abundance of negative public opinion towards “discrimination?” The Japanese government left the responsibility of the state in the hands of the private sector, saying, “Chōsen gakkō schools should be left to the discretion of each university.” Henceforth, things looked better on the surface, as almost all universities accorded Chōsen gakkō schools admission qualifications, but that was far from being the case.

The human rights of Chōsen residents in Japan, especially children’s right to equal education, have never been granted for free. These residents obtained only minor rights after long struggles. The logic that the “government-made hatred” occurred as a result of the “kidnapping issue” in the 2000’s is wrong from the start. If this is the case, what reasons underlie the phenomenon that despite the fact that only Chōsen gakkō schools are excluded from “free high school tuition” and “free education for preschoolers,” it is understood as having nothing to do with “public discrimination?” Before discussing the social consensus of “hatred” and “disdain” for a particular race or nation, there must be a discussion about whether “inertia” has become a “habit” or “culture.”

An intermediate-level school in Osaka

It is understood that anyone living abroad can expect to experience a degree of discrimination. However, this must not be applied to ethnic Koreans in Japan, as they had never chosen to live there themselves and discrimination against them has never been temporary or solvable over time, even after returning home. A cursory look at history reveals that their time is full of records of fighting and winning. What would be the source of strength of those who have kept their place firmly, without the slightest sense of defeat, while enduring and overcoming such circumstances? I think it is “our school.”

Ironically enough, Japan was already aware of the importance of Chōsen gakkō schools 70 years ago and thus, has done whatever it can to get rid of them. Compatriots recognized the importance of Chōsen gakkō schools and could not easily oppose “our schools.” Fully aware of national education in Japan, North Korea also began to support Chōsen gakkō schools starting 57 years ago. Only the government of the Republic of Korea is absent in these efforts. Strictly speaking, all of us living in the southern half of the Korean Peninsula are to blame for this. We did not try to know from the beginning. Therefore, whenever I speak about Chōsen gakkō schools, I emphasize a “sense of guilt” and “debt.” But that stage has already passed. Over the course of 70 years, Chōsen gakkō schools have barely survived and are still barely surviving, even now. It is impossible to know what will happen if both governments of South and North act together. This is why I eagerly beg those reading this to take action.