1923년 일본 관동대지진 시 학살된 한인과 중국인에 대한 사후조치

Abstract

This paper considers the roles which the Japanese state played in the massacres after the Great Kanto Earthquake in 1923, and probes into the truth and the compensation of victims by examining in four ways the post-earthquake management for Koreans and Chinese murdered following the earthquake. Did the state grasp that Koreans had been massacred, and what legal actions were taken against the assailants? What actions did the Japanese Government General, the colonial government in Korea, take after the earthquake with regard to victims? How did the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea in Shanghai respond to the massacres that occurred after the earthquake? And how did the Chinese government in Beijing cope with the massacre of Chinese after the earthquake? The conditions of the judicial agencies in Japan for the punishment of assailants revealed the absurdly lenient judgment in comparison with the willful murders. The massacre of Koreans after the earthquake were not accidental murders but premeditated crimes perpetrated in public space. Nevertheless, only a few assailants were found guilty, and they received minimal legal punishment. The Japanese colonial government in Korea, as the organization of colonial administration, took charge of self-defense. Through the press packet that the colonial Japanese government sent to the Japanese government in 1924, we can find that it already had chosen 830 Korean victims, and presented condolence money of 200 yen per person, for a total of 166,000 yen. This paper examines the response of the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea in Shanghai and Korean society in foreign lands through the Dongnip sinmun , a newspaper published by the provisional government in Shanghai. From this, it was found that the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea received information regarding the massacre of Koreans after the earthquake in many ways. The provisional government and Korean society in Shanghai responded in various ways, for example, sending a written protest to Japan and holding a memorial service for Korean victims and a general meeting to register the protest of Korean society, when they learned of the massacre of many Koreans after the earthquake. This collective protest movement could not be seen in other regions at the time. There were many differences between the response of the Beijing government and the Japanese government toward the massacre of Chinese. In China, the anger of Japanese became excited after October 1923, when many Chinese who witnessed the massacre of Chinese or were wounded by the military, police, and civil militia in Tokyo and Yokohama returned home through Shanghai harbor. As the diplomatic service of the Beijing government demanded compensation and reprimanded the Japanese government for this matter, the Japanese government could not help responding according to diplomatic rules. At that time, as the Chinese had an effective government, there were many differences in post-earthquake management from Koreans who did not have a government.