01-06-2025
Japan group for war-bereaved families to hold its final offshore memorials
A Japanese association for war-bereaved families says it will end its memorial trips to sites of fierce World War Two battles because the participants are aging. The ship for Nippon Izokukai's final offshore memorial left port on Sunday.
A total of about 16,000 bereaved family members visited 18 regions, including China and the Philippines, on 451 trips since the project started in fiscal 1991.
Family members on the trips paid respects to the war dead and also interacted with local people.
The association said it will conclude its overseas memorials by the end of this fiscal year.
The group's last memorial at sea, 80 years after the end of the war, includes 218 family members from 42 prefectures. They boarded a vessel at a port in Kobe City, western Japan, on Sunday.
They offered a silent prayer during a ceremony held on the ship before it departed around 5 p.m.
Japan's health ministry says the remains of about 300,000 of the 2.4 million people who died abroad during the war were never recovered from the ocean.
Participants will offer flowers to honor the victims in areas such as the sites where the battleships Yamato and Musashi sank. They will return to Japan on June 11.
