By Yasushi Gunji,
On Sept. 2, 1923, widespread fires caused by the Great Kanto Earthquake the previous day raged out of control in Tokyo.
On that day, as Gonbei Yamamoto was preparing to install his cabinet as the new prime minister, acting premier Kosai Uchida imposed martial law in central parts of the capital and other areas as panic and false rumors of a "Korean riot" spread, which would lead to the massacre of ethnic Koreans and others.
It was only the second time martial law had been declared in Japan, the first time being in 1905 following riots in Tokyo over the terms of a treaty ending the Russo-Japanese war.
Miekichi Suzuki, a writer of children's stories, described "gigantic red clouds" rolling through the sky that day. At dawn, writer Kido Okamoto witnessed people in a state of utter panic on a main boulevard of Tokyo's Kojimachi district.
"Automobiles sped, bicycles dashed...horses galloped, lanterns swayed," Suzuki wrote.
Philosopher Tetsuro Watsuji heard the rumors the same day that Koreans were taking advantage of the chaos to commit arson and other crimes. Amid the mass hysteria, "we were quickly infected by panic. All night long, I heard the sounds of people screaming and chasing others," Watsuji wrote.
Writer Toson Shimazaki heard similar accounts near his home in Iigura, Tokyo.
According to army records a cavalryman shot and killed a Korean who was "acting suspiciously" in Minami-Gyotoku village, currently part of Ichikawa city, Chiba Prefecture on that day.
And in Azabu, Tokyo, an infantryman stabbed a man to death who was brandishing a Japanese sword. The man turned out to be a Japanese who was mistakenly identified as Korean.
Yamamoto formed a cabinet quickly and the ceremony of imperial investiture was held shortly after 7 p.m. on Sept. 2. Martial law was extended to all of Tokyo and Kanagawa Prefecture the following day, and Saitama and Chiba prefectures on Sept. 4. It was not lifted until Nov. 15.
The massacre of Koreans, with some estimates putting the number of victims at over 6,000, had begun. Some 700 Chinese were also believed to be killed during the mob violence.
The earthquake, which destroyed the metropolitan area and killed approximately 105,000 people, was the first major test of modern Japan since the Meiji era (1868-1912), and the imposition of martial law and massacre of Koreans and Chinese left a dark stain on a general trend toward greater liberalism in Japanese society, known as the Taisho democracy, which ended in 1926.
The Ministry of the Interior sent a cable to regional directors on Sept. 3 effectively declaring the false rumors about the behavior of Koreans to be true.
Sent under the name of Fumio Goto, director general of the ministry's Police Affairs Bureau, the cable stated, "Taking advantage of the earthquake, Koreans are setting fires in various places, and...in Tokyo there are those who possess bombs, pour oil, and set fires." It went on to urge the regional directors to "strictly control the behavior" of Koreans.
As more rumors spread, vigilante mobs armed with Japanese swords and other weapons were organized in Tokyo and the surrounding areas. The victims of the military, police, and vigilante violence were not only Koreans, but also Chinese and misidentified Japanese.
Shimazaki recalled his stay in Paris during World War I when he heard rumors that "the enemy was coming to attack." At the time, Parisians, fearing enemy spies, destroyed German-owned stores. After the Kanto earthquake, he noted, "Instead of spies, 'ghosts' popped up in Tokyo." Ghosts were phantom enemies created by people's fear.
The ministry telegram was taken up by the House of Councillors Legal Affairs Committee in June this year. The government acknowledged the existence of the official document but avoided declaring responsibility for the massacre of Koreans.
Along with the Kanto massacres, other high-profile incidents following the Kanto quake included the Kameido incident, in which socialists were secretly killed, and the abduction and murder of anarchist Sakae Osugi and others in the Amakasu Incident.
On Sept. 6, nine itinerant peddlers who were mistakenly identified as Koreans were murdered in what became known as the Fukuda village incident in Chiba Prefecture. The victims, who belonged to members of the "buraku" outcast community, included a toddler and a pregnant woman.
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