Dozens of descendants of Japanese soldiers killed in World War II arrived in Hawaii on Thursday to pay respects to American war dead. Nippon Izokukai, the Bereaved Family Association of Japan, sent 36 children, grandchildren and other relatives of fallen Japanese soldiers to the U…
Dozens of descendants of Japanese soldiers killed in World War II arrived in Hawaii on Thursday to pay respects to American war dead.
Nippon Izokukai, the Bereaved Family Association of Japan, sent 36 children, grandchildren and other relatives of fallen Japanese soldiers to the U. S. to mark the 70th anniversary of the group’s founding.
The visitors will lay flowers at the USS Arizona Memorial after touring the Pacific Aviation Museum and the USS Missouri at Pearl Harbor. On Friday, they will visit the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Hawaii, where the group will present paper cranes, a symbol of peace and healing in Japanese culture. They will then travel to Washington for visits to Arlington National Cemetery and the Iwo Jima Memorial.
The Izokukai group, established in 1947 to support families of Japanese soldiers killed in the war, has long supported Japan’s ruling party. As its original members have grown older and its membership has declined, their offspring say they are seeking a way to convey a message of peace.
Last year, then U. S. President Barack Obama laid flowers at the Hiroshima peace park to pray for the victims of the 1945 U.
