Japanese leader visits WWII battle site Iwo Jima

http://apne.ws/fwXLP0 Japanese leader visits WWII battle site Iwo Jima

The paragraphs excerpted below from the article "Japanese leader visits WWII battle site Iwo Jima" could be quite misleading to the readers because it states that Kan's government was inspired in part by "Letters from Iwo Jima" and that it has been generally ignored since the war.

The Government of Japan has continued to recover the Japanese war dead on Iwo-Jima in cooperation with the Japanese Association of Iwo-Jima since 1951. Sixty three (63) visits to Iwo-Jima have been so far made from 1951 to 2007 and have recovered 8,611 Japanese war dead.

Those involved in recovering the war dead have gone through extremely difficult conditions to locate the remains of the war dead and to excavate them.

Iwo-Jima literally means “Sulfur Isle” and is an active volcanic isle well known for a photo of U.S. Marines raising the flag atop Mount Suribachi, which is in fact a crater of the volcano.

Iwo-Jima is a volcanic isle where the Imperial Japanese Army fortified the entire island with deep bunkers and complex tunnels network, from which the Japanese soldiers fought against the U.S. invasion.

Those underground bunkers and tunnels are intensely hot inside with temperatures ranging from 40 degrees C. (104 degrees F.) to 80 degrees C. (176 degrees F.). Accessibility to the underground bunkers and tunnels is very much limited as seen in the photos of the missions recovering the Japanese war dead. http://bit.ly/c6IrZW

It is reported that the Government of Japan will contact the U.S. Government if the remains of the U.S. soldiers still missing in actions are found while searching the Japanese war dead.

Note: We all have to respect the purpose of homepage prepared by Association of Iwo-Jima Japan when accessing it. It states that their HP has been prepared to collect information on whereabouts of Iwo-Jima relics from the United States of America. Thus, if you know or have Iwo-Jima relics displayed inside curio cabinet or hanging from the walls, contact the Association.

However, the homepage in Japanese suggests that there will not be anybody who can communicate in English. It is the best that you contact the Embassy of Japan or Consulate General of Japan. I believe that the families of the war dead will be so happy if their belongings are returned back.

When I was in Mississippi, I met an old man who served in the U.S. Navy during WWII. He bombed and killed the Japanese soldiers hiding in the cave on the island in the Pacific. He discovered one diary in the pocket of the dead Japanese commanding officer. He kept it for many years, thinking that someday he would have to return it back to the family of the dead solider. He asked me to return it back to the family in Japan.

So, I contacted Consulate General of Japan in Chicago and handed it over to them for its onward shipment to the family in Japan.

Excerpted Paragraphs

It has been generally ignored since the war, has been left largely untouched and is now uninhabited except for a few hundred troops at a small Japanese military outpost. Kan is only the second prime minister to visit the island. Junichiro Koizumi was the first, five years ago.

But Kan's government, inspired in part by the success in Japan of the 2006 Clint Eastwood movie "Letters from Iwo Jima" and concerned that time is running out, has made a strong effort to bring closure on Iwo Jima by stepping up the civilian-run mission to recover all of the Japanese dead.