Top > What's up around the Prime Minister > June, 2005

Prime Minister Attends Memorial Service for the War Dead in Iwo Island Sunday, June 19, 2005 JAPANESE Click photographs to enlarge Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi visited Island in Ogasawara Village, Tokyo, where the Japanese and US troops fiercely fought during the Pacific War, to attend the memorial service hosted by the government for the war dead. In Island, 21,900 Japanese and 6,821 US soldiers died during the war. With the completion of the renovation of the "Cenotaph for the War Dead in Island" this March, the memorial service this year on the 60th anniversary of the end of the Second World War took place in combination with the ceremony commemorating the completion of the construction. The service was attended by roughly 100 guests from Japan and the US including people related to the bereaved family members on the Japanese side. Prime Minister Koizumi, upon his first visit to Island as a prime minister in office, delivered an address at the memorial service remarking, "Japan will actively contribute to the establishment of lasting peace in the world by not forgetting and holding close to our hearts the lessons we learned from the devastating war." After the service, Prime Minister Koizumi offered flowers to the "Cenotaph for the Officers and Soldiers" of the US as well as toured the island and stated, "It was a horrendous, acrimonious battlefield. Thinking of those who fought in the war reaffirmed my feeling that a war should never be repeated again. The circumstances at the time must have forced both the Japanese and US militaries to fight for their own country and families."