Sending Message of History to Japan : Emperor’s visit: Asian Americans from San Gabriel Valley join protesters seeking apology for atrocities during 1930s and ‘40s.

It might have been a parade, snaking down an entire city block with Korean folk drummers, Chinese flags and Buddhist monks with flowing robes and shaved heads.

But the placards gave the truth away.

“Japan, Apologize, Do Not Distort History,” one sign said. “Asian Holocaust, the Forgotten Holocaust,” read another. “Japanese Militarism Is Nazism,” said a third.

Three of the placards were held aloft proudly by Gloria Tong of Monterey Park and her daughters Faith, 12, and Sheena, 8.

The Tongs were among 400 Asian Americans, many from the San Gabriel Valley, who marched for three miles in the hot sun last Tuesday, weaving from Chinatown to City Hall to the Japanese Consulate to demand that the Japanese emperor--who was lunching with Mayor Richard Riordan in Downtown Los Angeles--apologize and pay reparations to victims of crimes against humanity committed by his country during World War II.

A similar protest held two weeks ago in Barnes Park in Monterey Park drew 400 protesters.

Tong said she brought her children to the demonstration because “they’re Chinese, they should learn about the massacres by the Japanese, and they’re not going to learn it in school.

“Through this protest, at least the Japanese emperor can bring back a message to his people,” Tong said. “Kids in the new Japanese generation need to know the truth. The government should pass on to a new generation that they did something wrong. They have to recognize and say they did it.”

Unlike Germany, which was forced to atone publicly for its war crimes, Japan has successfully downplayed its role as an aggressor in World War II, and Japanese history textbooks make few references to the estimated 30 million people that Japanese troops killed from 1931 to 1945 in China, Korea and Southeast Asia.

Emperor Akihito has expressed “regret” over the war between Japan and the United States, but has not formally apologized to the United States for his country’s role in the war. Kaoruko Sasamoto, press officer for the Japanese Embassy in Washington, disputed the number of people killed by Japanese troops, adding:

“Japan is deeply remorseful about the events of great dimension (that occurred during the war) and the suffering and sadness caused to the people of the United States and Asia. Based on this, Japan has decided to be a pacifist country and contribute to world peace and prosperity.”

The controversy over reparations has only grown hotter with the passage of time. While demands for apologies and reparation did not come up during Emperor Hirohito’s 1975 visit to the United States, they are being pressed upon his son nearly 20 years later.

The popularity of the movie “Schindler’s List” has spurred on Asian Americans, some civic leaders say.

“We see the Holocaust West being publicized, but no one’s talking about the Holocaust East,” said Ting Huang, a spokesman for one of the organizing groups, United Against Japan for Justice and Reparations Committee, which is based in Alhambra.

The committee was one of several groups that presented the Japanese Consulate with a letter to Akihito. A letter from the reparations committee asked Akihito to “assume the historic responsibilities for the Japanese aggression against China and the world, thus closing one of the most shameful and barbaric eras in Japan’s history.”

While the war is more than half a century old, many of the protesters were young.

Alex Fan of Temple City, whose father was executed by the Japanese in Shanghai during the war, brought his son Fred, 23. The younger Fan said he was there to prevent history from being whitewashed.

“I’ve heard a lot of things from the Japanese, like, ‘Can’t you just forget it, it was 50 years ago,’ but that’s like telling the Jews, ‘Can’t you just accept the Holocaust,’ or telling Japanese Americans, ‘Can’t you just accept the internment camps,’ ” Fan said.

Lang Yun, a South Pasadena filmmaker and Southern California chairwoman of the Washington-based reparations committee, was another who marched.

“Before Pearl Harbor, millions and millions of Chinese were slaughtered at the hands of the Japanese, and the world turned a deaf ear. I just don’t understand it,” Yun said.

In 1987 Yun traveled to Nanjing to film a documentary about the massacre of an estimated 300,000 people killed at the hands of Japanese troops in Nanking.

“We want the world to know what happened,” said Yun, 60.

Some Japanese American groups, politicized by their fight for reparations from the U.S. government for the internment camps of World War II, are also putting pressure on Japan. One who drew cheers Tuesday was David Monkawa, staff director of the Los Angeles chapter of the National Committee for Redress and Reparations, a Japanese American organization.

“Unfortunately, we (Japanese Americans) are one of the only groups to get reparations for crimes, but we’re here to offer our heartfelt and undying support to get reparations for all those of you who have been victims of Japanese imperialism in World War II,” Monkawa said.

Times special correspondent Kevin Uhrich contributed to this story.