What are the reintegration experiences of repatriates in the aftermath of war? This paper examines the experiences of Japanese civilians repatriated from Manchuria after World War II, a case where the majority population (those who remained in Japan) and the minority (returnees) are most similar due to shared national identity. Using data from the 1956 National Survey on Repatriates Postwar Lives, I estimate how household attributes and social networks predict employment status and post-return internal migration, as proxies for reintegration challenges. I further incorporate data on internal resettlement schemes, postwar urbanisation, and repatriate mortality rates to contextualise internal migration trends. This study contributes to migration politics by shedding light on the socioeconomic and cultural consequences of large-scale migration for returnees in (post-)imperial and (post-)colonial contexts. It also furthers understanding reintegration dynamics through an under-studied phenomenon, return migration.