Japanese Emperor Naruhito, Empress Masako visit Iwo Jima
April 7 (UPI) -- Japanese Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako arrived at Iwo Jima Monday as they begin a tour of memorial visits this month to mark the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II.
After leaving from Tokyo's Haneda Airport, the couple arrived at the Maritime Self-Defense Force's air station on the island, also known as Ioto, part of the Tokyo village of Ogasawara.
The Battle of Iwo Jima took place in February of 1945, which saw an estimated 21,900 Japanese and 7,000 U.S. soldiers killed over the monthlong conflict.
The imperial couple were expected to visit the Tenzan Ireihi monument, which was built to remember the more than 20,000 Japanese people who died on the island during the battle in the final stages of World War II, and the Islander Peace Cemetery Park, built to memorialize islanders who died after being enlisted as civilian workers for the now-defunct Imperial Japanese military.
The pair are also to appear at the Chinkon no Oka memorial facility, built by the Tokyo municipal government for both the Japanese and U.S. war dead.
The visit to Ioto follows a March 29 ceremony in which Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba, Japanese defense ministers and a delegation from the U.S. attended a ceremony to mark 80 years since the battle.
Both the Emperor and Empress are also scheduled to visit Okinawa in June, where the Battle of Okinawa saw the deaths of about a quarter of the population, before their next stop of Hiroshima that same month and then Nagasaki in September.
It will be their first trips as emperor and empress to the two cities that were struck by atomic weapons in the last year of World War II.
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