Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike to again avoid eulogizing Koreans killed in 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake

Tokyo Gov. Yuriko Koike says she will not write an address for the annual memorial ceremony held for Koreans who died in the 1923 Great Kanto Earthquake — including those murdered in the discriminatory wave of turmoil that followed — for a second consecutive year.

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

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

At a news conference Friday, Koike said she will refrain from sending a memorial address because 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 killed in the 1945 U.S. air raids on Tokyo.

The Taisho Era quake flattened and burned down a large part of Tokyo, mostly in the east, but also sparked rumors about a Korean uprising that led to massacres by vigilante groups and mobs.

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