THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
August 17, 2024 at 18:08 JST
Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike (Asahi Shimbun file photo)
Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike once again will not send a eulogy to a memorial ceremony to be held Sept. 1 for Korean victims of a massacre that followed the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake, according to metropolitan government sources.
This will be the eighth consecutive year since she took office in 2017 for Koike not to send a eulogy to the annual event.
The memorial ceremony has been held annually since 1974 by a group called Niccho Kyokai (Japan-Korea association) in association with other groups.
Koike’s predecessors always sent a eulogy.
Earlier this month, the group requested Koike to do so as well.
But according to the sources, Koike faxed a letter to the group on Aug. 14, in which she conveyed her policy is to “express condolences to all those who lost their lives in the extreme turmoil” at the grand memorial service for the victims of the earthquake, which will also be held on Sept. 1.
Yasuhiko Miyagawa, chairman of the group’s Tokyo branch who also heads the ceremony organizing committee, said, “I am not satisfied.”
Miyagawa said the purpose of his group’s ceremony is “to pledge to never repeat the same mistake again,” and it is different from the grand memorial service because “the meaning of mourning is different for a natural disaster and a man-made disaster.”
Miyagawa said, “To me, it seems that (Koike is saying) that it is a double effort to send a eulogy individually (to his group’s memorial ceremony).”
The ceremony is usually held at the metropolitan Yokoamicho Park in Tokyo’s Sumida Ward, where a monument is dedicated to Koreans massacred after the quake.
Earlier this month, a group of faculty and staff of the University of Tokyo asked Koike to issue a message of condolence to Koreans massacred after the quake that is estimated to have claimed more than 105,000 lives.
In the ensuing chaos, mobs went on a killing spree following unfounded rumors that rebellious Koreans in the capital area were poisoning well water and setting fires.
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