WHAT HAPPENED TO THE MISSING 100000 KOREANS AFTER WORLD WAR II

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Today we talk about the missing one hundred thousand Koreans
after World War Two and what they did with them.
This is an interesting conspiracy. In the aftermath of World
War Two, Japan underwent a massive transformation into Allied occupation.
As part of the reconstruction, millions of Koreans who have
been constricted or brought to Japan during its colonial rule

(00:20):
were repatriated. Official records estimate over two million Koreans were
sent back to the Korean Peninsula by the late nineteen forties. However,
a mystery remains what happened to the estimated one hundred
thousand Koreans who were never accounted for. According to some
history and independent investigations, thousands of Koreans disappeared during the
chaotic repatriation. So first conspiracy theory that pops up suggests

(00:44):
that many of these individuals were never returned. Indeed, they
may actually have been detained and quietly used for forced
labor by either the Japanese government or the newly stationed
US military. In another case, some believe these individuals were
deployed for top secret work, possibly involving post war reconstruction
or experimental facilities on American bases. In Japan, Okinawa, or Guam.

(01:07):
The evidence is scarce, though declassified documents from the nineteen
fifties do offer some hints reference an anonymous labor unit
working in restricted zones. Survivor testimonies mentioned entire groups vanishing
after being separated at ports or holding camps. Korean families
who never heard back from loved ones have long demanded answers,
but political tensions between Japan, Korea, and the US have

(01:30):
stalled formal investigation. The truth remains elusive. The post war
period was marked by censorship, record loss in the international
power plays. Still, the unresolved fate of these one hundred
thousand Koreans continues to raise uncomfortable questions about accountability in
the hidden human costs of global war and reconstruction. The
bottom line, this one remains unexplained.