Scholars, activists urge Japan to confront history at Tokyo event marking 1923 earthquake massacre

A press conference marking the 103rd anniversary of the massacre following the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake was held in Tokyo on Friday, with participants calling for Japan to confront its history and avoid repeating the mistakes of the past.

Takakage Fujita, secretary-general of the Association for Inheriting and Propagating the Murayama Statement, said that 103 years ago, following the Great Kanto Earthquake, many Chinese residents in Japan and people from the Korean Peninsula were unjustly killed.

He said it was deeply regrettable that the current Japanese government has avoided confronting the massacre and that accountability for what happened has still not been seriously pursued.

Suh Sung, a professor at South Korea's Woosuk University, said uncovering the truth about human rights violations is meant to curb hate speech and discrimination prevalent in today's society and build a more just society for future generations.

Lin Boyao, a member of a group commemorating Chinese victims of the Great Kanto Earthquake massacre, told Xinhua that xenophobic sentiment is once again on the rise in Japanese society and that Japan should face the issue squarely, seriously reflect on the past, apologize to the victims and make clear that such a tragedy must never happen again.

On September 1, 1923, a magnitude-7.9 earthquake struck Japan's Kanto area, resulting in over 140,000 casualties. In the ensuing chaos, Japanese militarist mobs fanned xenophobic sentiment and fabricated pretexts to incite violence against Chinese and Korean laborers. Over 750 Chinese laborers and students, as well as more than 6,000 Korean laborers living in Japan, were brutally killed.

In 1924, Japanese authorities formulated a compensation plan for the victims of the massacre, but it remains unfulfilled to date.

(Cover: A man prays at a monument dedicated to Koreans who were massacred following the Great Kanto Earthquake at Yokoamicho Park in Tokyo, Japan, August 6, 2023. /VCG)