The trauma that the earthquake and fires caused were hard to forget. As survivors re-integrated themselves into society days, weeks, and years after the disaster, differing narratives of the event arose. Japan\u2019s nationalistic tendencies to hide their wrongdoings are exposed when \u201cpersonal accounts\u201d edited by the government are compared to raw, unfiltered interviews about the disaster.<\/p>\n
Taisho Shinsai Giseki<\/strong><\/p>\n The Taisho Shinsai Giseki is a collection of 100 heartwarming personal stories from the earthquake. The Tokyo municipal government made these available to the public on the one year anniversary of the disaster. All narratives in this collection depict a positive image of the Japanese government and people -highlighting themes such as heroic rescues and selflessness. The collection is riddled with titles such as \u201cWith Wit, He Saves 300 Lives\u201d, \u201cSacrificing One\u2019s Own Life to Save Thirty Others\u201d, and \u201cAn Individual\u2019s Strength\u201d (Denawa 2005). While moving, it is important to note that the stories were carefully chosen and edited by the government. In regards to the Korean Massacre mentioned in the previous page of this website, these government published narratives hide the racist wrongdoings.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Mayor Who Sheltered the Koreans\u201d is one example of a narrative that covers up the unjust acts of the Korean Massacre. As one can tell from the title, the government emphasized themes of governmental heroism in an effort to \u201crewrite the history of the event\u201d (Denawa 2005). In this story, a Tokyo mayor, Soda Tetsuo worked with the Chief of Police to create a refuge where 1,000 Korean citizens could hide from the dangerous Jikeidan<\/em>. He brought them firewood, rice, noodles, towels, and medical supplies. Even though he knew the dangers of arguing with\u00a0Jikeidan<\/em>,\u00a0the mayor simply reasoned with the vigilance groups that Koreans are \u201cnot all bad people\u201d and they were all part of \u201can intimate community: these Koreans always bought rice from the Jikeidan<\/em>, or shared bath houses with them\u201d (Denawa 2005). As townspeople observed the mayor\u2019s dedication to protect innocent Koreans, they too began to act sympathetically.<\/p>\n This story suggests that the murders were a result of only a few radical Japanese citizens, while the majority of the population acted with the same heroism as Mayor Soda. Rather than admit that police officers idly watched and perhaps participated in the murders, this narrative portrays the government and citizens as morally just.<\/p>\n The 1990 Interviews by Osamu Hiroi<\/strong><\/p>\n In 1990, a renowned researcher of Japanese earthquakes Osamu Hiroi conducted and published 20 interviews from ordinary people about their experiences during and after the disaster. These narratives were raw and unfiltered. Therefore, while there are some stories of courage and self-sacrifice, there are also narratives that criticize the government and citizens of Japan. Unlike the Taisho Shinsai Giseki, these interviews unapologetically reveal the \u201cmorally-unjust acts committed during the Korean Massacre\u201d (Denawa 2005).<\/p>\n \u201cMy Friend in the Hihukusho\u201d is one example of a narrative that reveals the truth behind the Korean Massacre. In this interview, Massao, who was 14 in 1923 recounts how the racism he observed after the disaster was a \u201cfar more terrifying experience than the earthquake itself\u201d. After losing his family and belongings, an army medic told a badly burned Massao to rest at his nearby uncle\u2019s home. However, even in the safety of his uncle\u2019s house, Massao could not sleep because of the sounds of the Jikeidan<\/em> killing Koreans outside his window. Despite being Japanese, he was even harassed by vigilance groups because the bandages on his face aroused suspicion. The Jikeidan<\/em> stopped Massao on the streets and demanded him to read Japanese text on the spot. Massao\u2019s uncle eventually had to fight the neighborhood watch group to keep them away from his nephew (Denawa 2005).<\/p>\n This story, along with the nineteen other casually conducted interviews reveal the real stories behind the Great Kant\u014d earthquake that are left out of textbook readings and government published accounts of this disaster. Japan\u2019s reluctance to admit their ugly history is a direct reflection of their excessive nationalism and desire to have a \u201cperfect\u201d image.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The trauma that the earthquake and fires caused were hard to forget. As survivors re-integrated themselves into society days, weeks, and years after the disaster, differing narratives of the event arose. Japan\u2019s nationalistic tendencies to hide their wrongdoings are exposed when \u201cpersonal accounts\u201d edited by the government are compared to raw, unfiltered interviews about the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-54","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/history-2203-fall-2020-mlamm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/54","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/history-2203-fall-2020-mlamm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/history-2203-fall-2020-mlamm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/history-2203-fall-2020-mlamm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/history-2203-fall-2020-mlamm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/history-2203-fall-2020-mlamm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/54\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.bowdoin.edu\/history-2203-fall-2020-mlamm\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}