The was the massacre of up to 100 Korean labourers in July 1922 who were working for the Okura

zaibatsu is a Japanese language, Japanese term referring to industrial and financial vertical integration, vertically integrated business conglomerate (company), conglomerates in the Empire of Japan, whose influence and size allowed control over signi ...

at the construction site of a power plant on the

Shinano River The , known as the in its upper reaches, is the longest and widest river in Japan and the third largest by basin area (behind the Tone River and Ishikari River). It is located in northeastern Honshu, rising in the Japanese Alps and flowing g ...

Background

Shin'etsu Electric Power Inc., later absorbed into the Tokyo Electric Light Company and finally the

Tokyo Electric Power Company , also known as or TEPCO, is a Japanese electric utility holding company servicing Japan's Kantō region, Yamanashi Prefecture, and the eastern portion of Shizuoka Prefecture. This area includes Tokyo. Its headquarters are located in Uchisaiw ...

, started building hydroelectric plants in July 1922 including Nakatsu Power Plant #1 on the Nakatsu River which is a tributary of the Shinano River. The Okura zaibatsu was put in charge of constructing it. Over 1,200 construction workers were assembled, of whom over 600 were

Koreans Koreans ( South Korean: , , North Korean: , ; see names of Korea) are an East Asian ethnic group native to the Korean Peninsula. Koreans mainly live in the two Korean nation states: North Korea and South Korea (collectively and simply refe ...

. Their strategy was to employ a large number of labourers at low wages who were detained in cramped, low-grade

dormitories A dormitory (originated from the Latin word ''dormitorium'', often abbreviated to dorm) is a building primarily providing sleeping and residential quarters for large numbers of people such as boarding school, high school, college or university s ...

referred to as ''tako-beya'', or "octopus traps". Furthermore, the Okura group’s management believed that the labourers had a lazy work ethic and treated them violently.

Massacre

In July 1922, dozens of Koreans who tried to escape the construction site were gunned down or otherwise killed by the plant foremen. The workers' bodies were then dipped in

cement A cement is a binder, a chemical substance used for construction that sets, hardens, and adheres to other materials to bind them together. Cement is seldom used on its own, but rather to bind sand and gravel ( aggregate) together. Cement mix ...

, and cast into the

. The massacre was exposed when the corpses of the Koreans gradually drifted from the upper course of the river over several days after the start of the construction. This caused an uproar in the parts of the

Niigata Prefecture is a Prefectures of Japan, prefecture in the Chūbu region of Honshu of Japan. Niigata Prefecture has a population of 2,227,496 (1 July 2019) and is the List of Japanese prefectures by area, fifth-largest prefecture of Japan by geographic area ...

along the river. Tokyo’s ''

Yomiuri Shimbun The (lit. ''Reading-selling Newspaper'' or ''Selling by Reading Newspaper'') is a Japanese newspaper published in Tokyo, Osaka, Fukuoka, and other major Japanese cities. It is one of the five major newspapers in Japan; the other four are t ...

'' picked up the story on 29 July 1922. Afterwards, Japanese-Koreans formed the Board of Inquiry into the Conditions of Resident Korean Laborers, and investigated work conditions for

Zainichi Koreans comprise ethnic Koreans who have permanent residency status in Japan or who have become Japanese citizens, and whose immigration to Japan originated before 1945, or who are descendants of those immigrants. They are a group distinct from South ...

. The people who were behind the Board of Inquiry were central in the formation of the Tokyo League of Korean Labor in November 1922, and in December the Osaka League of Korean Labor was established.

Aftermath

The public uproar which this incident created was partially responsible for the development of trade unions for Korean workers in Japan.

References

Bibliography

Manabu Miyazaki was a Japanese writer, social critic and public figure. He is the author of several best-selling books in Japan. His autobiography ''Toppamono'' sold 600,000 copies and has since been translated into English. In 1985, Miyazaki was named by th ...

『不逞者』Gentosha, 1999, {{coord missing, Japan 1922 in Japan History of Niigata Prefecture History of Nagano Prefecture Japan–Korea relations Socialism in Japan Labour movement in Japan Zainichi Korean history Massacres in Japan Mass murder in 1922 July 1922 events 1922 murders in Japan

Background

Massacre

Aftermath

See also

References

Bibliography