Does anyone know why the Amakasu Incident , where police murdered anarchists after a earthquake is not better known ?

Submitted by Method of Freedom on March 28, 2017

an essay about the incident is in this link https://rekolektiv.wordpress.com/essays/historical-essays/how-to-strangle-anarchists/

Steven.

7 years ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Steven. on March 28, 2017

Well, I would say that it's probably the most well-known incident related to the Japanese anarchist movement, however that's not really saying much as not much to do with the Japanese anarchist movement is widely known at all. Basically because the anarchist movement was pretty much eradicated from Japan.

That's a good article though, it would be great if you were able to post that up to our history section as well. So at least we can get it out to more people!

Serge Forward

7 years ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by Serge Forward on March 28, 2017

I knew about it because of John Crump's pamphlet (published by the AF) and because of my acquaintance over the years with several Japanese comrades. The pamphlet is now out of print.

petey

7 years ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by petey on March 28, 2017

that's a strange question, like you're blaming "the media".

radicalgraffiti

7 years ago

In reply to by libcom.org

Submitted by radicalgraffiti on March 28, 2017

this was connected with the massacre of thousands of Koreans

https://library.brown.edu/cds/kanto/denewa.html

In what came to be known as the Korean Massacre, 6,000 Koreans living in Japan and several hundred Chinese and Japanese mistaken for Koreans, were indiscriminately murdered by the Japanese. The massacres were due at least in part to false rumors that the Koreans were planning an uprising. False rumors that the Koreans were: setting fires, poisoning wells, raping and looting, and mobilizing an army first emerged in the Yokohama and Kawasaki areas. When and why did such rumors begin to circulate? It is said that the rumors started mid-afternoon of September 1, spreading across the nation by September 4, reaching even the northernmost island of Hokkaido. The people's panic manifested itself through gradual belief in these false rumors. Psychiatrists have suggested that the minority Koreans became the target for feelings of anger the Japanese felt against the injustice of fate and being victims of the earthquake and fires. Moreover, prejudice and hostility the Japanese populace had toward Koreans, especially since Japan's colonization of Korea in 1910, could only explain such extreme measures taken during the massacre though the Japanese government did not want to admit it. In order to guard against "possible attack," local vigilante groups, jikeidan, with the support of the government, police, and military stationed themselves in neighborhoods and refugee camps, killing "lawless Koreans" on the spot with Japanese swords and bamboo poles. The frenzy subsided September 4, when the police distributed 30,000 leaflets that told vigilante groups that due to "vigorous vigilance" there was no longer any need to "oppress them (the Koreans) unlawfully or to inflict any violence upon them." Only two days earlier, however, the same police headed by, Goto Fumio, Chief of the Bureau of Police affairs, sent a note to every Prefectural Governor to "take firm measures in dealing with the activities of Koreans." Thus the police indirectly allowed vigilante groups to kill the Koreans giving jikeidan groups the justification that they were protecting the rest of the community.