Activists March To Japan Consulate To Mark Sept 18

A group of activists have protested outside the Japanese consulate to mark the 88th anniversary of the September 18 incident that started Japan's invasion of north-eastern China in 1931.

The Japanese had set off some explosives near a railway station near Mukden on that day and then used the event as a pretext to invade and occupy Manchuria.

The protesters outside the consulate said Japan should learn from Germany, which has made formal apologies to the Jews after the Second World War. They also demanded that Japan pay compensation to the victims of the war, and women who were used as sex slaves by the imperial army.

The protesters also called for the release of Kwok Siu-kit and Yim Man-wa, who have been jailed in Tokyo for protesting outside the Yasukuni shrine that honours the country's war dead.

Au Pak-kuen, vice-chairman of the protest organiser, the Action Committee for Defending the Diaoyu Islands, said the demonstration by the two were peaceful and should be allowed as a basic right in any free country.