Japanese Treatment of Koreans in the 1920s and 30s

The resentment that Koreans have for the Japanese seems to go beyond the colonization of the Korean Peninsula from 1910 to 1945. Perhaps it also extends to the treatment of Koreans in Japan?

According to Apichai Shipper, Koreans started working in Japanese factories, mines and construction sites during the 1920s and 1930s, and most of them came from the depressed rural areas of southern Korea.

"Japanese people saw them as tough, rough, wild, unwashed, and ignorant of Japanese language and culture. Officials from both the Home Ministry and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs asserted in their reports that Koreans were "lazy" and "used their extra money for gambling and sake. One report attributed the increase in the crime rate to the "bad habits and vices" of the Koreans, claiming Koreans to be "very wild and deeply emotional; and as a result, they like to argue and fight," Shipper wrote. (Apichai W. Shipper, Criminals or Victims? The Politics of Illegal Foreigners in Japan, Journal of Japanese Studies 31:2 2005)

Some officials even worried that certain Koreans were harboring ill will toward Japan and its citizens. These officials spread rumors about Koreans in Japan following the Great Kanto Earthquake on 1 September 1923, claiming that Koreans were setting fires, looting, and poisoning wells in a planned attack on the Japanese.

The Tokyo police made matters worse by authorizing a radio broadcast that warned Japanese against Koreans, who "were burning houses, killing people, and stealing money and property."

On September 3, 1923, the Home Ministry sent a telegram to all subordinate government units in Japan stating that Koreans had started fires and carried bombs as part of a Korean plot against the Japanese during the confusion following the earthquake.

The Ministry also instructed local authorities to take strong measures to prevent Korean subversion in their areas. It organized vigilante corps, comprising both army reservists and civilian volunteers, to search the streets for Koreans. At least 2,000 Koreans died at the hands of these vigilantes.

Shipper added: "It turned out that the rumors were false, and the government, particularly the Home Ministry, knew this. Here, government officials were indirectly responsible for these violent acts of hatred by Japanese citizens against innocent Koreans."

Yet another piece of evidence to explain why there is so much bad blood between the two countries.