Japan-Viet Nam Relations

As the year 2015 marks the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II, Their Majesties once again paid Their respects to the war dead and showed Their support for those who lost family members in the war and all those who overcame hardships and supported Japan in the difficult postwar era.

In June 2014, on the 70th anniversary of the tragic Tsushima Maru incident, Their Majesties visited Okinawa prefecture, which experienced the largest ground warfare involving so many civilians on Japanese territory during the last war, to pay Their respects at the memorial for the more than 1,400 people, including some 800 schoolchildren perished in the sinking of the evacuation ship Tsushima Maru in August 1944, one year before the end of the war. After Okinawa, Their Majesties visited Nagasaki and Hiroshima, cities which suffered atomic bombings, and paid Their respects at the cenotaphs and visited the nursing care homes for the surviving victims of the atomic bomb. In April of 2015, on the 70th anniversary of the end of the war, Their Majesties traveled to the Republic of Palau to pray for the repose of the war dead. Before World War II, Palau was placed under a Japanese mandate and many Japanese emigrated there from Japan. In 1944, fierce battles took place in the region, including the island of Peleliu, and some 10,000 Japanese soldiers and 1,700 American soldiers lost their lives there. During Their visit, Their Majesties paid Their respects at the Monument of the War Dead in the Western Pacific and at the US Army 81st Infantry Division Memorial on Peleliu Island. They also attended the Memorial Ceremony for the War Dead in Tokyo in August.