Japan's pro-Pyongyang Koreans say goodbye to Kim Jong-Il

Well mannered and well organized respectful action by Korean Community. RIP Kim Jong-Il.

RIP Kim Jong-il??? RIP to the millions who have died/starved under his military dictatorship.

Their defiance against Japanese society's discriminations were admirable! Please keep going that spirits!

I don't agree with grieving - or even pretending to grieve - a disgusting tryannical despot who basically hated the korean people - however I respect the right of anyone who cares to do so in peace. I also hope they are doing their best at the same time to provide food for their comrades dying of starvation.

Why would anyone who was aware of the situation in North Korea want to pay their respects to this guy (and. consequently, what he stood for)? It's not a million miles away from paying respects to Hitler, Saddam Hussein or Pol Pot.

About 10 young men, wearing tags with Korean writing on, tried to prevent them from talking to the media.

I wonder if they'll be reporting back to the motherland who turned up and who didn't.

maybe they should all move back there and try to make the country a better place.

My sympathies and condolences are for the people of North Korea-for those who live under this despotic family, and those who have been murdered and oppressed.

I don't celebrate the death of Mr Kim Jong Il, but the world is a better place without him. I hope Mr Kim Jong-Un learned something during his travels and will begin some kind of reforms to bring North Korea out of the wilderness the Kims led it into.

If people grieve for someone even if dictator, who has caused harm and atrocities, they have the freedom to do so.

japan should learn from korean.

Sure! Japan should learn from North Korea?? To starve their citizens to death??

Four times as many attended his father's (Kim Il -sung) memorial service in Tokyo back in 1994.

It's amazing that Japanese tolerate this highly-suspect Fifth Column among them. How can those Koreans be "loyal to the regime" in North Korea, when they surely know what it's guilty of? It just shows that Koreans can't use the excuse that they are "brainwashed" by North Korean propaganda because they don't get any of that here in Japan. They're all complicit in the evil the regime perpetuates. Deport them NOW.

We must learn to love our freedom and understand North Korea is wrong! May the dear leader join Stalin and Hitler and Osama bin laden in a very hot hot place ASAP!!! RIP??

If they are loyal why don't they return? It's easy to be loyal when you are not a victim!

These "loyal to the regime" should be identified, and sent back to NK.

Please,do not return to Japan. Consider this request.

To morry

"" It's amazing that Japanese tolerate this highly-suspect Fifth Column among them. How can those Koreans be "loyal to the regime" in North Korea, when they surely know what it's guilty of? It just shows that Koreans can't use the excuse that they are "brainwashed" by North Korean propaganda because they don't get any of that here in Japan. They're all complicit in the evil the regime perpetuates. Deport them NOW. ""

Yes,yes,yes. Morry for prime minister,now. You have my vote!

Wow ! Pro Loyal NKoreans to Pypngyang but residing in Japan.... so why live in Japan. Is it because your life in NK is miserable and too hard? So why pay respect to this crazy ruler. Are there hidden reasons why you reside in Japan?

The North Korean abduction of Japanese nationals in the 1970s and 1980s to tutor the country’s spies has long poisoned the Japanese public’s attitude to Pyongyang

OK I can understand why Japanese are ticked about abducted Japanese, but I wonder why Japanese seem so clueless as to why there are so many Koreans in Japan & just how all that came about.................go figure

OK I can understand why Japanese are ticked about abducted Japanese, but I wonder why Japanese seem so clueless as to why there are so many Koreans in Japan & just how all that came about.................go figure

You can start here.

http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E5%9C%A8%E6%97%A5%E9%9F%93%E5%9B%BD%E3%83%BB%E6%9C%9D%E9%AE%AE%E4%BA%BA

Read the subsection under 日本内地への移入 "Immigration to Japan" You'll notice the word ”密航””強制送還”　　"Illegal immigration" "Deportation"

It's not that Japanese are "clueless" but it's people like you who buy into the never ending propaganda that these Koreans were somehow "abducted" to Japan. I guess repeating it often enough transforms to facts to individuals like yourselves.

“You’re asking me how I really feel now but you have distorted and mocked our comments.” If she doesn't like the Japanese media then why does she live in Japan to begin with? These so-called Koreans are free to leave whenever they like, the many people the North has abducted are not.

why are these people even in Japan...why don't live in NK?

Go back your country north koreans. Japanese people say thank very much.

Japan's pro-Pyongyang Koreans say goodbye to Kim Jong-Il

Meanwhile, millions of their brethren in North Korea are seeing their suffering worsened by another winter without adequate food and other necessities.

Four Japanese protesters chanted,

We cannot condone hereditary succession.

No sense of irony, I guess.

“You’re asking me how I really feel now but you have distorted and mocked our comments,” a teary-eyed, middle-aged woman shouted at journalists in Tokyo.

Good, you deserve to be mocked, you disgrace. Go mourn your dictator who starved up to 3 million of his people, who committed hundreds of thousands to concentration camps where they are tortured, starved and used for slave labour. All the while you live a comfortable life in Japan, you can go to the combini whenever you like, turn on the tv, watch what you like, go shopping, and enjoy life in a free, prosperous, safe society that you still profess to hate. People like you who aren't brainwashed, but wilfully turn a blind eye to the screams of anguish in your 'homeland' are evil.

FREEDOM OF SPEECH. It can be difficult to accept, but it is a right in Japan.

I'll never understand this. I guess it's easy to be pro-totalitarianism as long as you can bask in its glow from a safe distance in a mostly free and economically secure nation with 24-hour a day electricity (recent setsuden "crisis" excepted) and no food shortages.

Idiots.

Deport them NOW

@ Morry - You want to deport permanent residents of Japan simply because they went to a service for some tyrannical dead monarch that you and I do not like? I am glad the Japanese government is a lot more sensible and sensitive than that.

issa1Dec. 30, 2011 - 01:38AM JST Go back your country north koreans. Japanese people say thank very much.

If I'm not mistaken, .99999% of all Koreans over the age of 80 or so, regardless of their current allegiance, were brought to Japan between 1915 and 1944 or so to work as essentially slave industrial labor, particularly during the period from 1937 to 1944. They had an opportunity of being repatriated after WWII, but many, inexplicably, chose to stay in Japan. However, staying did not automatically permit them to have Japanese citizenship and, after 1952, they could choose either South or North Korean citizenship with permanent residency or naturalization. Now, the opposite is true demographically, as the majority of Koreans in Japan were born here with most not speaking Korean and never having visited to S. Korea or N. Korea. However, given Japan's historically recent fondness for all things (South) Korean, I suspect being an "ethnic" Korean is less of a "shame" than it was in the second half of the last century. (My wife's family's Yamato standing is completely compromised as she's married to a bata-kusai Bekoku-jin and her neice is married to an "ethnic" Korean!)

The Japanese government, of course, missed a great opportunity then in 1952. It could have said to the Korean community that you now have three choices - Japanese citizenship, S. Korean citizenship with permanent residency status in Japan or repatriation to what became N. Korea. After that, the door to N. Korea should have been permanently sealed as pro-North money transfers have helped the Kims joke of a country limp along for the last sixty years.

Allowing a sizable pro-North minority in Japan is pretty much the same thing as tolerating those who supported the Vichy puppet government in France during WWII. Oh, ya. Right. Never mind.

FREEDOM OF SPEECH. It can be difficult to accept, but it is a right in Japan.

Noriyosan has nailed it. There are a very few nations out there - like Japan and Australia - where you can have such freedom of speech and freedom of movement. Would people (ie Morry) prefer to live in a police state where every citizen is prohibited from expressing their sentiments? Maybe you guys just dont understand democracy and freedom like us Aussies and Japanese where we allow these freedoms.

If I'm not mistaken, .99999% of all Koreans over the age of 80 or so, regardless of their current allegiance, were brought to Japan between 1915 and 1944 or so to work as essentially slave industrial labor, particularly during the period from 1937 to 1944.

To be more accurate, they "chose" to come to Japan during that time in the early part of the annexation simply because the living conditions and the pay was much better in Japan. In the latter part, they were recruited (not forcibily I might add) because the Japanese male population were conscripted for military duties and there was shortage of industrial labor.

And forgive me for disagreeing with you but offering Japanese citizenship to those who stayed wouldn't of matter in today's Pro-Pyongyang population for their forefathers and beyond chose not to naturalize and have openly declared themselves their intent to not assimilate with the Japanese population. Hence, to expect some sort of "sympathy" from the general population while purposely distanding themselves while enjoying the benefits of living in a developing/democratic nations is asking too much, IMO.

Well right or wrong they have the freedom to show their "loss" in public. Freedom of speech and assembly sets Japan apart from North Korea. When we deny them such right, how are we any better than them? noriyosan73 and BurakuminDes thanks!

Good riddance to another murdering butcher whose only ambition was to satiate his lust for greed and power no matter how many died in the process. The only sad thing about the situation is he has been replaced by another of his breed. Despots seem to grow on the planet like warts. My condolences are to the N. Korean people who have been deluded though conditioning that this is the best life has to offer.

Now that is spooky. These clowns enjoy the benefits of Japan´s society and pay their respects to this genocidal psychopath? Someone should offer them free one-way tickets to the workers paradise.

If they like north Korea so much why don't they move back and share in the suffering of their fellow country men instead of living in japan enjoying our freedom and economic prosperity.

@Nigelboy. Accoring to Rudolph Joseph Rummel professor emeritus of political science at the University of Hawaii, Japan FORCIBLY CONSCRIPTED 5.4 million Koreans into slave labor most of them to Japan. Koreans who moved to Japan under their volition was a sliver of a minority.

People love their parents even if they are serial killers.

These poor zainichi are really a sad, sad case. They are stuck being loyal to a maniac despot bc they are victims of history. After Korean War, Zainichi were confined to heavy racism and persecution not allowed to participate in schools, jobs. South Korea was devastated and in political turmoil. North Korea was doing far better financially with Soviet and Maoist China backing poured millions into developing schools and aid infrastructure within Zainichi community. All that aid came with heavy propaganda of course. Most pro-NK Zainichi are aware of the obvious problems with NK but that emotional, self-identity issues is still there.

@Nigelboy. Accoring to Rudolph Joseph Rummel professor emeritus of political science at the University of Hawaii, Japan FORCIBLY CONSCRIPTED 5.4 million Koreans into slave labor most of them to Japan. Koreans who moved to Japan under their volition was a sliver of a minority.

False.

Conscription for Korean workers were enacted in August of 1944 and was implemented the following month. It lasted for 11 months. The ferry charter between Japan and Korea was closed after May of 1945 so unless you can somehow transport 5.4 million Koreans during the 7 month period, I and the rest of the world would like to know how this can be done.

http://www.digital.archives.go.jp/DAS/meta/listPhoto?KEYWORD=&LANG=eng&BID=F0000000000000008046&ID=M0000000000001776250&IS_STYLE=eng&NO=

nigelboyDec. 30, 2011 - 03:22AM JST To be more accurate, they "chose" to come to Japan during that time in the early part of the annexation simply because the living conditions and the pay was much better in Japan. In the latter part, they were recruited (not forcibily I might add) because the Japanese male population were conscripted for military duties and there was shortage of industrial labor.

Your "reading" of this history sounds like something one of the right wing groups would come up with.

The "annexation" of Korea was brutal to say the least. The issue of forced industrial labor doesn't even begin to address the "comfort woman" issue during the war.

However, the exact number of forced Koreans laborers in Manchuria and Japan is unknown, but estimated put it at 750,000 to 1million total. Those left in Japan after WWII, thanks primarily to American disinterest in the matter, were given one of two choices, be repatriated to Korea or stay in Japan with no rights to citizenship.

Again, my primary point being, it's unfathomable why any of them stayed, but even more incomprehensible is why any of them today support the despotic regime in the North.

http://www.vcn.bc.ca/alpha/sfpt/KoreansInJapanPast&Present.htm

"Between 1939 and 1945, many Koreans were forcibly brought to Japan to work under even more severe conditions [Park 1965]. During this same period, the Japanese military forcibly brought many young Korean women to serve them as "comfort women" [Yoshimi 1995]. When Japan was defeated by the Allied Forces in 1945, it is estimated that there were approximately 2,300,000 Koreans in Japan."

nigelboyDec. 30, 2011 - 03:22AM JST To be more accurate, they "chose" to come to Japan during that time in the early part of the annexation simply because the living conditions and the pay was much better in Japan. In the latter part, they were recruited (not forcibily I might add) because the Japanese male population were conscripted for military duties and there was shortage of industrial labor.

Your "reading" of this history sounds like something one of the right wing groups would come up with.

The "annexation" of Korea was brutal to say the least. The issue of forced industrial labor doesn't even begin to address the "comfort woman" issue during the war.

However, the exact number of forced Koreans laborers in Manchuria and Japan is unknown, but estimated put it at 750,000 to 1million total. Those left in Japan after WWII, thanks primarily to American disinterest in the matter, were given one of two choices, be repatriated to Korea or stay in Japan with no rights to citizenship.

Again, my primary point being, it's unfathomable why any of them stayed, but even more incomprehensible is why any of them today support the despotic regime in the North.

http://www.vcn.bc.ca/alpha/sfpt/KoreansInJapanPast&Present.htm

"Between 1939 and 1945, many Koreans were forcibly brought to Japan to work under even more severe conditions [Park 1965]. During this same period, the Japanese military forcibly brought many young Korean women to serve them as "comfort women" [Yoshimi 1995]. When Japan was defeated by the Allied Forces in 1945, it is estimated that there were approximately 2,300,000 Koreans in Japan."

wandakun, MelonBM,

your wasting your time with nigelboy, he thinks some documents trump the realities of what happened on the ground, he isnt interested in things like the horrible environments they were in etc, if some document says they had the luxury to choose their fututres then it must be true, thankfully most know otherwise

RIP my ass, i hope this dog spends a restless eternity tossing and turning in his grave.

Your "reading" of this history sounds like something one of the right wing groups would come up with.

Wanda-kun

When one can't counter, a typical response would be to label someone "right wing". And now you counter with "comfort women" which has NOTHING to do with Koreans living in Japan.

The link I gave above is the actual text of the order. Japanese nationals were subject to Conscription (workers) in 1939 but the young male population in Japan at that time was subject to mandatory military. Hence, there was a shortage of male workers during that time. You might also want to read my Dec. 30, 2011 - 12:18AM JST post which clearly illustrates that during the early part of the annexation, Japan was dealing with the mass problems of illegal immigration to the mainland as well as the deportation. To state that they were "forced" to come to Japan is akin to saying the Mexicans in the border were forced to come to U.S.

Now NK criticizes Japan for not sending enough "mourners" to the funeral. Japan should have asked for volunteers. Maybe some of the NK's in Japan would would have taken a one-way ticket home. Of course they wouldn't accept. They aren't stupid, they just protesting in a different way.