The 1920's Annexation Of Japan

At the time of Japan's annexation of Korea in 1910, only several thousand Koreans lived in the main Japanese islands. This population largely consisted of students, merchants, and workers who entered Japan during the first four decades or so after the Meiji Restoration in 1868.
In the 1920s, the Japanese economy experienced a shortage of labor. In response, Koreans seeking better educational and employment opportunities migrated to Japan. Until the late 1920s, most were male migrant workers who frequently shifted occupations. Most ethnic Koreans were farmers from three southern provinces in Korea (North and South Kyongsang and South Cholla, including Chejudo). Since many were poorly educated and illiterate, Korean workers engaged in
Koreans who had achieved successful careers in business, the imperial bureaucracy, and the military during the colonial period or who had taken advantage of economic opportunities that opened up immediately after the war–opted to maintain their relatively privileged status in Japanese society rather than risk returning to an impoverished and politically unstable post-Liberation Korea. Some Koreans who repatriated were so repulsed by the poor conditions they observed that they decided to return to Japan. Other Koreans living in Japan could not afford the train fare to one of the departure ports. For ethnic Koreans who had ethnic Japanese spouses and Japanese-born, Japanese-speaking children, it made more sense to stay in Japan rather than to navigate the cultural and linguistic challenges of a new
Following the war, however, the Japanese government defined ethnic Koreans as foreigners, no longer recognizing them as Japanese nationals. The use of the term Zainichi, or "residing in Japan" reflected the overall expectation that Koreans were living in Japan on a temporary basis and would soon return to Korea. By December 1945, Koreans lost their voting rights. In 1947, the Alien Registration Law consigned ethnic Koreans to alien status. The 1950 Nationality Law stripped Zainichi children with Japanese mothers of their Japanese nationality; only children with Japanese fathers would be allowed to keep their Japanese citizenship. As of 1952, former colonial subjects–the majority of whom were Korean--whose homeland was not recognized by Japan as a legitimate nation-state (including Korea) were rendered stateless. In 1955, a law required that all registered foreigners be fingerprinted. Ethnic Koreans were even excluded from the rights granted to non-nationals in Japan's postwar constitution. Employment policies excluded Koreans from all "Japanese" jobs after 1945. Barred from all public and private-sector employment, Koreans pursued jobs in the informal-sector and