The Massacre of Koreans in Yokohama in the Aftermath of the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923

The kanto massacre, which entailed the widespread killing of Korean residents in the after-math of Japan's Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923, was largely a product of rumor. This article examines the nature of these rumors and how they were officially sanctioned and promoted in the form of orders transmitted through police channels to law enforcement officers and to the general public. These orders calling for watchfulness effectively rallied police and vigilantes in Yokohama to violence immediately following the earthquake. Contrary to the official narrative, which characterized the killings as an outbreak of mob rule sparked by the spread of "wild rumors" among residents, I argue that the rumors of Korean attackers galvanized and united Japanese police and vigilantes—who then conducted joint operations to massacre Koreans—and that they also served as a pretext for so-called protective custody operations, whose true aim was to prevent "Korean malcontents" from organizing to commit acts of dissent against the Japanese state.