TOKYO GOVERNOR DISMISSES 1923 MASSACRE

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This September will mark 100 years since some 6,000 ethnic Koreans were massacred in Japan after the Great Kanto Earthquake struck in the metropolitan region. Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike, who has been refusing to admit to such historic fact, once again said they "Can’t know the facts" regarding the massacre, denying any kind of responsibility.

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The Great Kanto Earthquake struck the heart of Japan's metropolitan region including Tokyo in September 1923. At the time, some 6,000 ethnic Koreans were massacred amid vicious rumors that they were poisoning village wells and staging riots. During a regular meeting of the Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly on Tuesday. An Assembly member argued the massacre was a verified fact and asked Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike whether she acknowledged it happened.

[Soundbite] Toya Etsuko(Tokyo Metropolitan Assembly) : "It is recorded that the Korean massacre is an indelible stain. Do you agree? Do you still believe that record needs to be revised?"

The official also asked her to resume sending memorial statements to an annual ceremony commemorating the Korean victims of the massacre. The governor responded by saying that they don't yet know the historical facts.

[Soundbite] Yuriko Koike(Tokyo Governor) : "Various things are written as historical facts about the Kanto earthquake. Historians should determine what is true."

The top Tokyo official again basically denied the massacre even happened. Back in 2017, the right-leaning governor who pays respects at the controversial Yasukuni Shrine refused to recognize the Japanese government's liability related to the event. Since 1974, Tokyo governors have sent letters to the annual ceremony memorializing the Korean victims. Koike did so in her first year in office in 2016 as her predecessors had done. But from the following year, she stopped doing it.

[Soundbite] Yuriko Koike(Tokyo Governor(2017)) : "As governor, I expressed condolences to everyone who died during the Kanto earthquake. That’s all."

Japan turns a blind eye to the massacre even 100 years after the Kanto Earthquake. The governor's words and actions which go beyond her personal belief are viewed as a testament to Tokyo's refusal to accept historical facts when such facts are disadvantageous to the country.