When NKHR researchers first arrived in Japan, they did not realize they were about to untangle the “conveniently forgotten story” of more than 93,000 resettlers displaced from Japan to the DPRK under the “Paradise on Earth Repatriation Movement.” Interviews with victims’ family members still in Japan revealed how much was concealed beneath the surface, and how most families stayed silent due to fear of perpetrators in Japan and threats to relatives in North Korea. Despite the difficulty of giving testimonies, participants were determined to expose the deceptive nature of the displacement and seek justice for lost relatives.
Beginning in 1959, under the alluring banner of a “Paradise on Earth,” North Korea orchestrated what appeared to be a humanitarian repatriation effort, promising ethnic Koreans in Japan (Zainichi Koreans) a chance to return to their ancestral homeland after years of discrimination and hardship in Japan.
But behind the posters, speeches, and Red Cross-branded ships lay a meticulously engineered scheme of coercion, deception, and exploitation.
Fig. 3. Details of the Forced Displacement Operation
Fig. 1. November 1959, the first ship departing from the Port of Niigata, Japan, to North Korea with 975 Zainichi Koreans on board.
The repatriation program was promoted as a humanitarian project supported by Japanese civil society, international organizations, and the DPRK. It is introduced as the largest mass movement of people voluntarily choosing North Korea as a destination, yet is described as a historical tragedy. The testimonies show that the program involved deception by the Japanese government, Chongryon, and the North Korean government. The report emphasizes that although resettlers technically chose to go, many decisions were based on manipulated information, threats, or false promises.
Fig. 2. Cholli-ma magazine featuring propagandistic photographs of North Korea, selling people on a dream of the ‘earthly paradise’ North Korea as a promising land of hope
Once in North Korea, resettlers faced harsh realities including surveillance, restricted mobility, political classification, and fear of persecution. Many suffered additional harm: family separation, interrogation, imprisonment in kwanliso camps, forced labor, and, in some cases, disappearance or death. Accounts from family members describe how individuals were arrested, never returned home, or vanished without explanation. Some were detained simply for expressing a desire to return to Japan or for contacting relatives abroad.
There exist numerous specific cases in which resettlers were taken by authorities, lost contact with their families, or were reported to have died in detention. Testimonies describe people being arrested during meals, taken away during raids, or being told they were under “three months of investigation” that stretched into years of disappearance. Ultimately, it resulted in widespread human rights violations, disappearances, and suffering for thousands of resettlers and their families.
"...I do not know the exact location but it was in a very remote area. After getting off the car, we had to climb up a mountain for a while to reach the detention facility. The place was surrounded with brick wall made of mud. As entering the facility, we were introduced to my brother by guards. He was jailed with around 20 other people in an outside iron cage. The detainees were dirty, mussed and covered with their own excreta. They looked more like animals rather than human beings with long hair and clear signs of extended starvation. In 1971, My father told me that he received death notice of my brother from the government. However, we could neither hear about the circumstances surrounding the death nor collect his body. Also, my father said we are ordered not to talk about my brother’s death, but we need to be grateful for the Party’s consideration for at least informing us about his death."
Quote 1: FDR#1
The operation was not an accident of history but a deliberately planned, large-scale strategy coordinated by North Korea’s leadership, its intelligence agencies, and Chongryon. The Japanese and Soviet governments, as well as the Japanese and International Red Cross, played enabling roles, sometimes through political motive, sometimes through negligence, and sometimes through active cooperation.
North Korea’s objectives were clear:
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Strengthen its labor force by absorbing a population that included engineers, skilled workers, and intellectuals
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Boost its legitimacy during the Cold War by showcasing “returnees” as proof of its appeal to overseas Koreans
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Secure economic gains through the assets and technical expertise of the new arrivals.
Within North Korea, the operation was conducted through a complex network of intelligence units such as the United Front Department, the 225th Bureau, and the Ministry of State Security, all of which played roles in recruitment, propaganda, screening, surveillance, and, in many cases, the enforced disappearances that followed.
Chongryon in Japan functioned as North Korea’s vanguard: spreading misinformation, recruiting resettlers, managing schools that promoted pro-DPRK ideology, and handling the logistics of the repatriation process. Its leaders cooperated closely with North Korean intelligence units and continued to function as extensions of Pyongyang long after the ships stopped sailing.
Introduced by Inoue Masutaro, the ICRC delegation met with a police officer on October 26, 1959, and received classified information which clearly showed that Chongryon was involved in the whole displacement process. The contents of the information are as follows:
“The current repatriation project in Japan is being handled by Chongryon on behalf of the North Korean government. Anyone who behaves against the policies which are set by the North Korean government and applied by the Chongryon, is considered to put everything at risk; thus they are not treated well by the authorities of North Korea nor by the Chongryon in Japan.”
Quote 2: "Meeting at JRCS Headquarters between representatives of the Japanese National Police Agency, the JRCS and ICRC," ICRC Archives, B AG 232 105-013.
A vast, tragic operation unfolded quietly between Japan and North Korea, one that promised hope but delivered coercion, exploitation, and, for many, disappearance. The “Paradise on Earth Repatriation Movement,” framed as a humanitarian opportunity for ethnic Koreans in Japan, masked a systematic campaign of forced displacement managed jointly by North Korea and its political arm in Japan, Chongryon. Over 93,000 men, women, and children were swept into this scheme.
Yet despite the magnitude of the tragedy, the story received little global attention. Many victims, unable to pursue justice internationally, have turned to domestic courts in Japan in hopes of uncovering the truth and holding perpetrators accountable.
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