Work begins to recover Japanese WWII war dead in PalauーNHK WORLD-JAPAN NEWS
over a thousand Japanese soldiers from World War II are believed to have been buried on Palao’s Pelleu Island work has now begun to bring some of those remains home this is a mass barrier site as you can see people are digging little by little with shovels and removing branches and stones by hand a team commissioned by the Japanese government started excavating the spot Friday documents discovered 10 years ago suggested 1,086 Japanese soldiers were buried there by US troops a preliminary search last year found 19 remains the island was a fierce battleground in the Pacific japan’s now defunct Imperial military clashed with US forces there in 1944 more than 10,000 Japanese died welfare Minister Fukuoka Takamaro visited the island earlier this month he announced plans to intensify the recovery effort palao’s government also offered its full cooperation this surge is scheduled to last about a week the Japanese government hopes to complete most of the recovery process by March 2028 and for more on this we’ve reached NHK’s due to signal issues he’s joining us from Pelleu by phone kenya what’s it like there right now i am just steps from the mass barrier site on Peru i have been out here with the collection team watching them work it’s mid afternoon now so it’s quite humid and hot it’s well over 30° so it’s a very slow process but just just a little while ago they finally found remains one person told me they have known they were here for years and now they are finally able to pick them up they hope to finish the work as soon as possible so they can move on to the next step bring them home remember these remains have been here for over 80 years we don’t know for sure who they even are the plan is to bring portions back to Japan for DNA analysis if they are Japanese then they will be transported back hopefully to be reunited with their families
Documents suggest that 1,086 Japanese World War II soldiers were buried in a mass grave on Palau’s Peleliu Island. Now, a team commissioned by the Japanese government is hoping to bring them home. NHK’s Ito Kenya was at the scene. #japan #asia #asiapacific #palau #ww2
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