Naruhito Embarks on Memorial Journey

Japanese Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako embarked on their memorial journey for victims in the World War II, commemorating eightieth anniversary from the end of war in 1945. The first place they chose to visit was Iwo-to Island, where over 28 thousand soldiers on both sides of Japan and the United States were dead during one-month battle in 1945. Their Majesties prayed for the people who had to evacuate the island or lost their lives while remaining in the island on April 7th. They are planning to visit other places with history of major sacrifices later this year.

Iwo-to Island was strategically important for the U.S. Force to advance to Japan’s main islands in the final stage of the war. A fierce battle between Japan and U.S. caused 22,000 deaths on Japan side and 6,800 on U.S. side. With command of General Tadamichi Kuribayashi, Japanese Force withstood against a series of attacks by U.S. Force for a month, ambushing from vast bankers built underground the island.

 

Over a thousand of residents in the island had evacuated to Japanese main islands before the battle. In spite of that the island was returned from U.S. administration to Japan in 1968, Japanese government has still not allowed the former residents going back home, due to volcanic activity there. Currently, Japanese Air Self-defense Force is stationing in the island, having practices for airplanes.

 

Naruhito and Masako arrived at the island by the government plane. It was the first time for the Japanese Emperor and Empress to visit Iwo-to Island, since Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko visited there in 1994. Naruhito and Masako offered flower to the monument of war victims and prayed for serving water on the monument. They also made a visit to memorial park and had conversation with families of the victims.

 

In the meeting of the families, Naruhito sympathized their decades of hardships and difficulty of maintaining activities of victims’ families association. The government of Japan recognizes that about 11,000 are still missing in the island. The families have been making effort to retrieve remains of war victims, which has yet been making major progress.

 

Japanese Imperial Force was engaged in the war in the name of Japanese Emperor. Emperor Emeritus Akihito was involved in “memorial journey” for war victims in his throne. He made visits of not only war memorials in Japan around the fiftieth anniversary in 1995, but also extended his “memorial journey” to the old battlefields in foreign countries, including Saipan in 2005, Palau in 2015 and Philippine in 2016.

 

Naruhito is going to succeed the journey of his father, Akihito. Following his visit to Iwo-to Island, Naruhito is going to visit Okinawa, where the only place major ground battle was waged in Japan, Hiroshima and Nagasaki that suffered from atomic bombs. Although Emperor’s journey does not imply any political meaning, with requirement of the Constitution of Japan, Naruhito must be bringing his prayer for peace as the first Emperor who was born after the devastating war.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Amendment of Local Autonomy Law

The House of Representatives started discussion on revision of the Local Autonomy Law, which would vest the national government a power to instruct local government in an emergency. It may change the relationship between the national and local government, which has been recognized as equal. The opposition parties oppose the amendment, arguing that it would give the national government an excessive power.   With the Meiji Restoration, the national government abolished the feudal system, introducing modern governance. However, its autonomy was not sufficient. The governor of each prefecture was appointed by the national government. The local governments subordinated to the national government. It was as late as 2000 when  the Comprehensive Decentralization Law  was enacted and the relationship between the national and local government was defined as equal.   The national government found inconvenience in the relationship between the national and local government, when ...
Read more

Request for Final Nuclear Disposal Site

Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry requested Genkai Town, Saga, to accept “literature survey” for building a final disposal site for high-level radioactive waste. Genkai is going to answer within this month. If it accepts, it will be the third place to accept that survey, following two places in Hokkaido. Main reason to accept the survey is supposed to be subsidy from the national government.   Japan has no final disposal site. Among all 54 reactors in 17 nuclear power generation plant, 12 reactors of 6 plants are operating. The rest of them are not in operation, some of which are determined to be decommissioned. Used nuclear fuels are stocked in each plant, 　 or have sent to a reprocessing plant in Rokkasho, Aomori. There are two plans to stock nuclear wastes in the intermediate facility for disposal, one is already built and another is still in negotiation.   Nuclear Fuel Final Disposal Act in 2000 determines to bury nuclear waste in the underground. Literature survey, ...
Read more

Not A Royal Wedding

The bride called her husband an indispensable existence and their marriage was necessary choice to protect their mind. The groom insisted on his life as only once and his right to be with his loved one. Her father wanted his daughter’s marriage to be celebrated by the people. The people were not sure whether the family was happy as a whole. Is this the traditional Japanese social system that makes no one happy? Mako Komuro, as known as Princess Mako during her life in one of the royal family Akishino, held on Tuesday a press conference with her husband Kei Komuro, right after submitting marriage report to local government. It was something different from ordinary Q&A session, because Mako was afraid of her mental uneasiness brought by some questions not based on truth. So, the event was actually one-sided speech to the reporters. Mako emphasized that the Kei’s decision of studying abroad five years ago had not been his original idea, but a result of her request to establish an over...
Read more