Association of Korean Victims of Forcible Drafting and Their Bereaved Families Issues Press Statemen

A spokesman for the Association of Korean Victims of Forcible Drafting and Their Bereaved Families gave a statement to media on September 1 under the title "We Will Make Japan Pay Dear for Its Crimes" on the lapse of 98 years from the shuddering genocide of Koreans in Japan committed by the Japanese imperialists with the great Kanto earthquake as a momentum.

The statement said:

There occurred a strong earthquake and big fire at the same time in and around Tokyo at noon of September 1, 1923, destroying hundreds of thousands of houses and buildings and claiming lots of people in an instant. The heinous Japanese imperialists hatched a plot to sacrifice innocent Japan-resident Koreans in a bid to soothe down the uncontrollable social unrest and fear and the confusion and discontent of the victims.

They spread a false rumour of "riot of Koreans", saying that the Koreans were setting fire and poisoning the wells. They sent the army, police and vigilantes to kill more than 23,000 Koreans in Japan in barbarous ways beyond human imagination in a little over 10 days.

Nearly one century has passed since then. But the Japanese authorities have never clarified the truth behind the incident nor felt the sense of guilt and responsibility.

On the contrary, they are busy denying and covering up their past crimes and inciting extreme chauvinism against the Korean nation throughout the Japanese society with smearing campaign against the DPRK. They also instigate the right-wing reactionaries to disturb memorial services for the Korean victims killed during the great Kanto earthquake. Not content with it they resort to all sorts of wrongdoings for removing the monument to the memory of Korean victims.

The Japanese authorities should clarify the truth behind the massacres of Koreans and make a thorough apology and compensation, bearing in mind that they can never justify or cover up their blood-stained past history, the statement stressed.