Intersecting “Borders”: Stowaway, Detention Center and Zainichi Chosenjin (Koreans)

• In Event: ‘For Whom the Bell Tolls?’: Migration, Diaspora and Border Crossing Phenomena in East Asia

Abstract

This study examines the postcolonial movement and immigration system focusing on the experiences of Korean stowaways that travelled between Korea and Japan after 1945. Stowaway, as the act of crossing the border without regular immigration procedures, is no different from “illegal immigration” in the modern sovereign state. “Liberated” Koreans without due process of decolonization after 1945, were left in their illegal position. Koreans recognized as illegal migrants were deported outside of the sovereignty to the Omura Detention Center (camp for illegal migrants) located in Nagasaki, Japan, under the US military occupation. The city of Omura is geographically located in the periphery and played a central role in carrying out the transition from a colonial empire to a postwar democratic state. This study will focus on the process of the institutional apparatus of the nation-state including immigration system which reproduced the new diaspora, and the trans-bordered sphere of life of Koreans who experienced stowaway.

Author

• Kyunghee CHO, Sungkonghoe University, Korea