The purpose of this article is to discuss the construction of the state categorization of \u2018Korean\u2019 in early post-war Japan.<\/p>\n
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Examining the Imperial Ordinance of Alien Registration, issued in May 1947, the article focuses on how this, the first ordinance to regulate immigration control and alien registration in Japan, was understood and enacted by Japanese authorities, local governments, and those known as \u2018Korean illegal entrants,\u2019 who were the targets of this imperial ordinance. Using documentary sources of the General Headquarters Supreme Commander for the Allied Powers, the imperial Japanese Government, local governments, and interview sources from irregular migrants from Korea, this article makes the following two points.<\/p>\n
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First, the legal status of \u2018Korean\u2019 in Japan was decided through negotiation and compromise between the U.S. occupation forces and the Japanese government.<\/p>\n
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All three presupposed that Koreans, as \u2018liberated peoples\u2019 in Japan, would and should be repatriated from Japan to Korea as soon as possible.<\/p>\n
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Second, the instructions to the Japanese local governments indicate that the main objective in registering aliens was not to identify \u2018illegal entrants\u2019 but to find out and reduce \u2018ghost populations\u2019 that stemmed from multiple registrations for food rations.<\/p>\n
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Interviews with former \u2018illegal\u2019 migrants from Korea show that they made the best use of their knowledge and \u2018common sense,\u2019 which enabled them to obtain their legal identity: the alien registration card that defined them as \u2018Korean\u2019 and thus also a \u2018foreigner.\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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