I left Japan for North Korea expecting paradise, and was trapped for 43 years
- Eiko Kawasaki was 17 when, lured by propaganda, she left Japan for her family’s homeland. Expecting paradise, she experienced famine, ostracisation, the death of her husband and was barred from leaving
- After many years she managed to defect, but left behind a family she can no longer contact. She and others like her have launched a lawsuit to tell the world of the misery Pyongyang inflicted on her and 97,000 others
- Eiko Kawasaki, who left Japan to return to North Korea at the age of 17, pictured in Tokyo. Photo: AFP
It was cold and pitch black when Eiko Kawasaki was last able to speak with her youngest daughter. Terrified that her call might be detected, she stood in the shadow of a tree and spoke quietly as she clutched the mobile phone to her ear. Her daughter was only a couple of kilometres away, but they were separated by the China-North Korea border and she might as well have been on another planet.
“This was in November 2019 and she was able to travel close to the border at that time,” said Kawasaki, 79. “But it was still dangerous. She borrowed a mobile phone, but if she had been caught it would have been a serious problem.
“So we were both hiding in the shadows on opposite sides of the border and she could not talk for a long time,” she recalled. “I remember that she was complaining about the situation in
and she asked me to send them money.”Then the line went dead.
Eiko Kawasaki, who left Japan to return to North Korea at the age of 17, pictured in Tokyo. Photo: AFPIt was cold and pitch black when Eiko Kawasaki was last able to speak with her youngest daughter. Terrified that her call might be detected, she stood in the shadow of a tree and spoke quietly as she clutched the mobile phone to her ear. Her daughter was only a couple of kilometres away, but they were separated by the China-North Korea border and she might as well have been on another planet.
“This was in November 2019 and she was able to travel close to the border at that time,” said Kawasaki, 79. “But it was still dangerous. She borrowed a mobile phone, but if she had been caught it would have been a serious problem.
“So we were both hiding in the shadows on opposite sides of the border and she could not talk for a long time,” she recalled. “I remember that she was complaining about the situation in
and she asked me to send them money.”Then the line went dead.
Since that evening, Kawasaki has heard nothing from her son and three daughters, or her grandchildren, who are still in the North. Another daughter did manage to flee and reach
, but Kawasaki blames herself for the plight of her relatives stuck in the North.It is why she has joined a lawsuit demanding compensation from the North Korean government for deceiving her and tens of thousands of others and convincing them to leave their homes in Japan in the 1950s to go to North Korea. The suit will have its first hearing on October 14 at the Tokyo District Court.
Born in Kyoto prefecture to first-generation immigrants from the Korean peninsula, Kawasaki had attended a school run by Chongryun, the association of North Korean residents of Japan. Pupils were instructed in the wonders of life in the North and Chongryun officials began to encourage young people to “return” to their homeland, which they described as a “paradise on earth”, she said.
“Many Koreans living in Japan at the time believed this propaganda wholeheartedly, and I and my family were no exception,” she said. “My family decided to return to North Korea.”
Kawasaki’s parents concluded that it would take around a year to wrap up their lives in Japan and move to the North, but at 17 years old Kawasaki was impatient and convinced them to let her go immediately.
“I believed that in North Korea all freedoms and livelihoods would be guaranteed by the government, so even as a high school student I was not worried about going alone,” she said. “My parents allowed me to go ahead of them, promising that the rest of my family would ‘come home’ within a year.”
She said farewell to her parents at Kyoto Station and boarded a special train for returnees that travelled to the port of Niigata. It was 1959.
It was cold and pitch black when Eiko Kawasaki was last able to speak with her youngest daughter. Terrified that her call might be detected, she stood in the shadow of a tree and spoke quietly as she clutched the mobile phone to her ear. Her daughter was only a couple of kilometres away, but they were separated by the China-North Korea border and she might as well have been on another planet.
“This was in November 2019 and she was able to travel close to the border at that time,” said Kawasaki, 79. “But it was still dangerous. She borrowed a mobile phone, but if she had been caught it would have been a serious problem.
“So we were both hiding in the shadows on opposite sides of the border and she could not talk for a long time,” she recalled. “I remember that she was complaining about the situation in
and she asked me to send them money.”Then the line went dead.
It was cold and pitch black when Eiko Kawasaki was last able to speak with her youngest daughter. Terrified that her call might be detected, she stood in the shadow of a tree and spoke quietly as she clutched the mobile phone to her ear. Her daughter was only a couple of kilometres away, but they were separated by the China-North Korea border and she might as well have been on another planet.
“This was in November 2019 and she was able to travel close to the border at that time,” said Kawasaki, 79. “But it was still dangerous. She borrowed a mobile phone, but if she had been caught it would have been a serious problem.
“So we were both hiding in the shadows on opposite sides of the border and she could not talk for a long time,” she recalled. “I remember that she was complaining about the situation in
and she asked me to send them money.”Then the line went dead.
Since that evening, Kawasaki has heard nothing from her son and three daughters, or her grandchildren, who are still in the North. Another daughter did manage to flee and reach
, but Kawasaki blames herself for the plight of her relatives stuck in the North.It is why she has joined a lawsuit demanding compensation from the North Korean government for deceiving her and tens of thousands of others and convincing them to leave their homes in Japan in the 1950s to go to North Korea. The suit will have its first hearing on October 14 at the Tokyo District Court.
Born in Kyoto prefecture to first-generation immigrants from the Korean peninsula, Kawasaki had attended a school run by Chongryun, the association of North Korean residents of Japan. Pupils were instructed in the wonders of life in the North and Chongryun officials began to encourage young people to “return” to their homeland, which they described as a “paradise on earth”, she said.
“Many Koreans living in Japan at the time believed this propaganda wholeheartedly, and I and my family were no exception,” she said. “My family decided to return to North Korea.”
Kawasaki’s parents concluded that it would take around a year to wrap up their lives in Japan and move to the North, but at 17 years old Kawasaki was impatient and convinced them to let her go immediately.
“I believed that in North Korea all freedoms and livelihoods would be guaranteed by the government, so even as a high school student I was not worried about going alone,” she said. “My parents allowed me to go ahead of them, promising that the rest of my family would ‘come home’ within a year.”
She said farewell to her parents at Kyoto Station and boarded a special train for returnees that travelled to the port of Niigata. It was 1959.
Bad omens
Still enthusiastic about the adventure ahead of her, Kawasaki had the first inkling that something was amiss when the ship left Japanese waters and the passengers were ordered to throw all Japanese food overboard on the grounds that Korea was a former Japanese colony and the people would be angry if they arrived carrying items from Japan.
There were more ominous signs.
As the ship was tying up in Chongjin port, a young man who had been in the same class as two men on the ship stood on the wharf and shouted: “Don’t get off the ship! Go back to Japan.” It was, however, too late.
“As soon as I arrived, I realised that what we had been told in Japan was completely false,” she said. “My first thought was to stop my family, who were planning to follow me to North Korea soon. I used a variety of methods to convey messages to my family asking them not to come.”
Fortunately, they received and understood her carefully worded letters, but Kawasaki had to try to make a new life for herself.
Assigned to a provincial city 500km from Pyongyang, it was like travelling back in time. Placed in a school dormitory, she battled bed lice and appalling food of potatoes and corn seasoned with salt. Some of the returnees became malnourished, many developed tuberculosis. Others suffered mental problems brought on by homesickness, Kawasaki said.
One of only eight women in a university class for chemical engineering, she later went to work in a factory. Still, life was difficult as “returnees” from abroad were viewed with deep suspicion and were discriminated against. That discrimination also affected her North Korea-born husband, who was not able to progress in his chosen career after he married her. His mother was so upset that she tried to convince him to divorce her.
Times were difficult and Kawasaki had to ask her family in Japan to send them clothes and household appliances. Things got even worse in the mid-1990s, when the nation was struck by a famine that the state refers to as “The Arduous March”.
“During the Great Famine, the bodies of people who had starved to death were strewn about the streets of my city,” she said. “People who lived in the city often died at home, but many people who came to the city from far away in search of food died outdoors.
Still enthusiastic about the adventure ahead of her, Kawasaki had the first inkling that something was amiss when the ship left Japanese waters and the passengers were ordered to throw all Japanese food overboard on the grounds that Korea was a former Japanese colony and the people would be angry if they arrived carrying items from Japan.
There were more ominous signs.
As the ship was tying up in Chongjin port, a young man who had been in the same class as two men on the ship stood on the wharf and shouted: “Don’t get off the ship! Go back to Japan.” It was, however, too late.
“As soon as I arrived, I realised that what we had been told in Japan was completely false,” she said. “My first thought was to stop my family, who were planning to follow me to North Korea soon. I used a variety of methods to convey messages to my family asking them not to come.”
Fortunately, they received and understood her carefully worded letters, but Kawasaki had to try to make a new life for herself.
Assigned to a provincial city 500km from Pyongyang, it was like travelling back in time. Placed in a school dormitory, she battled bed lice and appalling food of potatoes and corn seasoned with salt. Some of the returnees became malnourished, many developed tuberculosis. Others suffered mental problems brought on by homesickness, Kawasaki said.
One of only eight women in a university class for chemical engineering, she later went to work in a factory. Still, life was difficult as “returnees” from abroad were viewed with deep suspicion and were discriminated against. That discrimination also affected her North Korea-born husband, who was not able to progress in his chosen career after he married her. His mother was so upset that she tried to convince him to divorce her.
Times were difficult and Kawasaki had to ask her family in Japan to send them clothes and household appliances. Things got even worse in the mid-1990s, when the nation was struck by a famine that the state refers to as “The Arduous March”.
“During the Great Famine, the bodies of people who had starved to death were strewn about the streets of my city,” she said. “People who lived in the city often died at home, but many people who came to the city from far away in search of food died outdoors.
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