Tokyo, 16 March, /AJMEDIA/
Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba is arranging to attend a memorial service later this month at the site of a fierce World War II battle with the United States on Iwoto Island, sources close to the matter said.
Defense Minister Gen Nakatani and U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth are also considering attending the ceremony slated for March 29 on the Pacific island, according to the sources.
With this year marking the 80th anniversary of the war’s end, Ishiba hopes to highlight the strength of the Japan-U.S. alliance by attending the annual event, a rare move for a Japanese political leader, the sources said.
The last Japanese prime minister to visit Iwoto was Shinzo Abe, who, in April 2013, observed efforts to recover the remains of war dead on the islet, about 1,250 kilometers south of Tokyo.
In the Battle of Iwojima, as the island was previously known, fighting continued for about a month after U.S. forces landed in February 1945.
Only about half of the approximately 21,900 Japanese soldiers killed in the battle have been recovered, while some 7,000 U.S. military personnel also died. Washington returned Iwoto to Japanese sovereignty in 1968.
