Koreans in Micronesia used to form a significant population before World War II, when most of the region was ruled as the South Seas Mandate of the Empire of Japan; for example, they formed 7.3% of the population of Palau in 1943. However, after the area came under the control of the United States as the Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands, most Koreans returned to their homeland. , about seven thousand South Korean expatriates & immigrants and Korean Americans reside in the Marianas (Guam and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands), which have remained under U.S. control, while only around two hundred South Korean expatriates reside in the independent countries of Micronesia. Japanese colonial era (1914–1945) The earliest known Koreans in Palau are believed to be 10 comfort women who arrived in 1936. As the demand for labour increased sharply with the onset of war, Japanese authorities turned to the Korean peninsula as a source of cheap workers. The first Korean labourers came in January 1939, a group of 500; they were employed by Hōnan Sangyō K.K. () in cassava processing. From then until February 1940, 13 further shipments totalling 1,266 Korean workers arrived in Palau. A 1943 census showed Palau's total Korean population at 2,458, or 7.3% of the population at the time; they were only one-tenth the size of the Japanese population. 864 lived on Babeldaob, another 721 were housed at the naval base on Malakal Island, 539 lived at Angaur, and the remaining 334 were scattered throughout other locations. Roman Tmetuchl, a Palauan recruited to work for the Kempeitai, recalled in an interview some years later that the Japanese discriminated against the Koreans even more heavily than they did against the Palauans. There were about 2,400 Koreans on Tinian at the time of the eponymous July 1944 battle which brought the island under U.S. control; they greeted their liberation from Japanese colonialism enthusiastically, and donated US$666.35 saved from their 35 cents/day wages to further the war effort. Along with the Japanese, the Koreans were all repatriated after the surrender of Japan ended World War II. The process of repatriation began in September 1945, and lasted until May 1946. The total number who repatriated to Korea from Palau was recorded at greater than 3,000 people. In total, across all of the islands, U.S. records show 10,966 Korean repatriates (6,880 civilians, 3,751 military servicemen, and 190 soldiers),