A nondescript appendage of central Tokyo would seem an unlikely place for a showdown, but for the Korean community shunted off during the war to the man-made island in Koto Ward, the canal surrounding their enclave is like a moat for a castle under siege.
The invader is the Tokyo Metropolitan Government, which wants to seize the Edagawa district land where the elementary school the Koreans founded in 1946 sits, and sell it off. The area, with easy access to central Tokyo, has seen a surge in high-rise condominium development, and the market value of the disputed plot is 1.3 billion yen.
The Korean community dates its presence here to around 1940, when some 1,000 of them were forcibly relocated from nearby ghettos that were slated for redevelopment as part of Tokyo's abortive bid to host the 1940 Summer Olympics.