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The first time I started to work in literacy classes for Koreans living
in Japan in the Ikuno region (Osaka) was in 1995, when I was working in
an institution of Kamagasaki. At that time, The Korean government had not
yet disclosed its "Taiyo open policy" and Japanese-Korean relations
were not as friendly as now, the holding of the Korean-Japan World Cup
had not been yet decided. On the other hand, the unsolved postwar issues
concerning Japan and Korea seemed to affect all local activities where
Japanese and Koreans would be involved. I got the impression that the awareness
of ethnic discrimination was also reflected among Koreans living in Japan
and all those who participated in local activities.
As a result, the appeals to the authorities concerning the violations of
human rights had a colorful style of fighting with the supporters, in an
attitude of opposition to Japan that looked much stronger than it is now.
With regard to this, Japanese that tried to participate in those activities
felt a heavy burden that drew them from getting involved.
Again, as I mentioned above with regard to Japanese-Korean relations I
felt much their influence when I visited South Korea for a training seminar
in 1995. At that time, they were destroying the old Korean Governor's Palace
and the Korean mass media reported extensively that 50 years had passed
since the end of the Pacific War, but Japan neither made official apologies
nor offered compensations. I received the impression that the Japanese
press did not cover such reports but, when I was back in Japan I saw posters
in Ikuno announcing public gatherings concerning Japanese postwar compensation
issues, similar to those reported in South Korea. This seemed to me to
show that Osaka's Ikuno "little Korea" and South Korea have become
closely interlinked..
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The official conversations between North and South Korea in the year 2000
advanced the exchanges between South (Mindan) and North (Soren) Korean
organizations in Japan and facilitated the access of first and second generation
of Korean "omoni" (mothers) living in Japan to attend literacy
classes together. I felt that small changes in the mutual relationship
of countries also provoked changes in other fields and people with different
nationalities, living in Japan, could communicate with each other here.
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Abductions as well as the hard treatment of Koreans by the Japanese built
barriers and the socially weak were sometimes hurt, but since Koreans living
in Japan conduct volunteer activities together, more than in their own
country of origin, the time will come, I think, when all these efforts
will produce powerful results.
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As I have just mentioned, I feel that official issues of Japanese-Korean
relations and the North-South Conversations made impacts also in the local
activities of Ikuno, and thinking in wider terms, the biggest change since
the time I got involved in those activities till now has been an orientation
from an opposition attitude to dialogue. South Korea announced its "Taiyo
open policy" and followed a course of a closer cooperation with Japan
that brought the implementation of a Year of common exchanges and the holding
together of the World Cup. As a result, Koreans living in Japan were able
to participate with their supporters and others not only in activities
organized for them, but it also became easier to take part in other plans
and exchange events, so that the number of participants increased. Again,
first and second generation Koreans that reached old age increased also
in numbers, at the time when the new insurance system for the care of senior
citizens started, a factor that produced many young volunteers different
from those who were active in other movements. Anyhow, those were changes
I noticed during the time I got involved in those local activities and
I got the feeling that they were "signs of the times", to use
a Christian expression.
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