‘Becoming Korean’: Decolonisation, Nationalisation, and the Everyday Lives of Ethnic Koreans in Post-WWII Taiwan, 1945–1970

Abstract At the end of World War II in 1945 there were approximately 2,200 Korean civilians living in Taiwan. While the majority returned to Korea, about 300 stayed behind. This group was later joined by others who fled mainland China or arrived from elsewhere, collectively forming a distinct community in post-war Taiwan, known as hanqiao . Today their presence is largely forgotten. This article uses Republic of China government archives and personal interviews to construct a narrative of hanqiao in early post-war Taiwan (1945–1970), including internal power struggles within the Korean Association, economic challenges, and social marginalisation. It also examines processes of decolonisation—specifically, ‘de-Japanisation’—and nationalisation, focusing on how Korean residents in Taiwan formed a distinct Korean identity during the post-war period through their everyday lives, particularly within the ethno-spaces of the Korean school and the church.