Japan Press Weekly

Tweet

2011 March 9 - 15 [PEACE]

Koike prays for peace at Tokyo air raids memorial

A memorial service took place on March 10 to remember the more than 100,000 victims of the massive air raids on Tokyo 66 years ago.

Survivors of the Great Tokyo Air Raid and bereaved families offered flowers to the cenotaph in Taito Ward, downtown Tokyo.

Koike Akira, an independent Tokyo gubernatorial candidate supported by a progressive group, participated in the memorial. In regard to a peace memorial museum which the Tokyo Metropolitan Government had frozen the plan just before the start of its construction, Koike stated, “I will definitely resume the construction as planned, and will include it as one of my election promises.”

On the previous day, many people in another gathering offered prayers for the air-raid victims in front of the mother-child statue at Ueno Park in Taito Ward.

Introduced as a Tokyo gubernatorial candidate, Koike Akira gave a speech and said, “It is heartbreaking when I think that many children at my son’s age of six died in the fires. I will do everything in my power to defend Article 9 of the Constitution so such a tragedy will never occur again.”

He also stated that if elected, “I will bring the plan of a peace memorial museum to fruition in order to remember the Great Tokyo Air Raid and to send a message of peace to future generations.”

Japanese Communist Party member of the House of Representatives Kasai Akira also attended the gathering.