Han Duk Su; Controversial Leader of Fight for Koreans’ Rights in Japan

Han Duk Su, a Korean immigrant who led a lifelong crusade for the rights of Koreans living in Japan but who antagonized many with his support for North Korea, has died.

Han died Wednesday of pneumonia at the age of 94.

“He was the symbol of Koreans who have been fighting discrimination in Japan since the end of World War II,” said Yasuhiko Yoshida, a professor of international relations at Saitama University in suburban Tokyo.

Han, described by Makoto Tanabe, a former president of Japan’s Socialist Party, as “a man of few words and very soft-spoken,” immigrated to Japan as a college student in 1927 to study music. But he dropped out to promote Korea’s independence from Japan and to tackle labor issues stemming from discrimination.

Just a few years before he arrived in Japan, for example, an estimated 6,000 Koreans were massacred after the spread of unfounded rumors that Koreans were setting fires and looting after the 1923 earthquake in Tokyo.

During its occupation of the Korean peninsula from 1910 to 1945, Japan forced hundreds of thousands of Koreans to work in its factories, mines and military operations. Many remained in Japan after the country’s surrender, marrying and having families here. An estimated 700,000 ethnic Koreans live in Japan today.

Still, few have been eligible to become citizens. Until the 1980s, they were not even eligible to become permanent residents and had to submit to fingerprinting, one of the issues Han fought hard against.

After the war, Han helped set up a Korean residents group in Japan, becoming its chairman in 1949. But, mirroring the ideological and political controversies at the root of the war that divided the Korean peninsula in 1950, the group split.

Han founded Chosen Soren, a pro-North Korean residents group, in 1955. A pro-South Korea group, known as Mindan, was created at about the same time. The two organizations remained hostile, although the hard lines have softened since last year’s summit between the North Korean leader Kim Jong Il and South Korean President Kim Dae Jung.

Chosen Soren claims a membership of 200,000 today, and Mindan claims about 450,000.

While Mindan sympathizers have tried to integrate themselves into Japanese society--many have taken Japanese names--the Northern sympathizers have been more inclined to stick to their Korean identity, Yoshida said.

As the leader of the more militant, pro-Communist organization, Han was followed and harassed by Japanese authorities and labeled as anti-government and anti-Japanese, Yoshida said.

Like his home nation, he advocated the reunification of the peninsula and urged citizens to go back to North Korea to help with the construction of what was billed as the “Communist paradise.” Between 1965 and 1985, more than 100,000 heeded his call.

“Many North Koreans were given the illusion that North Korea is really a paradise of the Korean people,” Yoshida said. “They were disillusioned and deceived, and their sons and daughters who remained in Japan have a feeling of distrust against Han Duk Su.”

Today, earnings repatriated to North Korea by residents here are said to be one of North Korea’s major sources of foreign exchange. But they are on the wane amid Japan’s economic malaise.

Japanese politicians who visited North Korea would meet with Han before going. “When we visited North Korea, we always went to see him, asking how it would be,” said Tanabe, who led a group to North Korea in 1990 that included then-Deputy Prime Minister Shin Kanemaru. “We were worried whether we would really get to see [the late leader] Kim Il Sung, but relieved as Han Duk Su guaranteed that it would work out.’

Han traveled to North Korea many times himself, always commanding a ready audience with Kim Il Sung and his son, Kim Jong Il, according to Chosen Soren. He was awarded several of North Korea’s highest honors, the group said.

He is survived by a son and four daughters.