Sangokujin 三国人 is a Japanese term referring to ex-colonial nationals of Taiwan (Taiwanese aboriginal), Korea and China in the aftermath of World War II. The original term is said to be coined by these people to establish a separate political, social and legal status from Japanese who have lost the war.
Especially after the immediate aftermath of the war, the legal status of Korean and Taiwanese are not clear. Occupying American force enjoyed an immunity from Japanese legal force. Some Korean and Taiwanese come to insist that, since they belong to the liberated third country, they are no longer under the jurisdiction of Japanese Imperial government. This has resulted many poor Chinese (of Taiwan) and Korean, suppressed under colonial rule, forming criminal gangs to run thriving Yamiichi, black market which was against rationing regime which continued after the war. Occasional crash of these riotous gangs and Japanese police, was widely reported by newspaper at the time. Much of these rioters were reported with reference to the term "Sangokujin". Soon, many Japanese start to associate the term, Sangokujin with criminal behavior of ex colonial.
As the chaos of war subsided, the term was becoming something of an anachronism and mostly forgotten. However, the use of the term was revived when the nationalist Tokyo Metropolitan Governor Shintarō Ishihara revived it in an April 9, 2000 address to the Japanese Self Defence Forces to suggest that JSD will be needed in case of catastrophic earthquake in Tokyo to suppress Sangokujin committing crimes. This has provoked much criticism. This was partly to do with the fact that the term was now seen as derogatory, in somewhat similar fashion to the words negro. But also, it was to do with the fact that many Koreans were massacred by civilian vigilante during Great Kantō Earthquake.
The governor later stated, "What is wrong with calling Sangokujins Sangokujins?" insisting that the term is a neutral reference to Zainichi population for his generation. This has provoked much discussion about the political correctness of the term. However, the usage of the term later become explicitly derogatory, primary due to the fact that the word is now used exclusively by the right wing element of Japanese political discourse. Therefore, the question of whether the term "was" derogatory is now moot.
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