Photo/Illutration Yutaka Okawa displays a letter of gratitude that Koreans presented to Tsunekichi Okawa, his grandfather, in Yokohama. (Shiro Maeda)

Tsunekichi Okawa was a police officer credited with sheltering ethnic Koreans from mob madness in Yokohama following the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake as rumors swept the disaster areas that they had poisoned water wells, resulting in a massacre.

Okawa, the Tsurumi police station chief, took Koreans and others gathered at a temple to his police station and protected them from rampaging residents on Sept. 3, two days after the quake, according to a record compiled in 1926 by the prefectural police department.

While more than 1,000 angry residents surrounded the police station, Okawa negotiated with influential local figures and arranged for the group to be evacuated by ship, the record states.

The magnitude-7.9 earthquake struck the Kanto region on Sept. 1, 1923, claiming more than 100,000 lives.

I learned about Okawa’s actions in detail when I visited an exhibition organized by a local history group at the Tsurumi ward office.

Copies of documents collected at public archives and elsewhere made clear there was an air of imminent violence among vigilantes as Okawa faced them.

The exhibition explained the historical facts in an objective manner, instead of portraying Okawa as a hero. It allowed me to imagine the situation immediately after the earthquake.

It surprised me there was someone like him when so many ordinary people and those in authority were involved in the massacre.

A cenotaph honoring Okawa stands at a temple in Tsurumi Ward. It was erected after his death by Koreans whose lives he saved.

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The cenotaph in honor of Tsunekichi Okawa, erected by Koreans he saved, stands at a temple in Yokohama’s Tsurumi Ward. (Shiro Maeda)

The inscription says Okawa admonished the rioters for their misconduct, and in doing so saved the lives of more than 300 people.

It is said that local students sometimes visit the cenotaph as part of their studies about the history of the area.

Efforts to face up to the negative legacy of the event by learning about it and handing down its lessons are in stark contrast to the government’s position on the matter. It has repeatedly said that no records have been found to establish the facts of the massacre of Koreans.

Yutaka Okawa, Okawa’s grandson, was invited for the first time to a memorial ceremony for victims held in Tokyo on Sept. 1 by the Korean Residents Union in Japan.

Okawa died in 1940 at the age of 63 after retiring from police service at 50.

Although Yutaka was born after his grandfather died, he has heard all about what he did.

Asked why he thought his grandfather was able to deal with the incident so calmly in the post-quake terror, Yutaka said it was probably because he had seen many local Korean people working earnestly.

He keeps a letter of gratitude at his home that Koreans presented to Okawa a year after the quake.

When I left his home after seeing the letter, Yutaka said: “It is the responsibility of the government and police to protect people’s lives. I think my grandfather just did what he was supposed to do, not something told as a touching story.”

I learned the importance of passing down the memories of an event, along with the historical background, in a level-headed manner without worshipping someone simply as a hero.

Bearing that importance in mind, I strongly believe that what Okawa did should be handed down for generations to come.

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Shiro Maeda, an Asahi Shimbun editorial writer on city news (The Asahi Shimbun)

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