In 1949, with the aim of keeping Japan politically stable and securely allied with the US as a bulwark against communism, Occupation authorities instructed Japanese police to crack down on expatriate Koreans, who both perceived as a disruptive and threatening force. The result was a September raid disbanding and confiscating the assets of the "League of Koreans in Japan." For the Koreans still living in Japan in the postwar period, the events of September 1949 comprised a return to the oppressive practices of Japanese colonialism and signaled the revival of the imperial Japanese menace. This paper analyzes the events surrounding the dissolution of the League and considers the rebuttal written by the organization's advocates to the government memorandum produced to justify the action. With the aim of better understanding protest movements worldwide, and the tactics deployed to delegitimize them, this study explores the parallels between Korean activism in postwar Japan and recent protests in the United States
