掲載新聞The Japan Times
Sunday, February 19, 1995 U.N. report slams violations of rights
SURVIVORS AID EACH OTHER
Neighbors united to face present, future
By MITSUKO NASHIMA
Staff writer
KOBE − The catastrophic quake of Jan. 17 revived the nightmare of the Great Kanto Earthquake of 1923, but Koreans who have lived in Japan for generations have seen clear differences between the two disasters.
As the skies grew overcast last Sunday, the quake-rav-aged city anticipated its first heavy rain in three weeks. What might have been a gloomy atmosphere, however, san lightened as laughter and cheerful voices echoed among evacuees savoring hot and spicy Korean delicacies at Kagura Elementary School in Nagata Ward.
The neighborhood is home to a large portion of the city’s Korean community, and Koreans and Japanese have lived and worked here together for generations. And now, they are sharing the school as a temporary shelter.
A group of volunteers − Koreans, Japanese and people of other nationalities − prepared enough traditional Koeran cuisine to feed well over 1,00 people.
“This is great. What’s this?” asked a Japanese evacuee, pointing at a bowl of meat and vegetable soup with a piece of rice cake.
“It’s ‘tokk’, a Korean-style soup,” a volunteer answered.
Such a scene would have been unimaginable 72 years ago.
Shortly before noon on Sept. 1,1923, a powerful quake devastated the southern Kanto region, triggering blazes that raged through much of Tokyo and its surrounding areas.
But this was not the end of the tragedy. Thousands of survivors, mainly Koreans, are believed to have been slain after rumors circulated that they were staging riots.
“I feared something awful might happen … But as it turned out I didn’t have to worry”, said Im Higu Ja, a member of an Osaka-based association to promote ethnic education.
“I’m glad to see that both Koreans and Japanese are helping each other”, she said.
Chung Byong Hoon, a member of another Osaka-based group, the Korea Volunteer Association, said that the sense of sharing is deeper in Nagata Ward, where Koreans and Japanese live and work together, than in other communities.
“Human relations are what counts when you lose your house and everything else. As long as you have good friends around to help each other, you can carry on even when you are left with noting”, said Chung, who himself lost his home in Nishinomiya, Hyogo
