04, having reached the pinnacle of North Korean society.
North Korea will likely make a huge effort to create a revolutionary legend around Jong Un. People in the Korean community in Japan are in agreement that little mention, if any, will be made of Tsuruhashi, or the ties to the district of both his mother and her family.
The history of the family in Japan, including Ko Tae Mun's failure as a pro wrestler, does not have the makings of a good legend, they say.
What could be included in the legend is the fact that Ko Tae Mun was born in Jeju. In 1948, islanders clashed with the right-wing South Korean authorities. The conflict resulted in numerous fatalities, and some islanders fled to Japan.
In around 2003, a TV drama about the incident was broadcast in North Korea. That was at a time when Ko Young Hee's political influence was growing.
A former high-ranking Chongryon official said a legend about Kim Jong Un could be created along the following story line:
"Ko Tae Mun carried on the will of Jeju islanders who fought bravely under the guidance of Kim Il Sung. After fleeing to Japan, he returned to North Korea to be embraced by the greatness of Kim. Ko gave up his life to serve as a soldier for Kim. Kim Jong Un would be an individual who carried on the great revolutionary bloodline from Jeju."
Tsuruhashi would have no place within that legend.
A source in the Korean community in Japan said, "Ko Tae Mun's relatives still live in Osaka. They are not involved with Chongryon. Even if you talked to them, they will tell you nothing. They have been told to keep quiet by North Korea."
This article appeared in the Asahi Shimbun Weekly Area on December 1, 2010.
Ko Young Hee and the “Repatriation” of Ethnic Koreans from Japan to North Korea
The story of Ko Young Hee is an intriguing and little known part of the history of the mass “repatriation” of ethnic Koreans from Japan to North Korea. Ko Young Hee and her family were among 93,340 people (most of them ethnic Koreans) who were relocated from Japan to the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK, North Korea) following the signing of a repatriation agreement between the Japanese and North Korean Red Cross Societies in 1959. The Ko family left at the height of the exodus: though repatriation continued until 1984, over 70,000 of those who left did so before the end of 1961. Most, like Ko Young Hee’s family, originated in the southern half of the Korean peninsula, and a particularly large number came from Jeju: an island with a history of large-scale emigration to Japan, and the site of a 1948-49 uprising against the South Korean government which was suppressed with great force.
Boarding a ship for North Korea
What is unusual about the Ko family’s story is their destiny once they arrived in North Korea. As is now known, the background to the “repatriation” is a dark story of pressures and intrigues on both sides. Japanese bureaucrats and some politicians played a very active role behind the scenes in creating the scheme for a mass repatriation, and in encouraging Koreans in Japan to leave for a “new life” in a North Korea which most had never seen before. An important factor on the Japanese side was majority prejudices against a minority seen as lawless and potentially subversive. (The widespread perception that Koreans had tried to “lord it” over the Japanese majority in the immediate aftermath of Japan’s defeat in war was an important element in these prejudices). Meanwhile, the DPRK government, via the pro-North Korean organization Chongryun [Sōren in Japanese] spread glowing propaganda about the rosy life that awaited “returnees” in the socialist fatherland. In some cases, Chongryun was instructed specifically to encourage the repatriation members of the community with specialist skills which would help North Korean development, and this seems to be the case with Ko’s father.
Most Koreans from Japan, however, quickly found that their lives in North Korea were far from the propaganda image. Many were sent to work in remote mining or rural areas, and came to be assigned to the l