Tokyo gov. rejects request to attend memorial event for 1923 Korean massacre victims

TOKYO — Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike will not be attending an annual ceremony to commemorate Korean residents massacred in the wake of the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government has informed the organizer.

The Tokyo headquarters of the pro-Pyongyang General Association of Korean Residents in Japan, known as Chongryon, and other groups had requested Koike to attend the Sept. 1 ceremony and send a letter of condolence to the event. According to the metro government, it sent a response letter via fax on Aug. 14, which stated that the governor “will not be attending.” It went on to say that the governor “offers condolences to all those who fell victim to the disaster and the chaos of the aftermath” during the grand memorial service annually held on Sept. 1 to honor the victims of the 1923 disaster.

Cho Song Taek, director of the rights and welfare division at Chongryon’s Tokyo headquarters, criticized the metro government’s response, saying, “It is disrespectful to reject this request from the descendants of the many Korean victims of the massacre without clearly addressing the historical facts, and using the excuse that they will be commemorated during the ‘grand memorial service.'” Cho added, “We will continue to strongly convey our thought to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government.”

Chongryon’s Tokyo headquarters and another organization hold the “Tokyo compatriots memorial service” every year on Sept. 1 in the metropolitan Yokoamicho Park in Sumida Ward.

(Japanese original by Yoshiya Goto, Photo Group)