Kinomoto Incident

The Kinomoto Incident (木本事件, Kinomoto jiken), or the Mie Prefecture Korean Murder Incident (미에현 조선인 학살사건; 三重縣 朝鮮人 虐殺事件) refers to the lynching and murders of two ethnic Koreans in Japan that took place in Kinomoto-chō [ja], Minamimuro District, Mie Prefecture, Empire of Japan on January 3, 1926.

A rumor began circulating amongst the Japanese townspeople that the Koreans were coming for revenge with dynamite (from the tunnel construction).

[2] Around 5 p.m., Yi Ki-yun (이기윤; 李基允; aged 25) reportedly ran in the opposite direction of the tunnel, where other workers and his family were, in order to give them the chance to escape.

[4] They were put in the graveyard of the local temple Gokuraku-ji (極楽寺), covered with straw mats, and abandoned for several days.

[5] They were eventually buried, and four-character Dharma names (戒名) were created for them and written on their tombstones (春雪信士 and 秋相信士).

[2] In the immediate aftermath, the attackers explained to the local police that the Koreans had been unruly and stole food and goods.

[2][5] On the other hand, local Kinomoto organizations provided living expenses and legal fees for the Japanese people on trial.

Beginning around the late 1980s, a local civic group began advocating for the creation of a memorial to the deceased Koreans.

[1] Adachi Tomonori (足立知典), head of the local temple Gokuraku-ji, had grown up in Kinomoto-chō and had never heard of the incident until he stumbled upon it during unrelated research.