Japan program honoring war dead via sea voyage to end as families age
TOKYO (Kyodo) -- A Japanese project to honor the war dead by taking bereaved families to former battle sites by sea will wind down due to the aging of participants, with this year marking the 80th anniversary of the end of the war.
Offshore memorial ceremonies that have been held onboard the ship as part of the program, organized by a nationwide association of war-bereaved families, will also come to an end with the last ones to take place during a voyage in next month.
Their ship will depart from the Port of Kobe, western Japan, on June 1, taking families on an 11-day journey through former battle zones such as the Taiwan Strait and waters off the Philippines to offer prayers for their parents who died at sea.
According to the Japan War-Bereaved Families Association, around 220 participants from 42 of Japan's 47 prefectures, with the oldest in their 90s, will join in the voyage.
The memorial services will be held daily in each battle zone at sea. The trip will also include training sessions for future storytellers who will pass down memories of the war.
The ship will sail through waters where the Imperial Japanese Navy battleships Yamato and Musashi sank, while there will be an onboard exchange with locals during a port call in Manila, before returning to Kobe on June 11.
According to the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, out of the approximately 2.4 million Japanese soldiers who died abroad, around 300,000 were lost at sea.
"As we bring this project to a close, we want to offer a proper final tribute to those who died at sea," said the association's head Toshiei Mizuochi, 82.
The program, which began in fiscal 1991 with government support, had conducted around 450 trips for roughly 16,000 participants by fiscal 2024. The voyages took participants to numerous countries and regions including China, the Philippines and the Solomon Islands to engage in memorial and exchange activities. Offshore memorial ceremonies were held in 2011 and 2016.
While participation peaked in fiscal 2005 at 911 people, it has since declined, with only 171 participants in fiscal 2024, prompting the association to decide to end the program. In addition to the offshore memorial ceremony, two visits to the Philippines are also planned for fiscal 2025 through next March.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Mainichi
4 hours ago
- The Mainichi
Some child care facilities in Japan replacing Father's Day, Mother's Day with 'family day'
TOKYO -- Father's Day, which falls on June 15 this year in Japan, is approaching. However, an increasing number of day care centers and kindergartens across the country are establishing "family day" instead of celebrating Father's Day and Mother's Day. This shift seems to be driven by the diversification of family structures, including the rise in single-parent households. "I was really happy that they were considerate of each family's situation," and, "Since we don't have a dad, it was appreciated," are some of the posts from single parents on social media expressing gratitude for the switch to family day. Asahi Hoikuen day care center in Ube, Yamaguchi Prefecture, transitioned to family day three years ago. Previously, for Mother's Day in May and for Father's Day in June, children would handcraft items such as keychains and magnets with portraits of their parents and present them as gifts. Now, these activities are combined and held in late May, between Mother's Day and Father's Day. The switch was prompted by the need to revise events and activities due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The day care center explained, "We have both single-mother and single-father households. We considered the recent diversification of family situations. The children create gifts not only for their parents but also for their grandparents, relatives, and even mom's friends, whoever is important to them." 10% of households with kids are single-parent families According to a survey by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, the number of single-parent households increased from 947,000 in 1993 to 1,399,000 in 2003, a 1.5-fold rise. Since then, the number has stabilized between 1.3 million and 1.4 million, with 1,344,000 single-parent households in 2021. About 10% of child-rearing households are single-parent families. Poppins Nursery School, a nationwide day care chain, also has multiple facilities that have adopted family day. In late May or June, these centers organize activities such as making gifts for loved ones and displaying family photos. Meanwhile, some child care facilities continue to observe Father's Day and Mother's Day. On social media, single parents have shared diverse opinions, such as "For Father's Day, my child drew a portrait of me (mother) and made a letter for me," and, "(Though I am a single parent,) I would prefer they stick to the traditional format without catering to minority family types." There are varied perspectives, and responses from day care centers and kindergartens seem to differ accordingly. Some commercial facilities and libraries that traditionally displayed children's drawings of their parents on Mother's Day and Father's Day are now moving toward displaying "family pictures" collectively. For example, the Omori-Minami Library in Tokyo's Ota Ward has integrated these displays for Mothers' Day and Father's Day into a "family portrait exhibition" starting in 2023. They showcase family drawings created by visiting children from May to June. A library representative said, "The change reflects the fact that there are now many different types of families." (Japanese original by Shuji Ozaki, Digital News Group)
SoraNews24
a day ago
- SoraNews24
Grow your own balcony rice balls with this new how-to book
With 30 seeds and 180 days of patience, you too can also eat rice from a bucket . You don't necessarily need your own plot of farmland, or tons of agricultural expertise, to try growing your own food. Just about anyone can grow a pot of baby carrots, and in Japan, even many elementary school students are given the summer homework assignment of growing a tomato plant at their houses, which is a wonderful way to get a hands-on experience of how food arrives on their plates. Tomatoes make a great crop for their summer homework, as they grow quickly and don't need a garden; they can be grown in a small pot on a balcony, which is perfect for more urban environments. Now, a new contender for do-it-yourself agriculture that you can do even in an urban apartment may be emerging, as it turns out that rice also makes for a perfect plant to grow at home. Instead of digging up your flooring to create a living room rice paddy, a recently released guidebook shows exactly how you can grow rice in a bucket right from your very own balcony. When people tend to picture the cultivation of rice, it usually entails a sea of green plants below a beautiful blue sky, rather than a cramped apartment balcony in the middle of Tokyo. ▼ Would you rather eat food grown here? ▼ Or here? However, the author of this latest book, Junko Nakamura, says that growing rice on balconies can, and should, be done to allow people to reflect on the effort it entails to grow Japan's staple food. ▼ From a Single Grain of Rice to a Rice Ball and Shimenawa: Growing Bucket Rice by Junko Nakamura (1,430 yen [US$10]) All you need is a bucket, soil, and water to create your very own miniature rice paddy right outside your house. With just 30 rice seeds you can harvest around 70 grams (about 2.47 ounces) of rice, which is about enough for one small rice ball. If you want to make something a little more substantial in size, two buckets might be a better idea. ▼ Let them germinate ▼ Plant them ▼ Transfer them to their buckets and then wait… Since rice takes about 180 days until you can enjoy the fruits of your labor, some people might wonder if all of that effort is worth it, if all you'll get out of it is a single rice ball. ▼ A comparison of the 'bucket rice' process (upper) to the traditional rice cultivating process (lower) from March to December However, the real value lies in the intangible results: a deeper appreciation of the many steps required to get a bowl of rice onto the dinner table. Unlike vegetables, rice demands long-term care and, after it is fully grown, sufficient processing. Not only is it necessary to keep the soil sufficiently submerged in water, but after the rice is ready to harvest, there is still threshing and polishing to carry out before you can even think about eating it. ▼ The book has cute pictures explaining each step. With a rice ball in hand, you might think the whole process is over, but that's not actually the case. Traditionally, Japanese people have repurposed leftover rice stalks into everyday items, leaving nothing to waste. These items could be bags, traditional footwear, or brooms, but Junko Nakamura suggests that your harvested rice stalks be made into shimenawa, the twisted ropes often seen at Shinto shrines or hung over doors at New Year's to ward off evil spirits, and provides illustrations in how to do so. Not only do you get a satisfying meal, grown by your hands, but even a little handmade New Year's decoration. If you're looking for a new hobby, or want to enrich a child's food education, bucket rice may be just the thing. It's a slow-paced activity that cultivates more than just the food in a bowl, but also patience, cultural and agricultural awareness, and an appreciation for every single grain. Related: Amazon, PR Times Top image : PR Times Insert images: PR Times, Pakutaso (1, 2) ● Want to hear about SoraNews24's latest articles as soon as they're published? Follow us on Facebook and Twitter! [ Read in Japanese ]
Yomiuri Shimbun
a day ago
- Yomiuri Shimbun
Japan's Princess Kako Places Wreath at Cenotaph for Japanese Immigrants in Sao Paulo; Cherry Blossom Tree Planted in Park by Princess
< Kentaro Tominaga / The Yomiuri Shimbun Princess Kako places a wreath at a cenotaph for early Japanese immigrants, in Sao Paulo on Thursday. SAO PAULO – Princess Kako, the second daughter of Crown Prince Akishino and Crown Princess Kiko, is visiting Brazil and went to Sao Paulo's Ibirapuera Park on Thursday afternoon (early Friday morning Japan time) and placed a wreath at a cenotaph for early Japanese immigrants. After laying the wreath, the princess bowed deeply and then signed a guest book. After learning about the construction of the cenotaph from those involved, she thought about the hardships faced by the Japanese immigrants who had undertaken pioneering work far from their homes. 'It must have been very difficult [for them],' Princess Kako said. The princess planted a cherry blossom tree at a traditional Japanese building within the park and also fed the Japanese carp nishikigoi.
