In 1945 the Japanese empire collapsed and the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo followed its sponsor into oblivion. Technically, the area then known as “Manchuria” was returned to China after a short Soviet occupation (it was largely the Soviets who drove the Japanese from northeast China in 1945). However, at the time China was in the midst of a civil war between communists and nationalists. Thus, the transfer did not initially mean much.

As of 1945, some 1.7 million ethnic Koreans resided in Manchuria. Roughly one-third – some 600,000 people – left within a few years of the collapse of