Hong Kong Activists Stage Protests to Mark Japan's WWII SurrenderHong Kong activists on Tuesday staged protests outside the Japanese consulate in Hong Kong to mark the 55th anniversary of Japan's World War II surrender.Some 350 people from the Hong Kong Reparation Association and Hong Kong and Kowloon Trades Union Council called on the Japanese government to apologize and pay compensation for its wartime atrocities in China. The slogan-shouting protesters also called for an end to what they called Japanese "militarism." Lee Kwok-keung, chairman of Hong Kong and Kowloon Trades Union Council, in a petition handed to Japanese consulate officials, called on Japan to stop officials visiting Yasukuni shrine in Tokyo, which venerates war criminals. Members of the Hong Kong Reparation Association staged a rally at a nearby park in the banking district of Central, displaying pictures of the Japanese occupation of China as well as Japanese wartime notes. "It is unfair for the Japanese government to refuse to compensate us," said Y.H. Ng, head of the Hong Kong Reparation Association. "The new generation of Japanese must not learn to forget the Japanese atrocities in China." Ng said the group would continue to push the Japanese government to compensate them despite a Tokyo court turning down a demand by 17 Hong Kong residents for compensation last year. As well as atrocities committed by its troops, Japan has refused to provide compensation for its worthless war notes, arguing that Allied forces occupying Japan after the war and the finance ministry declared the notes invalid in September 1945. Visits to the Yasukuni Shrine by Japanese leaders have drawn protests from China, DPRK and South Korea and other Asian nations as it sanctifies Japanese war criminals, including former prime minister General Hideki Tojo. Tojo and six other wartime leaders were condemned to be hanged by a US-led international tribunal for crimes in the Pacific War, which ended with Japan's surrender on August 15, 1945. The shrine, located near Tokyo's moated Imperial Palace, venerates a total of 2.4 million Japanese who have died in wars since 1853. It was used by the government during World War II as a focal point for nationalist propaganda. |
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