A U.S. military document has been found that describes the approximate location of the place where more than 100 Japanese soldiers are said to have died on Ie Island, a remote island in the northern part of the main island of Okinawa, which became one of the fiercest battlefields in the Battle of Okinawa at the end of the Pacific War. In response, the person in charge of the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare visited the island on the 7th and began a survey to collect the remains.
In the Battle of Okinawa 78 years ago, fierce battles took place on Ie Island, a remote island in the northern part of the main island of Okinawa. On the Japanese side, 1,500 people, almost half of the island's residents at the time, died, and 2,000 soldiers died.
An NPO that collects the remains of Okinawan remains found a daily report from the US military in the US public archives that listed the approximate locations where 106 Japanese soldiers were said to have died in action. provided.
The location of the daily report is about 10 hectares on the north side of the island, but the village has narrowed it down to 1 hectare based on interviews with war survivors.
Under these circumstances, two people in charge of the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare visited the island on the 7th and told Mayor Masahide Meijo, ``I hope it will lead to the collection of remains.
After that, I visited the place where the vent and entrance of the go were supposed to have been, and confirmed the situation at the site with the person in charge of the village.
Naoki Tezuka, Deputy Director of the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare's Social Relief Bureau, said, "First, we would like to proceed with the work to find the entrance to the go. rice field.
According to the village, the national government collected the remains of 331 people on the island from 1981 to 1986.