TRAFFIC ON CHINA SEA

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 9, Issue 74, 15 May 1946, Page 4

TRAFFIC ON CHINA SEA

BLACK MARKET PASSENGERS THROWN OVERBOARD The New Zealanders who are now controlling the repatriation centre at Senzaki are picking up some lurid but substantiated stories concerning the activities of Japanese and Korean black market ships which have been carrying on smuggling operations on the sea routes to Korea. Some of the ships are known to have taken loads of passengers out to sea, supposedly en route to Korea. When out of sight of land, the luckless travellers have been stripped of their money and valuables and then tossed overboard.

The repatriation authorities have warned repatriates against embarking on unauthorised vessels, but there are always some whose only hope of getting across without permits is to take the chance. Japanese repatriates are surprisingly docile, but the Koreans are rather more independent. Those now being repatriated to Korea were mainly brought to Japan as forced labour for the coal mines of Kyushu and Hokkaido. They were the virtual centre of subversive activities in Japan during the war, although many were imprisoned for what the Japanese whimsically called “thought crimes.” An American military government officer returned from Korea remarked to me: “The Koreans are the Irish of the Orient. They are not keen on having anybody but themselves assist in the reconstruction of their country, and they are not united amongst themselves.”