Sakhalin And Their Repatriation By Choi Ki-Young: Article Analysis

In Choi Ki-young’s article “Forced Migration of Koreans to Sakhalin and Their Repatriation,” he argues that Sakhalin Korean were put in an awkward position that they were forced to leave their hometown to settle down in Sakhalin as soldiers, workers and comfort women under the colonization of Imperial Japan, but both Japanese government and South Korean government did not make obligated efforts to the repatriation of Sakhalin Korean to South Korea while Soviet government presented indifferent attitude towards this issue after the war between Imperial Japan and Soviet government. And he also described in his article how Sakhalin Korean activists made contribution to influence the international position of Sakhalin Koreans and it ultimately turned …show more content…
Japan did not intend to repatriate colonized Sakhalin Koreans to South Korea or the territory of Japan, but only Japanese people with Japanese nationalities. On the other side, Soviet government did not want to lose the gift from war, they thought the Sakhalin Korean meant cheap labor force. They wanted to recover their economy as soon as it could through the production, they declared a law in order to legalize Sakhalin Koreans’ identities as their human capitals. According to Choi’s article, “anyone residing within Soviet territory that is not a ……to ban the repatriation of Koreans in Sakhalin.” (Choi, 118) The author thinks the Soviet government revealed “a passive and lukewarm attitude toward the matter” in the introduction of this article as part of his argument. (Choi, 111) I agree with how the author sees about remaining Sakhalin Koreans in Russian territory. The Soviet government seemed passively announced the law in order to naturalize Sakhalin Koreans because they could not let them freely consume their natural resources without paying anything as return. And Sakhalin Koreans meant cheap labor force to the Soviet government since they already lost their labor force during the …show more content…
For example, Japanese government claimed an exception for Sakhalin Korean men if they married Japanese women, they were eligible to participate the repatriation of Japanese to Japan. Additionally, the North Korean government also allowed Sakhalin Koreans to join North Korean nationalities. If these Sakhalin made decision to accept either offers, it would made their way easier to back to South Korea. However, the statistics in the article illustrates that “ about 28,000 obtained North Korean citizenship.” (Choi, 120) This indicates that the reason why Sakhalin insisted to stay in Russian territory was based on individual willingness. It is contradicted to author’s point of view that he thinks Sakhalin performed passive to stay in Russian