Fifteen poor vendors, of medicine and daily goods, who own no land or property, travel from place to place in search of their bread. Shortly after arriving at Fukudamura (Fukuda Village) in Chiba prefecture, their final destination, the Great Kanto Earthquake strikes just before noon on 1 September 1923, causing unprecedented turmoil. Rumors spread around the region that Koreans have been poisoning wells and attacking the Japanese. The military and police do not deny the rumors and actively encourage many citizens to believe them. Vigilante groups, mainly made up of local soldiers, organize in various places. Amid this chaos, the vendors remain in the village. Since the vendors only speak their own local dialect and cannot communicate well with the villagers, they are mistaken for Koreans during a minor argument. This leads to the Fukudamura Incident, in which the villagers slaughter nine out of the 15 vendors. What made the villagers, usually good people, fathers and mothers, behave in such a way and attack the innocent? The film painstakingly depicts the suspicion and discrimination towards Koreans that has taken root in Japan; attitudes underpinned by fear and collective pressure.
