Photo/Illutration The last surviving bunkhouse for Korean laborers from World War II in the Utoro district of Uji, Kyoto Prefecture, is seen partially collapsed on June 23. (Yoshiaki Konishi)

UJI, Kyoto Prefecture--Work is under way to tear down a decrepit bunkhouse that housed Korean laborers amid harsh conditions during World War II and later became a symbol of the community’s rough past.

As the last of its kind, residents see the building’s demolition as a milestone in the history of the Utoro district.

The district, which is just over 2 hectares, is home to about 90 second-, third- and fourth-generation ethnic Koreans from roughly 50 households.

A Buddhist service was held on June 26 to pray for a safe dismantlement. Some 40 attendees, such as residents and supporters, thought of the lives of those who lived there in bygone years.

Hideo Tanaka, 73, head of the Utoro neighborhood association, said his grandparents lived in the bunkhouse, a one-story wooden structure built sometime around 1943.

“I would rather look toward the future than to the past,” he said.

Part of the building will be rebuilt outside a memorial hall scheduled to open in April to commemorate the workers’ struggles.

“I hope the memorial hall will show the history of how we have arrived where we are today with the assistance of parties in Japan and South Korea,” Tanaka said.

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Residents and supporters pose for a photo at the end of a Buddhist service in front of the former bunkhouse, designated for demolition, in Uji, Kyoto Prefecture, on June 26. (Yoshiaki Konishi)

About 1,300 Korean workers lived in the Utoro district when World War II ended with Japan’s defeat, dissolving the country’s colonial rule over the Korean Peninsula. It remained a community of ethnic Koreans into the postwar period and up to today.

But the land was resold in 1987, and the new landowner sued the residents to force them to vacate the plot two years later.

The residents lost the case definitively in 2000, but they received financing from a foundation affiliated with the South Korean government, along with donations from the private sector, to purchase part of the land by 2011.

The governments of Japan, Kyoto Prefecture and the city of Uji worked together to improve the living environment of Utoro, where a five-story public housing building containing 40 dwelling units was completed late in 2017.

Another public housing project will add 12 more units once it is completed in spring 2023.

With a row of 12 dwelling units, the bunkhouse being torn down housed Korean workers mobilized to build an airstrip in the area before and during the war. It had no bath, and its occupants shared just one outhouse and one outdoor well to supply their water.

A calendar found in a room, along with some other evidence, suggests the bunkhouse remained occupied until 1986.

The building fell into disrepair over the years, and the residents decided to have it torn down. Part of the roof collapsed from a typhoon.

Akiko Tagawa, who heads “Utoro wo Mamoru Kai” (Utoro guardians), an advocacy group that provides support to the residents, recalled how first-generation Koreans spoke of the hardships they endured living here, including how they built a cooking stove out of red soil.

“I will miss the testament to history, which will no longer be there, but I also understand people’s desire to forget about the miserable past,” said Tagawa, 76. “I hope the late first-generation Koreans will appreciate what we are doing.”

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An artist’s rendition of the Utoro Heiwa Kinenkan (Utoro peace memorial hall) and part of the former bunkhouse to be rebuilt and displayed outside it (Provided by Utoro Minkan Kikin Zaidan)

Construction of the Utoro Heiwa Kinenkan (Utoro peace memorial hall) starts in autumn.

The project will cost about 200 million yen ($1.81 million).

One-quarter of the bunkhouse, about 25 square meters, will be relocated outside the hall.

The three-story memorial hall, with a total floor area of 450 square meters, will be built and administered by Utoro Minkan Kikin Zaidan (Utoro private-sector fund), a foundation organized by Japanese, South Koreans and ethnic Koreans in Japan.

The residents are hoping the facility will pass down the district’s history and serve as a venue where the community can meet and interact.

“We hope the hall will allow you to feel proud of your origins and make you happy about that, instead of dispiriting you with the knowledge of this history,” said Kim Su Hwan, 45, a board member of the foundation.

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