Around 1910 many Jeju Islanders went to live in Japan.
The Jaeil Jejuin or Jaeil Dongpo are the terms given to such islanders who predominantly settled in the Osaka area of the country.
Some returned to Jeju Island in 1945, but many stayed.
In 1971 there were an estimated 86,490 Jaeil Jejuin making up 14.1% of the total Korean population in Japan.
Many of those that stayed provided great assistance for development back here on Jeju even though their own lives were tough. For example, financial assistance was given for electricity, water, and road infrastructure.
Some 3,470,000 tangerine tree saplings were donated between 1965 and 1979. These sapling helped develop one of the island’s key industries for today.
Also 82 hundred million won was donated until 1990 for expanding school facilities, building local village community halls, and old people centers.
If we combine the value of this money it comes to over 100 billion won.
So the first generation Jaeil Jejuin have helped their hometown a lot over the years. However, due to their advancing age they need our help now.
The Jeju Tourism Department is holding a donation campaign to help them.
Please send your love.
Over on Facebook view our accompanying donation campaign image.
Thank you.
* The donation period runs from July 21, 2014 until September 26, 2014 (up to a total of 5 million WON).
