Some one had started a rumour that the Koreans in Tokio had rebelled and that they had started the 22 simultaneous fires which were still doing their work of destruction. Some one had spread a story that Koreans were poisoning wells and were throwing kerosene and matches into buildings which still stood. Some one had said that the Koreans intended to besiege the Imperial Hotel. Whether these rumours were started by evil-minded individuals or were a reaction ta the madness of despair, it is difficult to know. The rumours spread, The masses were frightened. Mob psychology displayed its usual characteristics. The cooks, boys, waiters and attendants of the hotel armed themselves with poles and knives to guard the building against Koreans. Every moment there would be an outcry somewhere, A Korean had been caught and was being dragged off to court-martial. Young men organized themselves into voluntary bands to guard their streets against Koreans and wherever one went these bands made a complete examination of persons and packages to make certain against Koreans and against bombs.' This anti-Korean agitation was cruel, murderously cruel and it lasted for two days until the military stamped it out. Never will it be known how this agitation originated or what has been the full extent of the dama, done. But this must be made clear: Men were caught with kerosene oil in tea-pots. It is uncertain, however, whether they were Japanese Radicals or Koreans.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.