A memorial service was held in Tokyo on Sunday to remember the victims of the Great Kanto Earthquake, which hit the capital and surrounding areas exactly 101 years ago.
The massive jolt occurred on September 1, 1923. More than 100,000 people died in the quake and subsequent fires.
The ceremony took place at the memorial hall in Tokyo’s Sumida Ward, where the remains of about 58,000 quake victims are interred. This year’s ceremony was scaled back due to a typhoon.
The service is held every September 1 for those killed in the quake. Victims of a US air raid on Tokyo on March 10, 1945 during World War Two are also remembered.
The head of the organizer said lessons learned from the tragic events of the disaster and the war must be passed on to the next generations.
Letters of mourning from Tokyo Governor Koike Yuriko and others were offered at the altar.
A man in his 80s said he comes every year to remember an uncle who was 5 or 6 years old at the time of the quake. The man said he heard that his uncle was stuck under a pillar in his home, and that his family could not help him and had no choice but to leave him.
Another service was also held to remember the Koreans who were killed by violence in the aftermath of the 1923 quake. The organizer of that event was among those who have been asking Tokyo Governor Koike to send a separate letter of mourning.
Koike refrained from sending a separate letter as she has since 2017. She has explained that the letter she sends to the ceremony marking the quake anniversary expresses condolences for all victims.
The head of the group that organized the memorial for the Korean victims said past governors have sent separate letters with the understanding that memorializing those killed by people who believed rumors was different from mourning those who died in a natural disaster.
He said it was “regrettable that Koike appears to not want to recognize historical facts.”