Or, as in Ms. Katsura’s case, they followed their husbands from Japan to Korea.

Once in Korea, these women often discovered that their husbands’ families had found them Korean spouses in their absence. Many also lost their husbands during the Korean War, which lasted from 1950 until 1953.

By the time many tried to return to Japan, it was too late. Japan and South Korea did not re-establish ties until 1965, and, even then, some of the women had no relatives to sponsor their return and resettlement.

Emotions run high when South Koreans talk about their country’s historical disputes with Japan, especially the enslavement of Korean “comfort women” in front-line brothels for Japan’s Imperial Army during World War II. But society has paid little attention to these Japanese women, some of whom were abandoned by their families in both countries and had to live with neither a Korean nor a Japanese passport.

“When they arrive here, they all have made-up Korean names,” said Song Mi-ho, the head of the nursing home, Nazarewon, which takes its name from the biblical Nazareth. “One of the first things we do is to call them by their Japanese names. When this happens, they are in tears, as if they are getting their life, their identity, back.