Japan searches for remains of WWII soldiers in Manipur
IMPHAL:After OVER 30,000 JAPANESE SOLDIERS HAD DIED IN THE CAMPAIGNS IN MANIPUR AND NAGALAND DURING
THE WORLD WAR II
the United States, it is Japan’s turn to search for skeletal details of its personnel who died 70 years ago in the battle of Imphal during World War II.
A six-member Japanese team of forensic experts visited the capital city of Manipur and the far-flung areas of the state last week to take DNA samples so that their families can be tracked back in Japan.
Over 30,000 Japanese soldiers had died in Manipur and Nagaland during World War II.
In all, about 40,000 soldiers were estimated to have been killed during the war in the region locally known as ‘Japan Lan’ (War of Japan) in 1944. Japan reportedly lost around 2.4 million lives in battlefields outside its territory in the war.
“The purpose of the visit, according to the members who hardly speak English, was to collect the remains of their soldiers,” said Irungbam Mangal, general secretary of Indo-Japan Friendship Association (Manipur), who accompanied the Japanese expert team.
He said the members told him that they have fixed a period within which the samples are to be collected and DNA tests done.
Soon after their arrival, chief expert Asunari Tokunaga of Tokyo-based Japan Association for Recovery and Repatriation of War Casualty collected the remains from the 2nd World War Imphal Campaign Foundation (WWICF) museum in Imphal.
The team also visited various locations in the state where the actual battle was fought between the Allied Forces and the Japanese, who were aided by the Indian National Army.
They even conducted excavation work at Kameng but could not collect any remains.
The team also burnt the earlier collected skeletal remains into ashes for taking them back to Japan in order to conducting the last rites.
“Now we will focus on these mass graves and try to locate the exact place as the bone recovery mission has started,” said Rajeshwar Yumnam, who also accompanied the team.
“Interestingly, a young team member, Kenji Karasawa (of Japan Youth Memorial Association), believes that war brings nothing but destruction, and thus joined the recovery project,” Mangal said.