The remains of 368 Japanese people were newly laid to rest in a memorial service in Tokyo on Monday at a national cemetery for unidentified people who died abroad during World War II.
The remains were collected from locations including Ioto, a Pacific island widely known as Iwo Jima, Solomon Islands and Russia.
The number of people laid to rest at the Chidorigafuchi National Cemetery now totals 371,008, including those who died after the war as detainees in Siberia.
Of some 2.4 million Japanese people who died abroad during the war, the remains of 1.12 million have not been recovered 80 years after the end of the war.
Some 400 people including bereaved family members attended Monday’s ceremony, hosted by the welfare ministry. Crown Prince Akishino, Crown Princess Kiko and Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba were among them.
In a speech, welfare minister Takamaro Fukuoka pledged to pass on lessons from the war to future generations so that it would not be repeated.
The crown prince and the crown princess offered prayers and bereaved family members laid flowers.
Of the remains brought back by then-Japanese troops or collected on government missions, those that remained unidentified or for which families were not found were laid to rest at the cemetery, built in 1959.
