Fukushima nuclear disaster and water release

Rumours after 2011 Japan earthquake pinned blame on Chinese, Koreans for crimes that didn’t happen

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Chinese nationals wait to take buses provided by the Chinese embassy to be evacuated from the devastated city of Sendai, Miyagi prefecture after the 2011 earthquake and tsunami disasters. File photo: AFP

Published: 6:45pm, 15 Mar 2017Updated: 11:33am, 16 Mar 2017

More than 44 per cent of Japanese people taking part in a study after the 2011 Japan earthquake and tsunami said they believed rumours that foreigners committed crimes in the aftermath of the disaster.

Residents of three wards of Sendai city hardest hit by the disaster, which claimed more than 18,000 lives, were interviewed by a professor at Tohoko Gakuin University, the Mainichi newspaper reported.

Of the 770 people interviewed, 51.6 per cent said they had heard rumours of crimes being committed by foreigners in areas affected by the disaster. Of that total, 86.2 per cent said they believed the rumours, representing 44.5 per cent of all participants in the study.

Some 97 per cent of those who had heard the rumours said they had heard of foreigners looting, more than 24 per cent claimed to have been told that foreigners had caused “damage to corpses,” while more than 19 per cent said they believed allegations that foreigners had carried out rapes and assaults.

People queue for supplies before they run out at a supermarket in Fukushima, two days after a massive earthquake and tsunami hit the region in 2011. File photo: AFP

Chinese nationals bore the brunt of the blame, accounting for 63 per cent of the rumoured crimes, followed by Koreans, with 24.9 per cent.