Need to find family's ancient scroll in Korea. Who do I ask for help or information? Where do I start?

Question

During WW2, my great grandparents who are Japanese lived in Seoul, Korea during the Japanese occupation as a school teacher. He lived in a house there. After the war was over, he and his family had to flee or be killed. There was no time to pack. He hid the family scroll wich had our family history going back thousands of years on it and our family samurai sword in the house. He hoped to get it after the war settles down. He returned several months later but the new owner of the house told him to "get lost". Anyways, the scroll is very important to our family. Several family members have tried to go back but with no success. The last time someone went back she couldn't find it because they changed the cities layout with new construction. We don't even know if it still exists. We do have the old address. My question is who can I ask for help? Does Korea have a law there similar to U.S. warrant laws so we can search the home for our scroll? What about finding the location?

Answer 1

This will take you a long time, but contact the U.S. State Department, and your congressional leaders. You might get help through the U.S. Consulate in Korea.

Answer 2

The best chance you had was when your grandparents went back the first time. Even in the US, there is no such warrant that the government can issue to private citizens to enter somebody else's house to search something that might have been left by their relatives half century ago. Just think if you were the owner of the house. Why would you let in total strangers in your house who claimed to have left something in your house? If money is no problem, I would suggest you hire a local private investigator (maybe through a large private investigative firm in the US like Pinkerton) and take it from there. They could at least find the house. When you find the house, have the investigator explain what you are looking for and offer to buy the items from them. If the items are no longer in the house, and the investigator could not find a lead, you could also try to put a paid ad on internet (Yahoo Korea or something) or large newspaper and say that you will buy a scroll with such and such on it (describe it as much as possible) for undisclosed price. Ask people to send digital photo if they think they have it. Do the same for sword. Good luck. Just remember Korean people probably won't cooperate with you, so you have to pay local people to work for you.