07-05-2025
Emperor's family to visit Okinawa in June
Emperor Naruhito, Empress Masako and Princess Aiko will visit Okinawa for two days from June 4, the Imperial Household Agency said Wednesday.
During the trip, they will pray for the more than 200,000 people who lost their lives eight decades ago in the Battle of Okinawa, the largest ground battle in Japan during World War II.
It will be the first time for Princess Aiko, the only child of Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako, to visit Okinawa.
According to the Imperial Household Agency, the family will arrive in the prefecture on a special aircraft on June 4 and travel to former battle sites in the southern part of the Okinawa main island.
In the city of Itoman, the three will offer flowers at the National War Dead Peace Mausoleum and visit the Cornerstone of Peace, on which the names of the victims are engraved. They will also speak with war survivors.
On the following day, the family will offer flowers at a monument in Naha for some 1,500 victims, including schoolchildren, who were killed aboard an evacuation ship, the Tsushima Maru, sunk by a U.S. torpedo attack during the war. They will visit the Tsushima-maru Memorial Museum for the first time.
They will also inspect the progress in restoring the fire-destroyed Shuri Castle, also in Naha, before returning to Tokyo on a special aircraft that night.
In April, the imperial couple made a trip to Ioto, widely known as Iwo Jima, to pay tribute to those who died in battle on the Pacific island 80 years ago. They are currently considering traveling to the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, which suffered U.S. atomic bombing in the closing days of the war.
Emperor Naruhito has visited Okinawa Prefecture six times in the past, including twice with Empress Masako, in 1997 and 2022. The imperial couple participated online in a 2022 ceremony commemorating the 50th anniversary of Okinawa's return to Japanese rule from U.S. occupation after the war.
In February this year, the emperor told a news conference that he wants Princess Aiko to "pay tribute to those who lost their lives in the war and those who suffered hardships."
