Japan Press Weekly

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2022 March 9 - 15 [SOCIAL ISSUES]

JCP Koike attends memorial ceremony for victims of massive 1945 Tokyo air raid

Japanese Communist Party Secretariat Head Koike Akira on March 10 attended an annual ceremony held in Tokyo’s Taito Ward to remember the more than 100,000 victims of the massive Tokyo air raid by the U.S. forces that took place on this day 77 years ago.

Delivering a speech, Koike pointed out that the 1945 Tokyo air raid was an indiscriminate bombing of residential areas by the U.S. in violation of international law.

Koike said, “The ongoing invasion of Ukraine by Russia is also a violation of international law.” Doctor-turned lawmaker Koike said, “I feel anger at Russia bombing even a maternity and children’s hospital in Ukraine. The 21st century world should not tolerate Russia’s aggression against Ukraine.”

In addition, he referred to an attempt by Japanese politicians to use Russia’s Ukraine offensive to claim the need to revise the war-renouncing Japanese Constitution, legitimize the enemy base attack capability, and introduce a “nuclear sharing” system in Japan.

Koike said, “Let us work to pass down stories of the Tokyo air raid to future generations, protect the pacifist Article 9 of the Constitution, and make Japan a nation proclaiming to the international community that Japan will not initiate war again.”

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On the day, a cross-party lawmakers’ group working to establish legislation which provides compensation to all air raid victims held its general assembly in the Dietmembers’ office building.

According to the lawmakers’ group, a new law, if enacted, will distribute a flat sum of 500,000 yen in compensation to civilian war victims who became disabled physically or mentally due to U.S. air raids and the Battle of Okinawa during the war.

JCP member of the House of Representatives Kasai Akira who also serves as vice chair of the parliamentarians’ group said, “77 years have passed since the massive and indiscriminate Tokyo air raid, but survivors are still suffering. With the establishment of the relief law, the government should express its determination to never repeat the horrors of war again. I’ll work hard to achieve this.”