Through travels that range from Geneva to Pyongyang, this remarkable book takes readers on an odyssey through one of the most extraordinary forgotten tragedies of the Cold War: the "return" of over 90,000 people, most of them ethnic Koreans, from Japan to North Korea from 1959 onward. For most, their new home proved a place of poverty and hardship; for thousands, it was a place of persecution and death. In rediscovering their extraordinary personal stories, this book also casts new light on the politics of the Cold War, and on present-day tensions between North Korea and the rest of the world.

Tessa Morris-Suzuki is professor in the Division of Pacific and Asian History, Research School of Pacific and Asian Studies, Australian National University. She is the winner of the 2013 Fukuoka Prize.

Part I: Departures
Chapter 1: Morning Sun
Chapter 2: Hostages to History
Chapter 3: Geneva: City of Dreams
Part II: Borderlines
Chapter 4: Across the East Sea
Chapter 5: To the Field of Dancing Children
Chapter 6: The Borders Within
Part III: Stratagems
Chapter 7: The Shadow Ministry
Chapter 8: The Tip of the Iceberg
Chapter 9: The Pyongyang Conference
Chapter 10: Special Mission to the Far East
Chapter 11: The First Return
Chapter 12: Resolution 20
Part IV: Accord
Chapter 13: Dream Homes on the Taedong
Chapter 14: The Diplomats' Diaries
Chapter 15: From Geneva to Calcutta
Chapter 16: Silent Partners
Chapter 17: A Guide for Mr. Returnee
Part V: Arrivals
Chapter 18: Toward the Promised Land
Chapter 19: Return to Nowhere
Chapter 20: The Willow Trees of Niigata