IWO-TO, Japan — Japan’s Emperor Naruhito on Monday visited Iwo Jima to pay tribute to those that died on the island the place one in every of World Battle II’s harshest battles was fought 80 years in the past.
The go to by Naruhito and his spouse, Emperor Masako, each born after the struggle, is their first to the island. The Imperial couple was to wish at three memorial websites and meet with representatives of bereaved households and descendants of former island residents.
Naruhito, in his sixty fifth birthday remarks in February noting the eightieth anniversary of the top of World Battle II, confused the significance of remembering the wartime historical past and telling youthful generations in regards to the tragedy. Japan fought within the struggle and invaded massive areas of Asia within the identify of his grandfather, then-Emperor Hirohito.
The island, whose official identify at this time is Iwo-to, was the location the place Japanese and American troopers confronted off in one of many struggle’s fiercest battles.
The battle of Iwo Jima lasted from Feb. 19 to March 26, 1945, as the US tried to take management of a key strategic level to advance to mainland Japan. Regardless of expectations by the U.S. they’d overwhelm the Japanese inside days, Japanese troopers used underground tunnels and resisted for 5 weeks, in part of struggle historical past that has impressed many novels and films.
Almost all the greater than 21,000 Japanese and almost 7,000 U.S. troops have been killed. Greater than half of the stays of the Japanese are nonetheless unaccounted for. All 1,100 residents of Iwo Jima aside from 103 males drafted as army staff have been forcibly evacuated to mainland Japan. Former residents and their descendants have been allowed to go to the island for memorial occasions however to not stay.
The emperor’s Iwo Jima go to comes about 10 days after Japan and the U.S. held a joint memorial service to mark the top of the battle of Iwo Jima in late March, when Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and Protection Minister Gen Nakatani joined U.S. Secretary of Protection Pete Hegseth, in addition to different officers and a number of other veterans who survived the battle, to honor the struggle lifeless from either side.
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Yamaguchi reported from Tokyo.
