March 8, 2015
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2015 March 4 - 10 [SOCIAL ISSUES]
Victims of US air raids in rally call for government relief measures |
Tokyo University Professor Takahashi Tetsuya in the rally cited the phrase used in the Murayama Statement, “mistaken national policy” and said that the government should shoulder responsibility for its past “mistaken national policy” without shifting its gaze from historical facts and the extensive war damage and deaths.
Survivors and bereaved families of the massive U.S. air strikes on Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya, Nagasaki, and Okinawa as well as Hibakusha appeared on the stage to express their determination to press the government to provide compensation for their sufferings.
Sugiyama Chisako, 80, who is a victim of the U.S. bombing of Nagoya and still lives in the city, said that because of the law ordering people to fight fires caused by U.S. air attacks, she suffered severe burns on her face and lost one arm. She demanded that the government implement relief measures without delay.
A representative of a group of victims and bereaved families of the U.S. air raid on Sasebo in Nagasaki Prefecture said, “It is necessary to convey the tragic facts of the U.S. air raids to future generations.”
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A rally to commemorate Korean victims of the Great Tokyo Air Raid 70 years ago took place on March 7 at the Center of the Tokyo Raids and War Damage, a private museum in Tokyo’s Kita Ward.
On March 10, 1945, the U.S. forces conducted a carpet bombing raid on Tokyo’s downtown areas, such as Kita Ward, reportedly killing at least 100,000 people, including 10,000 Koreans.
Nishizawa Kiyoshi, who heads a civil group investigating the plight of forced Korean laborers during the war, said that to face up to what Japan did to Koreans is the best way to mourn for those who died in the Great Tokyo Air Raid.
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