The Sinhanch'on Incident () or the April Disaster () was a massacre of

Korean Korean may refer to: People and culture * Koreans, people from the Korean peninsula or of Korean descent * Korean culture * Korean language **Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Korean **Korean dialects **See also: North–South differences in t ...

civilians by Japanese soldiers in the Korean enclave

Sinhanch'on Sinhanch'on was an Ethnic enclave, enclave of Koreans in Vladivostok that existed between 1911 and 1937, during which time the city was controlled for periods by the Russian Empire, Far Eastern Republic and finally the Soviet Union. The enclave ...

Vladivostok Vladivostok ( ; , ) is the largest city and the administrative center of Primorsky Krai and the capital of the Far Eastern Federal District of Russia. It is located around the Zolotoy Rog, Golden Horn Bay on the Sea of Japan, covering an area o ...

Far Eastern Republic The Far Eastern Republic ( rus, Дальневосточная Республика, Dal'nevostochnaya Respublika, p=dəlʲnʲɪvɐˈstotɕnəjə rʲɪsˈpublʲɪkə, links=yes; ), sometimes called the Chita Republic (, ), was a nominally indep ...

beginning on April 4, 1920. The massacre lasted for several days. It is not known how many were killed, although one estimate puts the number at several hundred.

Background

Since the late 19th century, Koreans moved into the

Russian Far East The Russian Far East ( rus, Дальний Восток России, p=ˈdalʲnʲɪj vɐˈstok rɐˈsʲiɪ) is a region in North Asia. It is the easternmost part of Russia and the Asia, Asian continent, and is coextensive with the Far Easte ...

in search of economic opportunities. After Japan colonized Korea in 1910, the enclave Sinhanch'on in Vladivostok became a hotbed for the Korean independence movement. Famous independence activist and general

Hong Beom-do General Hong Beom-do (; August 27, 1868 – October 25, 1943) was a Korean independence activist and national hero. Hong served as commander of a guerrilla unit of the Justice Army "Yibyon" within the Righteous armies and the Korean Independenc ...

used the village as his base. Other notable activists

Shin Chae-ho Shin Chae-ho, or Sin Chaeho (; December 8, 1880 – February 21, 1936), was a Korean independence activist, historian, anarchist, nationalist, and a founder of Korean nationalist historiography (민족 사학, ''minjok sahak''; sometimes shortene ...

and also stayed in the village. Various institutions, including schools and newspapers, were created for the community. When the Russian

October Revolution The October Revolution, also known as the Great October Socialist Revolution (in Historiography in the Soviet Union, Soviet historiography), October coup, Bolshevik coup, or Bolshevik revolution, was the second of Russian Revolution, two r ...

broke out in 1917, the region became destabilized. The Bolsheviks massacred Japanese civilians and attacked military institutions. As the Koreans were generally friendly to the Bolsheviks due to sharing Japan as a mutual enemy, they became a target of retaliation.

Description

Around 5 a.m. on April 4, 1920, Japanese soldiers made a surprise attack on Sinhanch'on, conducting mass arrests, killing civilians, and burning down buildings. The number of civilian deaths is unknown. Japanese records record arrests of 60 Koreans, but a Korean source records more than 300 arrests. Arrested Koreans were tortured for information about independence activists. An account of a survivor reports that Korean civilians were dragged into the office of a local Korean newspaper and kept in there. The building was then set on fire, which killed the occupants. Korean possessions were looted and a Korean school was burnt down. The attack continued until 8 a.m. After a pause, the Japanese returned around 4 p.m. and continued their attack. They attacked again on the following day. Numerous Koreans fled Sinhanch'on, with some making their way to Shanghai to join the

Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea The Korean Provisional Government (KPG), formally the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea (), was a Korean government-in-exile based in Republic of China (1912–1949), China during Korea under Japanese rule, Japanese rule over K ...

. Similar attacks on Korean civilians occurred in

Ussuriysk Ussuriysk () is a types of inhabited localities in Russia, city in Primorsky Krai, Russia, in the valley of the Razdolnaya River. The city is north of Vladivostok, the administrative center of the krai, and about from both the China–Russia bo ...

. Choe Jae-hyeong was captured there by the Japanese, and eventually executed by firing squad.

Legacy

In August 1999, a memorial was set up to the Korean independence movement in Sinhanch'on by the Institute of Koreans Abroad ().

References

{{Koryo-saram Massacres committed by Japan Anti-Korean violence Mass murder in 1920 Korean independence movement Japan–Korea relations 1920 in Russia Koryo-saram history Japanese war crimes History of Vladivostok 1920 in Korea