Japan Imperial Couple make memorial visit to Iwo Jima 80 years on
Japan's Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako on Monday made a visit to Ioto, widely known as Iwo Jima, to pay tribute to those who died in the fierce battles between Japan and the United States on the Pacific island 80 years ago.
The day trip is the first in a series of memorial visits in Japan planned by the Imperial couple for this year, which marks the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II.
This was the first trip to the island by an Imperial couple since 1994, when then Emperor Akihito and then Empress Michiko, now Emperor Emeritus and Empress Emerita, respectively, made a visit.
A government plane carrying Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako left Tokyo's Haneda Airport on Monday morning and arrived at the Maritime Self-Defense Force's air station on the island, part of the Tokyo village of Ogasawara, in the afternoon.
After receiving an explanation about Ioto, including on its nature, the Emperor and the Empress toured the island by car.
The couple first stopped by the Tenzan Ireihi monument, erected by the Japanese government to remember over 20,000 Japanese people who died on the island during the Battle of Iwo Jima in the final stages of the Pacific War, part of World War II.
They laid white flowers at and poured water over the monument, and then bowed deeply.
They then visited the Iwoto Islander Peace Cemetery Park, built by the village of Ogasawara to remember the 82 residents who lost their lives in the battle after they were conscripted as civilian workers for the now-defunct Imperial Japanese military, and prayed for the souls of the victims.
Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako traveled to Chinkon no Oka, a memorial facility built by the Tokyo metropolitan government for both the Japanese and US war dead, where they poured water and bowed.
The Emperor and the Empress then returned to the MSDF air station and met with bereaved families of the war dead and former residents.
Among other things, the couple told the bereaved relatives, "You must have gone through a difficult time."
A total of nearly 30,000 people from Japan and the United States died in the Battle of Iwo Jima between February and March 1945.
Also as part of the planned memorial visits this year, the Imperial couple are expected to visit Hiroshima, Nagasaki and Okinawa prefectures.
The cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki in western and southwestern Japan, respectively, were flattened by US atomic bombs in August 1945.
Okinawa, southernmost Japan, was a site of savage battles between Japan and the Allied powers in the late stages of World War II.
[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]
Photo by Reuters
