September 1923

In 1923, Tomokazu Sawada left Gyojo (present-day Seoul) under Japanese rule, where he was a teacher, and returned to his hometown, Fukuda Village, Chiba Prefecture, with his wife Shizuko. Sawada was a witness to the massacre committed by the Japanese army in Korea, but he hid that fact from Shizuko as well. On September 1st of that year, a big earthquake hit the Kanto region. On September 6, when many people were in chaos and rumors were flying, a group of 15 peddlers led by Shinsuke Numabe, who had come from Kagawa to Kanto, headed to the Tone River ferry to head to their next destination. A misunderstanding that began as a small argument between Numabe and the ferryman ignited the collective psychology of the excited villagers, resulting in a massacre that would later be buried in history.