Koreans in the aftermath of the Kanto earthquake of 1923

Abstract One of the results of the policies pursued by the Japanese colonial administration in Korea after 1910 was the migration of large numbers of Koreans to Japan. Hostility and prejudice toward these immigrants were fostered not only by the willingness of Korean workers to accept working and living conditions far below those which their Japanese counterparts would tolerate, but also by the association of Koreans with radical ideologies. This hostility was given its fullest expression immediately after the Great Kantō Earthquake of 1923 when large numbers of Koreans were put to death by members of the army, police, and local ‘vigilance associations’. An attempt is made here not only to describe the events which followed the earthquake, but also to show how these were an inevitable consequence of Japanese colonial rule.