For You: Translation of a poem by Ishikawa Itsuko

Itsuko Ishikawa’s ‘For You’ reflects on the Kantō Massacre of 1923, in which more than 6,000 Korean residents of Japan were murdered. In the days following the Great Kantō Earthquake, fires proliferated, water and food supplies were cut off, and many newspapers stopped printing. Amid the chaos, rumours were circulated that Korean residents were rioting and planning terrorist attacks by arson and the poisoning of wells. Police, army and vigilante groups carried out lynchings and mass executions of those they identified as Korean. In its aftermath, the massacre was concealed by the Japanese government, with the nature of the events and the numbers of dead unclear.