hankyoreh

Intangible cultural heritage possessor Kim Soon-ja performs a ceremonial dance in white mourning clothes to soothe the spirits of Koreans slaughtered during the Great Kanto earthquake in Tokyo’s Yokoamicho Park on Sept. 1. (Cho Ki-weon

Once again, Japan and Germany’s attitudes toward their historical legacies stand in sharp contrast. On Sept. 1, the governor of Tokyo refused to send a eulogy to the 96th memorial ceremony for Koreans massacred during the Great Kanto Earthquake. The governor disregarded the thousands of people who were massacred by bands of vigilantes, police, and military personnel amid false rumors that Koreans had poisoned the wells following the earthquake, which struck in September 1923. On the very same day, German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier attended a ceremony in Wielun, Poland, marking the 80th anniversary of the outbreak of World War II and humbly apologized for the Poles who were killed under Germany’s oppressive occupation.

This was the third year in a row, since 2017, that Tokyo Governor Yuriko Koike declined to send a eulogy to the memorial ceremony, unlike most of her predecessors. While the reason Koike provided is that she “offers condolences to all the victims,” that appears to be an attempt to obscure blame for the massacres by failing to distinguish between those killed in the massacres and those killed by the earthquake. Koike is even coy about acknowledging the massacres themselves, remarking that “there are a number of opinions.”

Compare that with Steinmeier, the German president, who admitted that “it was Germans who broke the law” and promised to “never forget and always remember.” Around 6 million Poles lost their lives during World War II. At every opportunity, many German leaders have acknowledged their crimes and asked for an apology.

Not long ago, South Korean President Moon Jae-in said that “Japan needs to ponder the fact that Germany became a trustworthy country through candid reflection on its past,” but unfortunately Japan still doesn’t seem to have learned any lessons from Germany’s honest reckoning with its past. This isn’t a matter of Koike alone — Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has shut his eyes to the pain of the victims of forced labor during Japan’s colonial occupation and has reacted to the South Korean Supreme Court ruling about compensation for the victims with retaliatory trade measures. Steinmeier said that the reason the past must not be forgotten is “to ensure that those mistakes are not repeated.” Once again, we call upon Japan to open its eyes.

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