Korean Miners at Hashima Coalmines

Wild Fight with Japanese Miners

In an incident occurring on the 6th at around 2 p.m. in the rest area of the Hashima Coalmine located outside Nagasaki Port, a miner named Shigehiro Murayama (domicile: Ehime Prefecture, Kita-Uwa District, Aiji Murayama) belonging to the Chokichi Morishita Bunkhouse, half jokingly shook the chair on which a Korean miner named 許周石 (Heo Ju-seok) (age 23), who then belonged to the Chozaburo Abe Bunkhouse, was napping. Heo fell on the floor and suffered an injury to his right knee requiring three days of rest. Surprised by what had happened, Shigehiro repeatedly apologized. Seeing that the situation appeared to have been settled, Shigehiro left to return to his bunkhouse. However, on the way back, he was surrounded by 20 – 30 Koreans who had heard what had happened and wanted to avenge Heo. Shigehiro was grabbed by the arms and legs and was being dragged back to the bunkhouse of the Koreans when Chief Danji Niimi, the chief of all the miners, arrived on the scene to mediate between the two groups and to take Shigehiro back from the Koreans. But the Koreans would not relent and their numbers quickly swelled as they raised a loud rallying cry. They then grabbed Chief Niimi by the collar and pushed him around. Greatly angered by this assault, the Japanese miners rushed to the scene in large numbers, resulting in a melee between the two groups that took place in front of the gate of the manager’s office. During this melee, a miner named Tomikichi Suzuki (age 24, domicile: Kita-Matsuura District, Kacho Village) belonging to the Yazaburo Tsutsumi Bunkhouse, became engaged in a fight with a Korean miner named 金南守 (Kim Nam-su) (age 23). In the course of this fight, a Korean miner named 金永石(Kim Yeong-seok) (age 29) came to the assistance of Geum Nam Su and began battering Tomikichi. Sensing that Tomikichi was in danger, a miner named Toshiro Hodaiji (age 33, domicile: Hiroshima Prefecture, Mitsugi District, Fukata Village) came armed with a knife to the assistance of Tomikichi and used the knife to cut Nam Su on the head and Yeong Sok in the back, resulting in injuries requiring four days and five days, respectively, to heal. Meanwhile, Tomikichi used his geta [wooden clogs] to hit Nam Su in the head and elsewhere. Hearing of the incident, police officers and the executive managers of the mine came to the scene and separated the two groups and calmed the situation. As it was found that no Japanese miners had been injured, following questioning, three Japanese miners, namely Shigehiro, Toshiro and Tomikichi, were transported the next day from the Umegasaki Police Department to the prosecutors’ office on charges of assault and battery.

(July 11, Taisho 8 [1919] )