Japan refuses to investigate Kanto massacre as citizens bow their heads 103 years later

At a Tokyo memorial marking 103 years since the Kanto massacre, citizens bowed their heads while speakers condemned Japan’s continued refusal to investigate the killings of Koreans after the 1923 earthquake.

The ceremony took place at Yokoamicho Park in Tokyo’s Sumida Ward, beside a monument to the victims. Jeong Du-cheol, standing committee chairman of the Tokyo chapter of the General Association of Korean Residents in Japan, accused the Japanese government of continuing to insult the victims and distort history by rejecting calls to establish the facts.

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The Japanese government is once again refusing to establish the facts of the Kanto massacre of Koreans, continuing to insult the victims and distort history.

The massacre took place on Sept. 1, 1923, amid confusion after the Great Kanto Earthquake. Rumours that Koreans had poisoned wells were used as a pretext for Japanese soldiers, police and vigilantes to kill thousands of innocent Koreans and others.

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Far from apologizing and providing compensation for a state crime, the Japanese government is obsessed with military expansion and remilitarization.

Korean and Japan-based organizations have held annual commemorations at the park since 1973. They are also looking to South Korea, where a special law on investigating the Kanto earthquake massacre and restoring the victims’ honour is expected to take effect later this year.

In Japan, however, denial of the massacre continues. Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike again did not send a memorial message, continuing a pattern that has lasted 10 years since 2017. The Japanese government has repeatedly said that, within the limits of its own investigations, it has found no records establishing the facts. Kiyoshi Nishizawa, the Japanese representative of a group investigating the forced mobilization of Koreans in Tokyo, bowed and apologized for the failure to clarify the responsibility of the state and its people.

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As a Japanese person, I deeply apologize for failing, even after all these years, to clearly establish the responsibility of the state and its people who carried out the massacre at that time.