간토(関東)대지진과 지바(千葉)에서의 조선인 학살의 추이

Abstract

During the Japanese colonial period, there were various movements against the pressure from Japanese imperialism, such as ‘the 3·1 independence movement of 1919’ in Korea and the other movements ethnic or labor in Japan. Those movements would have made the terror and hatred against the Koreans who had lived among the common people in Japan. And it bore the massacre of Koreans shortly after the Great Kanto Earthquake in Japan. It is commonly known that the massacre was occurred in a chaotic state of the Earthquake and from the rumor resulted from the image of ‘the scary Korean people’, “Koreans are carrying out an arson attack here and there.”But there is a problem with the above idea. Those rumors were prevailed because of not only the common people but also Japanese government who spread them intentionally using telegram and so on. It is clear that the army directed by Japanese government executed the massacre moreover. As we see the type of the massacre, there was the massive and indiscriminate genocide occurred directly after the Earthquake and the selective massacre about 1 week after the Earthquake. As the example of the latter one, the military police investigated the concentration camp where Koreans were tormented, killed Koreans who seem to have undesirable ideas under the panic situation after the Earthquake. It was so awful because not only the military police killed Koreans by themselves, but also they made residents near the camp kill Koreans. These cases began to be exposed from the 1970’s by the investigation by the citizens, and also assailants started to talk about various affairs. It seems to be concealed that the leading role of the state for the massacre. Generally speaking, the Japanese government should have protected Koreans, who took forcefully Japanese nationality and were deprived Korean nationality in a unilateral way due to colonization. On the contrary, they spread out purposely the rumor and executed the massacre by themselves. The present situation is not good at all because the names of victims and the bereaved are not been clear even now.