Japan’s Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako will visit the Japanese island of Ioto for the first time on Monday to remember those who died in World War Two. This year marks 80 years since the end of the war.
The island, also known as Iwojima, is one of the Ogasawara Islands located about 1,200 kilometers south of central Tokyo. It was the site of fierce ground battles toward the end of the war. About 21,900 Japanese and 6,800 US troops were killed.
The Imperial couple will leave Tokyo’s Haneda Airport on a government plane and arrive at the island in the afternoon.
The couple will pay their respects at a monument for the deceased members of the now-defunct Imperial Japanese military, as well as at a monument honoring victims from both the Japanese and US militaries.
They will lay flowers and pour water to comfort the souls of the victims, who suffered from hunger and thirst in the fierce battles on the volcanic island.
Emperor Emeritus Akihito and Empress Emerita Michiko laid flowers at the monuments when they visited the island in 1994, ahead of the 50th anniversary of the war’s end the next year.
The Emperor and Empress will also lay flowers at a park that has a memorial tower for other victims.
While most of the residents on the island were forcibly evacuated during the war, about 100 men, including those who were employed by the military, remained to face the same fate as the garrison.
The Emperor and Empress will also talk with relatives of the war dead as well as members of a group formed by descendants of former Ioto residents, before going back to the Imperial Palace at night.
Ioto is their first destination in a series of trips to symbolic sites of the war this year. The couple are also expected to visit Hiroshima, Nagasaki and Okinawa.
AloJapan.com