A great earthquake hit the Kanto area on the morning of September 1, 1923.

The area was engulfed in flames and everything devastated in a twinkling.

The inhabitants in the afflicted areas strongly protested to the government against failing to take relief measures.

Confused by this, the Japanese authorities took the earthquake as an opportunity to alleviate their antipathy to the government by diverting their discontent to the Koreans and to repress and slay the Korean residents in Japan.

In order to make the Japanese "understand necessity and lawfulness" for massacre of Koreans, they concocted the false rumors that the Koreans were planning to "revolt", defined the Koreans as "enemy" and ordered to mercilessly slay them.

In accordance with the murderous directive of the authorities the Japanese brutes oppressed and killed Koreans right and left by cruel methods with various lethal weapons such as bamboo spear, club and iron hook.

They set up checkpoints everywhere to let passers-by pronounce difficult Japanese words and mercilessly slew on the spot those who were recognized to be Koreans.

They bound and brought groups of Koreans each being more than ten on a bank and shot them to death with newly made machine-guns under the pretext of "performance test" and burnt wire-bound Koreans to death.

The number of the Koreans slaughtered at that time reached over 23,000.

Japan must liquidate at an early date the past crimes of the Japanese imperialists who imposed death and sufferings upon the innocent Koreans, clearly aware that it can neither erase nor cover up their crimes no matter how many years have passed.