A list of some of the Korean victims killed by the Japanese after a powerful earthquake in Japan in 1923 was found in the island country's official documents and revealed by a Japanese professor on Monday.

The list found by Takano Hiroyasu, who works at Japan's Otaru University of Commerce, includes the names and addresses of 71 Koreans killed in Japan following the Great Kanto Earthquake as well as the circumstances under which they were killed.

Some of the names coincide with those confirmed by the South Korean government late last year.

The release came eight years after the official records, believed to have been drawn up from 1924, were discovered by the professor at a warehouse in Yokoamicho Park, a memorial park in Tokyo, in 2008.

The professor, who has spent his whole life investigating the massacre, said the records could not have been revealed to the public earlier due to the two countries' diplomatic feud.

According to the records, Japanese soldiers were involved in the massacre, which took place during Japan's colonial rule over the Korean Peninsula from 1910-45.

Historians say up to 6,000 Koreans were killed in the aftermath of the magnitude 7.9-earthquake that devastated Tokyo, Yokohama and other surrounding prefectures. The massacre began as the Japanese government spread rumors of a planned riot by Koreans in a scheme to divert public attention from social unrest. (Yonhap)