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Lee Man-yeol, Professor Emeritus at Sookmyung Women's University

Two years later, it will be 100 years since the outbreak of the Great Kanto earthquake. The Japanese government cracked down on the ideas of Koreans as a way to overcome the confusion caused by natural disasters and slaughtered them. Today, there are many people who want to clarify the truth of the case at the time. Japan tried to cover up the social turmoil and crisis caused by the earthquake with discrimination, disgust and crime against minorities. This incident, which occurred 98 years ago, has a great implication for us facing the global pandemic. In Japanese society, discrimination against Koreans in Japan is still continuing. Revisionist Historians, who incites the Anti-Korean Sentiment, deny or justify the genocide that was conducted against Koreans at the time of the Great Kanto Earthquake. In the face of deepening historical conflicts, the elder historian Lee Man-yeol went to the streets, the National Assembly, and the lecture hall in August this year. He demanded that the Japanese government officially apologize for the truth of the massacre that occurred during the Great Kanto Earthquake. Lee Man-yeol, who lived his life as a practicing historian. What was he desperately hoping to solve the problem related to the massacre of Koreans?

Interview | Park Jeong-ae, Researcher of Korea-Japan Relationship Research Institute at NAHF

Q. It will be 100 years since the outbreak of the Great Kanto Earthquake in two years. I was impressed by you actively working to reveal the truth of the case.

In 1919, the March 1st Movement took place in Joseon, and in 1923, the Great Kanto Earthquake occurred in Japan. More than 100,000 people died and 450,000 houses were burned. About three to four trillion of the state's finances were destroyed. The Japanese government thought that someone should be responsible for this chaos. Of course, there was no way to compensate for the loss of life and property due to the earthquake. But I think they have made the Koreans responsible for this incident, and they felt a kind of vicarious satisfaction and catharsis.

Mizuno Rentaro, Home Secretary of Japan, was the inspector general of administrative affairs of the Japanese Government-General during the March 1st Movement. So he knew about Joseon. The director of the Police Affairs Division, who works for him, also stayed in Joseon. They plotted against the Joseon people. The Japanese government was well aware of the nature of the earthquake. But they deliberately spread false rumors and abused it. They passed their responsibilities to the Joseon people.

This is not a persecution or massacre of individuals, but rather a kind of ethnic problem. The earthquake struck at 11:58 a.m.on Sept. 1, and soldiers began to move that day. And Mizuno Rentaro and others will declare martial law the next day. They set targets and tried to quickly quell the chaos caused by the earthquake. In addition to soldiers and police, more than 1,000 vigilante were involved in the massacre of Koreans under the aid of the government office in Tokyo. The government and the people joined together to hunt the Koreans.

The Japanese government has written manuals on how to identify Koreans from the beginning of the colonial period. One of them was about whether someone could pronounce a flat consonant or the ‘ra’ column of the Japanese syllabary table. The Japanese asked someone to pronounce 'jūgoen gojissen(じゅうごえんごじっせん)' or 'ra, ri, ru, re, ro', and when the pronunciation was incorrect, it was judged as Korean. So many Koreans were killed. There is 『In September, on a street in Tokyo: The Reverberation of Kant Massacre』 written by Katoh Naoki. The book says that the Japanese cut or stabbed people to death with Japanese words, bamboo spears, and iron bars. There is a testimony that 'a pregnant woman was also killed'. I read the testimony and was very angry at the actions of the Japanese at the time.

Q. I heard your story and it seemed to be a situation that was completely mad. We do not know if there was any regulation of illegal activity at the time. The damage scale and the damage pattern are not clearly revealed. How is the research going on in this part?

From 1923 to 1945, the Japanese government controlled everything, including the press. So it was hard for Koreans to investigate in Kanto. At that time, Kim Seung -hak, president of the Dongnip Newspaper(the official journal of the provisional government of Korea in Shanghai), dispatched Han Se-bok, who was staying in Nagoya, to Tokyo. Mr. Han has investigated the truth about the massacre of Koreans. And based on the results of the survey, they announced in the Dongnip Newspaper on December 5, 1923, ‘6,661 Koreans were killed.’ According to Kang Duk-sang, about 20,000 Koreans lived in the Kanto area at that time. Of those, 11,000 Koreans were imprisoned for earthquake-related incidents. The remaining 9,000 people can not be said to have been killed, but the report that the number of victims is 6,661 is not a nonsense.

And Otto Bruchhardt(German art historian), who majored in Oriental art, stayed in Tokyo and Yokohama from September 1 to 8. He went back to Germany and wrote the article ‘Japan’s Massacre of Koreans’ in 『the Vossische Zeitung』 on October 9 of that year. According to the article, 15,000 Koreans were killed in Yokohama, and 20,000 people were killed in tragedy. So the Korean students in Germany at that time asked him a question. He replied: “This is not only my story, but it was also published in the English paper of Yokohama at the time.”

What we note is that in 1983, North Korea published 'The Whole History of Joseon: Chronological Table', claiming that 23,000 Koreans were killed in Kanto. They did not show the basis for the claim. However, it is presumed that they referenced the records of Bruchhardt. The same article was reported in newspapers published in Switzerland, Germany. And since the articles were officially published in Japanese English papers, a close investigation is needed.

Q. There seems to be quite a lot of testimony or circumstantial evidence. However, the study to reveal the truth of the case has not yet begun. What are the efforts we have made to solve this problem?

That's so weird. I do not know if the Korean government showed this attitude. "The events of the colonial era, it's not something we'll be responsible for." But in 2010, we have a joint statement of Korean and Japanese intellectuals to reflect on such attitudes. More than 2,000 intellectuals participated in the statement. Of them, about half were Japanese. Until then, the consciousness of Japanese civic groups was awake. Here's what the statement says: “In the past, Japan forced the occupation of Joseon was illegal. So that rule is null and void.” This is the agreement of Japanese intellectuals to the claim of the Republic of Korea, which has been said to be “Japan's rule is already null and void.” since the 1965 Korea-Japan Agreement.

Take a good look at this. Then Japan killed the ordinary Joseon people, not the Joseon people of the colony during the Kanto earthquake. If this is true, the Korean government should say, "You killed our people, so be responsible." But the Korean government did not take such measures. If the government does not do it, the National Assembly should do it, and citizens should join. At the 19th National Assembly, the bill on the investigation of Korean massacre during the Kanto earthquake and the restoration of the victim's honor was initiated, but it was repealed due to the expiration of the term. And, in the 20th National Assembly, 'Special Act On Verification And Support For The Victims Of Forced Mobilization Under Japanese Colonialism In Korea(proposed amendment)' was proposed, but this was also abolished due to the expiration of its term. Then, in the 21st National Assembly, we held an academic debate on September 6th. The debate discussed the issue of designating the day of the Kanto earthquake and the massacre of Koreans(September 1) as a national memorial day.

We don't know our capabilities. But we're going to do a lot of things in the future. In the past, even if a bone fragment was found, it was not known who it was. But now, DNA tests can help us. So we need to have the Japanese government analyze the DNA of the remains from the excavation site. And if we investigate Korean descendants, we will be able to secure testimony that their family or relatives died in Tokyo at the time. We don't know if that number will be 6,000 or 21,000. However, finding a place for ‘ghosts’ is an important task for Korea and Japan.

Q. We should start by giving their names back to the victims who were slaughtered and killed. And since this requires a lot of will and tenacity, I think we should be widely informed. By the way, Revisionist Historians have been expanding globally in solidarity with the Japanese far right. Professor John Mark Ramseyer wrote a positive article about the massacre of Koreans during the Kanto earthquake.

Professor Ramseyer cited and acknowledged the claims of the Japanese far right. This is not a movement of Japanese conscience, but Japanese money. This problem is not just related to Ramseyer. This has even affected the domestic Revisionist Historians, including those who claim Anti-Japanese Tribalism. But in the end, the truth is bound to win in these issues. Historians must reveal the truth, and they must be able to talk about the truth and overturn the vain theories. In that sense, I can say that NAHF has a big mission.

Q. Holocaust has formed a perception that the violence of the state should not be repeated and has raised awareness. In that sense, I think that the Kanto earthquake should be recognized as a state violence and genocide.

This is not simple. As a person studying history, I think we should reflect on ourselves as much as we do to clarify the truth of Japan's atrocities. We have to be honest about what we did in Vietnam and start with the story of 'it is wrong'. So we have to let Japan join in apology and reflection. We condemn Japan's atrocities as a kind of genocide. So, did not genocide occur in Korea? Numerous civilians were killed in The Jeju 4·3 Incident, The Bodo League massacre. It is not right to say what we have committed, but to claim that we should reveal the truth of what the Japanese have done and make them apologize. The historian assert the facts and reflect on himself. The more we reflect on ourselves, the more likely we are to inspire the other person's mind. It is important to reveal the truth, and the part that Japan should be responsible for. But we have to reflect on the Holocaust or Genocide we committed. Of course, it should be based on records and facts.

The act of carefully examining the past actions of Japan and Korea is not hurting others and ourselves. It is to reveal the truth, to reflect on ourselves, to reconcile, to be humble in front of history, not to point out the mistake. To reveal it and approach the peace, forgiveness and reconciliation that mankind pursues. That's what I hope for as a person studying history.