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Japan civil groups mark anniversary of Sept. 18 Incident, call for reflection on history

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2017-09-19 10:05:01Xinhua Gu Liping ECNS App Download

Japanese civil groups called upon the nation to reflect on history and never let war tragedies happen again here on Monday on the occasion of the 86th anniversary of the September 18 Incident, or Manchurian Incident, which marked the outbreak of Japan's large-scale invasion of China.

Dozens of citizens gathered in front of the parliamentary buildings in Tokyo Monday afternoon, holding banners written with slogans such as "No More 9.18," "Never repeat the mistakes," and called upon the government to reflect upon the history and prevent recurrence of war tragedies.

Seiji Uematsu, one of the organizers of the rally, said that the Japanese people commemorate every year the nuclear bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki and the end of World War II, but often ignored anniversaries of Japan's invasion of other countries, such as the September 18 Incident.

"By ignoring these war anniversaries, Japan is also ignoring the atrocities that it had committed to the peoples of its neighboring countries during the war, and this is unforgivable," he said.

He also said Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe "talked about the war as if it were just a past event which has nothing to do with the present."

"It shows that Japan is a country that could repeat the past mistakes and we shall not allow that to happen," he added.

Takanashi, a citizen attending the rally, said that the government should face up to the history, especially that part of the history in which Japan victimized other countries.

"We haven't fully shouldered our responsibilities for the past war, and that is the root of the out-of-control politics in this country now," he said.

On Sept. 18, 1931, the Japanese Kwantung Army stationed in northeast China destroyed a section of the railway near Liutiaohu and then falsely accused the Chinese military of causing the explosion.

Using this as a pretext, the Japanese then bombarded Shenyang, the capital of Liaoning Province, and started a large-scale invasion of China that lasted for 14 years.

  

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