Iwo Jima: Japan's prime minister Naoto Kan visits mass graves on the island

Dec. 14, 2012

In a rare visit to Iwo Jima, Japan's prime minister offered prayers at two recently discovered mass graves and vowed to find the more than 12,000 fallen soldiers whose bodies have yet to be recovered from the remote island where some of World War II's fiercest fighting took place. Kneeling in a deep pit with dozens of remains spread out before him, Naoto Kan clasped his hands in prayer and then helped searchers exhume a badly decayed set of bones swathed in a faded green body bag. Workers said it was one of more than 20 found on Tuesday alone.

Main Index
Japan main page
Japanese-American Internment Camps index page
Japan and World War II index page