뉴스레터

On August 23, 2013, the Northeast Asian History Foundation hosted an international conference on the massacre of Koreans committed by Japanese soldiers, policemen, and civilians in the confusion after the great earthquake that occurred on September 1, 1923 in the Kanto region including Tokyo.

This conference is quite significant because it represents the first official interest shown in the subject by a government-funded research institute in 90 years since September 10, 1923, when the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea in Shanghai sent an official complaint to the Japanese government (addressed to Yamamoto Gonnohyoe (山本權兵衛)) (No. 131 issued by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in the name of Foreign Minister Jo So-ang).

Lists of Victims Released

Perhaps influenced by this conference, the National Archives of Korea, on November 19, 2013, released the list of 290 Korean victims of the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake investigated by the Korean government in 1953. In January 2014, a list of Chinese victims of the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake was discovered in the archives of the Foreign Ministry of Japan and then released. This list, which confirms that 553 were killed, 58 injured, and 1 missing, is an official diplomatic document stamped with the seal of the Legation of the Republic of China in Japan. Also released on March 6, 2014 is the list of Japanese victims of the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake that was preserved in the basement of Kongobuji, a temple in Wakayama Prefecture in Japan. Although its existence was already known, this was the first time that the list has been released. And it confirmed that the number of the victims was 54,700.

The successive releases of the lists of Korean, Chinese, and Japanese victims following the NAHF-hosted international conference could be a result of the awareness that the current Japanese government's conservative shift is worrisome and that the truth should be urgently investigated and revealed. It can be said that the publication of this book The 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake and Massacre of Koreans is the first stride toward revealing the truth.

This book consists of a total of three parts. In Part I, "The Historical Significance of the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake and Korea-Japan Relations," Kang Deok-sang (History Museum of J-Koreans) explained how the military, police, and civilians of Japan had come to massacre Koreans. Yamada Shoji (Rikkyo University) noted that the massacre had been committed by the Japanese government in order to suppress the movement for the independence of Korea started by Korean and Japanese socialists. He also noted that the malicious rumor about Koreans had been spread by the Japanese military and police, holding the Japanese government and citizens responsible for the incident.

Part II explores the theme "Research and Education About the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake." While the number of massacred Koreans known to the academia is around 6,600, I have discovered and presented the new material confirming a number three times as high. It is a historical record mailed by an anonymous Korean independence activist to foreign diplomatic missions in Japan, and will require a thorough investigation and analysis. Considering that the number of massacred Koreans known so far is based on the investigation done until November 28, 1923, this material is significant in that it was prepared in March 1924. Tanaka Masataka (Senshu University) studied how the descriptions of the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake in the current history textbooks had changed over the years. History teachers in the region where the incident occurred are conducting 'education to let the truth be known.' Therefore, there is a possibility for the Korean academia, when conducting field studies, to collaborate with local history teachers or researchers who study regional history. Seo Chong-chin (Northeast Asian History Foundation) has examined the contents of twenty-seven old and new versions of approved history textbooks for the primary, middle, and high schools of Japan for comparative analysis, and found that the descriptions of the incident are on the decline. This seems to reflect the recent conservative shift of the Japanese government. Kim In-deok (Cheongam College, Center for Korean-Japanese Studies) argued that while ethnic Koreans in Japan had seen improvement in their status and even been enfranchised, there was still much to be desired in the status of the history of J-Koreans as Korean history, and of the history of the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake and Massacre of Koreans as the history of J-Koreans, and stressed that related research needed to be done.

The Korean Government Should Ask its Japanese Counterpart to Release Related Materials

The Monument for the Korean Victims
of the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake,
located in Yokoamicho Park

In Part III, "The 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake and the Remaining Challenges," Chang Se-yun (Northeast Asian History Foundation) gave an overview of the newspaper articles about that incident in 1923 that had appeared in The Independent, published by the provisional government of the Republic of Korea in Shanghai, The Dong-A Ilbo, and The Chosun Ilbo. Morikawa Fumito (People's Law Office) noted that the Japanese government was legally responsible for the massacre because it was due to their attempt to turn domestic class conflict into international conflict, and direct the hatred of those struggling against the state to the people of other countries. Kim Jong-su (1923 Kanto Korea-Japan People's Coalition) introduced civil activities related to the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake based on field experience.

As described so far, The 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake and Massacre of Koreans offers a multifaceted approach to the incident concerned, and it is expected to provide basic knowledge for subsequent studies. However, it is still unknown exactly how many Koreans were massacred, where they were buried, where their burial sites were moved, and who the victims were. To find out, the Japanese government's release of related materials is needed more than anything else. But it is also necessary to start looking for the families of the Korean victims so that the victims could be identified.

In addition, there will need to be an investigation of Japanese official documents, a field investigation, and an excavation of the site. These projects will have to take place in Japan and require a large amount of time and manpower, and therefore cannot possibly be done by individual researchers. But without a comprehensive and objective investigation, any related research to be done in the Korean academia will be very limited.

To this date, ever since the mass murder of Koreans in the wake of the Great Kanto Earthquake on September 10, 1923, the Korean government has never asked its Japanese counterpart to release related materials. As a researcher, I sincerely hope that the Korean government will make such a request soon.