“The Koreans were poisoned in the well”… Fake news spreads after the earthquake in Fukushima

-On the 13th, when the Richter scale of 7.3 earthquake occurred off the coast of Fukushima Prefecture, Japan, a false article appeared on the Japanese Internet, such as’A Korean or black man poisoned a well’. In the same article, a series of posts urging self-comfort, saying, “Let’s not be fooled by fake news,” were posted one after another.

The Mainichi Shimbun reported on the 14th that “the strong earthquakes in Fukushima and Miyagi Prefectures were filled with discriminatory remarks, rumors, and uncertain information on Twitter and YouTube.” In 18 minutes after the earthquake on the 13th, a netizen posted a post on Twitter saying, “I saw the Koreans burning poison in the Fukushima well!”

Mainichi said, “These remarks mimic the rumors that’the Koreans detoxified the wells’ that spread during the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake, and the same phenomenon occurs every time a disaster.” During the September 1, 1923 earthquake, the Japanese who believed in false rumors slaughtered more than 6,000 Koreans. Japanese netizens poured criticism on false articles that reminded us of the tragedy of the Great Kanto Earthquake. One netizen said, “It is the worst incitement to discrimination. I can’t forgive it for the shame of the Japanese.” Another netizen said, “This tweet is really bad, and with this fake news, I forgot that many Koreans were killed by vigilantes (a security group organized by the residents themselves) and government offices I can’t do it,” he wrote. Tokyo = correspondent Park Hyung-jun [email protected]