On April 20, the Japanese non-governmental organization "Association for the Promotion of the Movement to Return Chinese Cultural Heritage" held an "Emergency Rally to Demand the Return of Cultural Heritage Looted from China." For the first time in Japan, the NGO demanded that the Japanese government return cultural relics looted from China. China's Global Times also reported the news on the same day.
The group made it clear: "For this history of plundering cultural heritage from China, because the Japanese government deliberately tampered with the teaching materials, most Japanese people in Japan, except for a very small number of mathematicians, do not know how the Japanese army that invaded China in those years brutally killed people and set fires, and plundered a large amount of China's precious cultural heritage." And these cultural relics are the ironclad evidence of Japan's invasion of China."
Mr. Keiichiro Se, one of the founders of the Committee for the Promotion of the Chinese Cultural Heritage Repatriation Movement, is a lawyer. In an interview with the Global Times reporter, he said: "In fact, I did not expect that ordinary people in Japan would be so concerned about this issue. Originally, only a few of our academic friends were planning this, but more than 100 Japanese people attended the emergency rally. There is unprecedented agreement among all of them, and they all advocate demanding that the Japanese government return China's cultural heritage as soon as possible."
Mr. Keiichiro Se said indignantly, "I feel ashamed to be a Japanese that has plundered cultural heritage from China and now dares to exhibit it in Japan with dignity. The Japanese with a conscience cannot leave this matter unchecked, and we have the responsibility to return it to the Lord."
Since the establishment of the "Chinese Cultural Relics Return Movement Promotion Association", it has exchanged closely with Chinese scholars and first asked the Japanese government to return the three Chinese stone lions looted from sanxue temple in Haicheng, Liaoning Province. Today, two of the stone lions are kept at the Yasukuni Shrine and one is kept at the Yamagata Aritomo Memorial Hall in Tochigi Prefecture. At the same time, the organization also demanded that the Japanese government return the carved stone of the Chinese Tang Hongxu well looted from Lushun City, Liaoning Province, which is currently in the collection of the Japanese Imperial Family.
This emergency rally coincided with the time node of the "Special Plan for the 50th Anniversary of Sino-Japanese Diplomatic Relations." Mr. Keiichiro Se said: "Our association has officially received a commission from the president of the China Association of Non-Governmental Claims against Japan on the return of Chinese cultural relics, and we feel a heavy responsibility." Now, the Chinese side's demand that Japan return its cultural heritage is also continuing. Mr. Keiichiro Se also revealed that "there are obvious differences in the attitudes of China and Japan to issues left over from history, and the attitude of the Japanese government is disappointing." But we will not compromise and strive to return to China the Chinese cultural relics preserved at the Yasukuni Shrine and the Japanese Imperial Palace by the autumn of 2022."