Inside Japan's Mini North Korea | Unreported World

we're in a school where North Korea's dictators are seen as great leaders it's so surreal it's almost as if we're in North Korea [Music] we're filming with supporters of one of the world's most secretive and authoritarian States but we're not in North Korea we're in Japan and this community is under threat we meet the volatile far-right activists targeting their schools to as well as disillusioned deserters can Japan's North Korean bubble continue to survive [Music] this is Kyoto Japan's cultural capital in a quiet part of town I'm meeting yoongi young stylish and well-educated but also a member of a controversial group The chongri on a powerful Association of Koreans in Japan with close links to North Korea this is their local office came to Japan when Korea was a colony and his family have always had links to the chongri on the group runs a network of schools and businesses over the years millions of dollars have been sent back and forth between Pyongyang jungi is head of their local student Wing this is the chongyong's OWN newspaper good newspaper fake news North Korea is an international Pariah and Japan is deeply suspicious of those with links to it but jungi has made multiple trips there is local residents aren't allowed to leave without special permission and the regime is accused of widespread human rights abuses with tens of thousands in brutal political prison camps but yoongi is Keen to show me another side to the country because the trips are part of a North Korean outreach program and are likely carefully choreographed how does it work when you visit Ed how do you marry that up with the experience that people who've left North Korea who've run away from there say they've had despite growing up in Japan many of yoongi's views align with those of the North Korean state it might seem bizarre but he's the product of the two countries troubled history [Music] I'm exploring Kyoto there are shrines temples and kimonos but I'm interested in a whole other world tucked away on a hillside a world in which jungi grew up thank you welcome to Kyoto's Korean School supported by the chongrion and North Korea it was set up by Koreans in Japan after World War II even dance class has a North Korean theme [Music] part-time art teacher here on the walls are portraits of the founder of North Korea Kim il-sung and his son who took power after his death accused of committing horrendous human rights abuses here they're seen as Anti-Imperialist Heroes foreign lessons are in Korean there are school trips to Pyongyang and the syllabus has a North Korean influence it's so surreal seeing these pictures of North Korean leaders in every classroom it's almost as if we're in North Korea not in Japan Korea was once a Japanese colony and millions from there came to Japan but they were never truly accepted always regarded as Outsiders [Music] foreign the thing I've seen lots of in the school is of course portraits of the two Korean leaders Kim il-sung Kim Jong-il why are their portraits up in so many classrooms today some people would be surprised because they perceive them as dictators [Music] the children studying here were born in Japan their fourth or fifth generation zainichi Koreans as they're known there are still over 60 schools like this here but they're under pressure attendance rates are down signs of the capitalist outside world are sneaking in and now the schools are caught in the middle of rising nuclear tensions North Korea were the Democratic People's Republic of Korea as it calls itself carried out a record number of missile tests last year insisting they were a response to American threats but with many Landing close to Japan the pupils have become targets girls only change into traditional Korean clothes when they're inside the building um foreign [Applause] this is what they're up against angry protests outside schools have been led by Japanese ultra nationalists at this protest in Kyoto a prominent activist yasuhiko aramaki was amongst those arrested he's now running to be mayor of nearby Osaka and has agreed to meet me at his crab restaurant clearly not a place where foreigners normally visit our arrival leads to a tense atmosphere though aramaki is happy to answer our questions you were arrested for threatening behavior at a Korean School how can you justify doing that there are children there at the time foreign foreign [Music] the interview is interrupted by one of aramaki's angry Entourage trying to force his way into the restaurant to confront us no problem no problem looks like a small problem baby in terms of the Korean Community here some of them are affiliated to the chongreon all right okay it looks like he's turned into a proper fight between you the guy who was drunk and trying to force his way in presumably to have a go at us and the guy we're interviewing convicted right wing our activist let's say uh is trying to protect us it was a weird moment in an uncomfortable interview but also something of an insight into Japan's far right [Music] face another threat to funding from North Korea is decreasing and the Japanese government has excluded them from a subsidy scheme making them more expensive and less popular jungi the art teacher and Chong we on member leads a weekly protest against the move and says Japan Bears responsibility for bringing Koreans here in the first place and I guess some Japanese people would say why should our money be used to fund a school where there are pictures of North Korean leaders the Japanese government told us they would only fund the schools if they can prove the curriculum is similar to those in Japanese high schools or meets International standards but history and whose version of it is taught is at the heart of the debate around Korean schools and even within the community there are radically different views and experiences beginning in the 1950s the chunguan helped persuade nearly a hundred thousand Koreans who were living here in Japan to go to North Korea they were told that they would find a paradise on Earth of course the reality was very different was a student at the Korean School in Kyoto and was persuaded to travel to North Korea in the 1960s she escaped 40 years later and is now suing the North Korean State she's giving a press conference about the case foreign ends she tells me her teachers and Chong we on officials convinced her to leave Japan is the dream she was sold turned into a nightmare you spent 40 years living in North Korea what was it like foreign she survived a devastating famine in the 1990s in which hundreds of thousands died and finally managed to escape 20 years ago but it was so dangerous she left behind all but one of her children the past is contested territory and jungi is focused on another episode of the community's history he's directing a play by the chongrium Students Association about a real-life Massacre of Koreans a hundred years ago thousands were killed by Japanese mobs after false rumors spread the Koreans were poisoning the water supply in the aftermath of a devastating earthquake but some in Japan deny the massacre ever took place um there is a real sense of grievance within the community but also a pride in their identity we're invited to the wedding with two chongreon members the families of nearly everyone here came to Japan from the southern part of Korea they dream of a reunited Homeland but when the country was split in two felt an ideological link to the north and even today the celebrations have a very political tinge [Music] one of the main performers is myeong-hee from a Chong we on cultural group [Music] I caught up with her and yoongi at a Korean restaurant in the city that's a big smile y told me she had made repeated state-funded trips to the North Korean capital Pyongyang [Music] it was like coming home foreign foreign it's seen internationally by so many people as being a place where really terrible things happen where really terrible human rights abuses take place the impression that most people here in Japan elsewhere in the world would have is that people in North Korea are either forced to support the government there or that they're brainwashed into it laughs I'm meeting Aiko Kawasaki again retracing the journey she and nearly 100 000 others made to North Korea in the 1960s we've come to the Japanese Port of negata [Music] every time Miss Kawasaki comes here she leaves flowers for those still in North Korea and for those who died without managing to escape more [Music] at the time Japan wanted Koreans to leave the country and North Korea was happy to receive them but it was the chongreon that facilitated the trips their headquarters and North Korea's de facto Embassy in Japan and they've agreed to meet us the only person we're told is available to speak is the chongreon's historian some of those people who managed to escape North Korea and come back here they specifically blame the Chong Rion for having convinced them to go there in the first place the [Music] um the leadership of North Korea is accused of committing human rights abuses that are so severe according to the UN that they're unparalleled in the modern world why would you want to be Associated now with a regime like that is [Music] so much of what Koreans in Japan have been through mirrors the experience of other migrant communities elsewhere but what I'm still struggling to understand is why some are sympathetic to North Korea given how repressive the regime is I'm meeting jungi one last time he wants to tell me about something that happened to him when he was still in school foreign foreign you know [Music] injustices past and present inflicted by Japan ramdi for many they drive not just the pride in their identity but also their loyalty to North Korea the place their families came from a United Career no longer exists and no matter how troubled North Korea is perhaps what's most important for them is having somewhere to call home please [Music] foreign [Music] foreign

Channel: Unreported World

Views: 573,315

Keywords: Unreported world, unreported world documentary, japan, kyoto, north korea, schools, international relations, channel 4, channel 4 documentary, documentary, channel 4 news, news, politics, japanese, korea

Id: hNmBm11XFwY

Length: 23min 51sec (1431 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 30 2023

Reddit Comments

[u/answersplease77]

all dictatorship propaganda in nutshell:

Question: Tens of thousands of activists and protestors are either jailed or killed. Citizens can't vote, can't speak, can't criticize nor participate in government?

Answer: We have tall skyscrapers and flying cars, Aaaand people dancing.

[u/apeliott]

I met a young woman who went to one of these schools.

I didn't believe her when she said they used to go on school trips to Pyongyang.

The next time we met she pulled out a photo album of the trips. It was surreal. I asked her if the students are all into the ideology and she said they didn't really care about it. They were more interested in shopping, music, fashion, boys etc.