Friendship and trust with Japanese as a Korean living in Japan

When the earthquake hit, I could not make myself calm and understand at all what had been happening. After the strong tremor, I remembered the historical massacre of Koreans after the Kanto earthquake (1923). In that frightening event, it is said that 6,000 Koreans were killed by Japanese civilians who believed uncertain rumors that "Koreans were putting poison into the wells" and "Koreans were setting fire to houses". Thinking of this, I was so afraid of being assaulted by Japanese people.

Seized by my fear of violence and with conviction that violence would never occur, I hurried to a safe shelter where many other community members had taken refuge. Usually, I rarely see prejudice and discrimination toward Korean people. That is because ideas about human rights are infiltrating into people more and more. However when emergencies or serious accidents occur, subconscious discrimination might suddenly emerge. Although I had a lot of Japanese friends with a lot of common sense, I felt so uneasy. One of the reasons I could keep myself cool and calm in the face of fear and chaos was by receiving a lot of information related to the earthquake and refugees. I hope future Koreans living in Japan will remember the historical events of the restoration projects in Kobe after the Hanshin-Awaji earthquake where there was corporation between Japanese and Koreans; not the events of the Kanto earthquake.