hankyoreh

At age 74, Hwang Sun-rye, a small woman clad in lumpy, homey clothes, calls herself a fighter. She says she doesn't mind a laborious flight across the East Sea and hours of waiting in the South Korean National Assembly hall to talk to politicians.

Too old or not, she is fighting for a plot of Japanese land her parents cultivated out of wild bamboo and pine trees and her children now call their home.

"Foxes howled, and there was nothing," she said after delivering a letter to a senior lawmaker on Monday to seek support.

"Our parents cultivated the Japanese land day and night. At every step they took, they got scratches in their face from the tree boughs."

Hwang and more than 200 other ethnic Koreans face evacuation from Utoro, a small derelict Korean village in Japan's Kyoto Prefecture. Japanese courts have denied their property rights.

South Korea hesitated to get involved, as their case is entangled in the unsettled legacy of Japan's colonial occupation of the Korean Peninsula in the previous century.

The Utoro case has become one of Japan's longest-running legal disputes.

"I've been told that the (South Korean) government has been reminding the Japanese government of the issue, but that is not enough," Rep. Kim Won-wung, chairman of the Assembly's unification, foreign affairs and trade committee, said after receiving the letter from Hwang. In the letter, she called for the South Korean government to help the efforts by Utoro residents to retain their little-known community facing demolition.

The story of Utoro began in 1940, when the wartime Japanese government had 1,300 conscripted Koreans work there to build a military airport and installations in the isolated area. But the project was doomed, as Japan was defeated in World War II in 1945.

When the war ended, Japan left them in the wilderness. Some managed to return to Korea, but others who couldn't afford the trip had to remain, cultivating the deserted land into farms. No water or electricity was provided from outside.

The plot of land was owned by Nissan Shatai, an affiliate of the Japanese carmaker. In 1987, with its business in trouble, the company secretly sold the 5-acre plot to a land developer, making the dwellers illegal squatters and prompting the comlex dispute that continues until today. After more transactions occurred, a new owner took the residents to a Kyoto court in 1989, demanding their evacuation. The court ruled in favor of the company. The appeal was rejected in Osaka High Court in 1998. Hopes for a legal settlement were entirely squashed when the Supreme Court rejected their appeals in 2000.

Outside the court, the residents have collected signatures from Japanese neighbors and collected money to buy back the land.

With the property dispute entwined with history, South Korean authorities have been divided on what actions to take. The Foreign Ministry, in charge of handling affairs of its nationals abroad, has asked Japan to make "humanitarian considerations" in their case, but that action stopped short of what the parliament and dwellers have called for.

A group of legislators organized to protect the ethnic Koreans wants the Korean government to buy the plot and make it a public asset that provides public residential homes for the displaced Koreans. They say the Utoro case represents Japan's unwillingness to apologize and compensate for its 35-year colonial occupation of Korea, during which 660,000 Koreans were conscripted to serve in the Japanese military and industrial installations, according to historians.

The Japanese government says issues on the colonial occupation were settled in a package treaty it signed with South Korea in 1965. In normalizing diplomatic relations, South Korea gave up all its rights to ask for compensation from Japan for its colonial rule. In return, Japan provided US$300 million as "economic cooperation" funds for Korea.

"In principle, the Japanese government should resolve the issue because the cause was its militarism, but the Korean government has its own part to work out," Kim Won-wung said.

Kim said the legislature is pushing for a two-track approach, pressing Japan to take responsibility for its forcible conscriptions of Koreans and designing measures to buy the plot for the residents.

The legislators and Foreign Ministry officials are to hold a discussion session on Wednesday to coordinate the government's stance on the Utoro case.

A Utoro resident for 62 years, Hwang called the land her home, paid for by toilsome labor.

"It just takes one second to say 62 years, but how long is it to live the years?" she said. "Our wish is that our children, they may not live under the suppression we suffered, they may spread their wings, they may call it their home."
Ethnic Koreans in Japan's Utoro village wait for Seoul's help
By Kim Hyun SEOUL, April 17 (Yonhap) -- At age 74, Hwang Sun-rye, a small woman clad in lumpy, homey clothes, calls herself a fighter. She says she doesn't mind a laborious flight across the East Sea and hours of waiting in the South Korean National Assembly hall to talk to politicians.

Too old or not, she is fighting for a plot of Japanese land her parents cultivated out of wild bamboo and pine trees and her children now call their home.

"Foxes howled, and there was nothing," she said after delivering a letter to a senior lawmaker on Monday to seek support.

"Our parents cultivated the Japanese land day and night. At every step they took, they got scratches in their face from the tree boughs."

Hwang and more than 200 other ethnic Koreans face evacuation from Utoro, a small derelict Korean village in Japan's Kyoto Prefecture. Japanese courts have denied their property rights.

South Korea hesitated to get involved, as their case is entangled in the unsettled legacy of Japan's colonial occupation of the Korean Peninsula in the previous century.

The Utoro case has become one of Japan's longest-running legal disputes.

"I've been told that the (South Korean) government has been reminding the Japanese government of the issue, but that is not enough," Rep. Kim Won-wung, chairman of the Assembly's unification, foreign affairs and trade committee, said after receiving the letter from Hwang. In the letter, she called for the South Korean government to help the efforts by Utoro residents to retain their little-known community facing demolition.

The story of Utoro began in 1940, when the wartime Japanese government had 1,300 conscripted Koreans work there to build a military airport and installations in the isolated area. But the project was doomed, as Japan was defeated in World War II in 1945.

When the war ended, Japan left them in the wilderness. Some managed to return to Korea, but others who couldn't afford the trip had to remain, cultivating the deserted land into farms. No water or electricity was provided from outside.

The plot of land was owned by Nissan Shatai, an affiliate of the Japanese carmaker. In 1987, with its business in trouble, the company secretly sold the 5-acre plot to a land developer, making the dwellers illegal squatters and prompting the comlex dispute that continues until today. After more transactions occurred, a new owner took the residents to a Kyoto court in 1989, demanding their evacuation. The court ruled in favor of the company. The appeal was rejected in Osaka High Court in 1998. Hopes for a legal settlement were entirely squashed when the Supreme Court rejected their appeals in 2000.

Outside the court, the residents have collected signatures from Japanese neighbors and collected money to buy back the land.

With the property dispute entwined with history, South Korean authorities have been divided on what actions to take. The Foreign Ministry, in charge of handling affairs of its nationals abroad, has asked Japan to make "humanitarian considerations" in their case, but that action stopped short of what the parliament and dwellers have called for.

A group of legislators organized to protect the ethnic Koreans wants the Korean government to buy the plot and make it a public asset that provides public residential homes for the displaced Koreans. They say the Utoro case represents Japan's unwillingness to apologize and compensate for its 35-year colonial occupation of Korea, during which 660,000 Koreans were conscripted to serve in the Japanese military and industrial installations, according to historians.

The Japanese government says issues on the colonial occupation were settled in a package treaty it signed with South Korea in 1965. In normalizing diplomatic relations, South Korea gave up all its rights to ask for compensation from Japan for its colonial rule. In return, Japan provided US$300 million as "economic cooperation" funds for Korea.

"In principle, the Japanese government should resolve the issue because the cause was its militarism, but the Korean government has its own part to work out," Kim Won-wung said.

Kim said the legislature is pushing for a two-track approach, pressing Japan to take responsibility for its forcible conscriptions of Koreans and designing measures to buy the plot for the residents.

The legislators and Foreign Ministry officials are to hold a discussion session on Wednesday to coordinate the government's stance on the Utoro case.

A Utoro resident for 62 years, Hwang called the land her home, paid for by toilsome labor.

"It just takes one second to say 62 years, but how long is it to live the years?" she said. "Our wish is that our children, they may not live under the suppression we suffered, they may spread their wings, they may call it their home."
Seoul, April 17 (Yonhap News)