Tokyo’s Koike Not to Write Eulogy for Koreans Killed in 1923 Quake

August 12, 2018

Tokyo- Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike said Friday she will not send a memorial address for an annual ceremony to mourn Koreans who died in the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake, including those murdered in the turmoil after the quake, for the second consecutive year.

The memorial service is held on Sept. 1 every year at a metropolitan park in Tokyo's Sumida Ward.

Following the footsteps of her predecessors, including Shintaro Ishihara, Koike wrote a eulogy for the event in her first year as governor in 2016. But she declined to do so last year.

At a press conference on Friday, Koike said she will refrain from sending a memorial address again this year, as she plans to attend a Buddhist memorial service in the same park for all quake victims on Sept. 1 and a similar event there on March 10 for those who were killed in the 1945 U.S. air raid on Tokyo.

The quake in the Taisho period not only flattened and burned down a big portion of Tokyo particularly its eastern area, including the ward, but sparked rumors about an uprising by Koreans, resulting in massacres of those people by vigilante groups and mobs. Jiji Press