THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
September 1, 2025 at 18:13 JST
Memorial events were held in the greater Tokyo metropolitan area on Sept. 1 to pray for the victims of the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake and ethnic Koreans massacred as a result of unfounded rumors falsely accusing them of looting and arson.
The temblor and subsequent fires left more than 105,000 people dead or missing.
Crown Prince Fumihito and Crown Princess Kiko were among the 200 or so people who attended the ceremony held at the Tokyo Metropolitan Memorial Hall in Sumida Ward’s Yokoamicho Park.
At a separate ceremony held in the same park for Korean victims, writer Ushio Fukazawa read out a message.
Fukazawa is ethnically Korean and recalled how her grandfather narrowly escaped death in Shinagawa Ward 102 years ago at the hands of vigilantes during the turmoil in the wake of the earthquake.
The writer said she wanted to pray for those who were killed as a way of remembering that massacres should never be allowed to recur. Fukazawa was recently targeted in a hate speech column that ran in the weekly magazine Shukan Shincho published by Shinchosha Publishing Co.
About 500 people took part in the ceremony where women showed the deepest respect for the Korean victims in front of a memorial by dipping into traditional bows stemming from the Korean Peninsula.
A memorial ceremony was held at Josenji temple in Saitama city that houses a monument to the Korean victims of the massacre.
A 71-year-old, second-generation ethnic Korean woman said she comes to the ceremony every year. She added that she found similarities to what happened to Koreans over a century ago and the speeches made during the July Upper House election campaign that were considered by many to be xenophobic.
One cause of the massacre in 1923 is said to be unsubstantiated rumors that Koreans were poisoning wells.
Touching upon the campaign speeches that said foreigners in Japan were making life more difficult, the woman said, “I feel a similar pattern. I don’t think it is something that occurred in the past.”
A memorial ceremony sponsored by the Honjo city government in Saitama Prefecture was held at a local cemetery.
Ethnic Koreans were killed at a local police station there in 1923.
At the Sept. 1 ceremony, Mayor Shinge Yoshida said, “Learning from a past tragedy, this ceremony is a pledge to build a local community of safety and peace of mind that is truly resilient during natural disasters and where people can trust each other.”
Representatives of organizations affiliated with the two Koreas also attended, with one official saying the prayers for the victims also included a pledge to never repeat the past wrongs.
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Visitors offer flowers on Sept. 1 at a monument in Sumida Ward’s Yokoamicho Park for ethnic Koreas killed over a century ago following the Great Kanto Earthquake. (Shota Tomonaga)
