International Social Science Journal (Chinese Edition)

No.3, 2023

 

Commemoration: A Review of Research on the Japanese Massacre of Chinese Expatriates in Japan After the 1923 Kanto Earthquake

(Abstract)

 

Zheng Lejing

 

On September 1st, 1923, a 7.9-magnitude earthquake struck the Kanto region of Japan, and the tragedy shocked the world. But as people from various sectors in China made donations to Japan, the Japanese army exploited the chaos following the earthquake and brutally killed over 700 Chinese expatriates living in Japan. After the massacre, the central government of the Republic of China (1912-1949) dispatched specialists to investigate the case in Japan under the domestic public opinion pressure. However, due to the Japanese government’s strategy of destroying evidence and banning media coverage, this important diplomatic event gradually receded into history. The author of the article combs through the arduous journey of visionary people from China and Japan in pursuing the truth of the case and organizes the historical materials and researches of Chinese and Japanese scholars, hoping to motivate more scholars to pursue deeper research on the subject.