October 22, 2023

The Japanese Communist Party on October 21 held a memorial ceremony at a cemetery in Tokyo’s Hachioji City for 207 JCP activists who died over the past year, in addition to the four female JCP activists whose determined efforts to oppose war in the wartime period were highlighted in the latest JCP history book.

After a minute of silence in respect, JCP Vice Chair Yamashita Yoshiki on behalf of the JCP Central Committee delivered a memorial address. Referring to the party history book “100 Years of the Japanese Communist Party”, he said that it is necessary to pass down to future generations the history of the JCP’s dauntless spirit to pursue social progress inherited from the party predecessors’ desperate efforts during the wartime suppression.

The wife of the late Munakata Takashi, a member of the JCP Kanagawa Prefectural Committee, spoke on behalf of the families of the deceased. She recalled that with a fight against his unfair dismissal, he decided to become a full-time JCP official and devoted himself to party activities. She said, “Togher with my fellow JCP members, I’ll follow in my husband’s footsteps.”

The late Yanagase Tadashi was an Osaka Prefectural assemblyperson. His daughter, Sugimoto Kazu, praised her father for his hard work as an assemblyperson for four terms (16 years), working to reduce people’s hardships and realize a society where everyone can live without anxieties.

The JCP will send copies of the ceremony recorded on DVD to the bereaved families.