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The Yomiuri Shimbun The Emperor and Empress offer prayers during the national memorial service for the war dead at the Nippon Budokan hall in Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo, on Thursday.
The Yomiuri Shimbun
17:21 JST, August 15, 2024
The national memorial service to honor those who died in World War II was held at the Nippon Budokan hall in Chiyoda Ward, Tokyo, on Thursday, 79 years after Japan’s surrender in the war.
The service was attended by about 4,000 people, including the Emperor and Empress, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida and members of the families of the war dead. They mourned the approximately 3.1 million people who died in the war and renewed their oath against war.
The program for the service was the same as before the COVID-19 pandemic, which had forced the cancellation of some parts of the proceedings, such as singing the national anthem, from 2020 onward.
“Looking back on the long period of post-war peace, reflecting on our past and bearing in mind the feelings of deep remorse, I earnestly hope that the ravages of war will never again be repeated. Together with all our people, I now pay my heartfelt tribute to all those who lost their lives in the war, both on the battlefields and elsewhere, and pray for world peace and for the continuing developments of our country,” the Emperor said.
The Emperor and his predecessor, now the Emperor Emeritus, have used the term “deep remorse” in their addresses for 10 consecutive years.
“We will not forget, even for a moment, that the peace and prosperity that Japan enjoys today was built atop the precious lives and the history of suffering of the war dead,” Kishida said. “We must never again repeat the devastation of war. Although 79 years have now passed, no matter how time flows, we will remain committed to this resolute pledge, passing it down across generations.”
Before the pandemic, about 5,000 members of families of the war dead used to attend the service every year. Since 2020, however, their number has decreased to the range of about 50 to 1,400. The government hoped to bring the number back up to the pre-pandemic level, yet the number has remained only at about 70% of that level.
Baggage inspections and security checks were introduced at the venue due to concerns over potential attacks on the attendees in light of the assassination of former Prime Minister Shinzo Abe in 2022 and the attack against Kishida last year.
According to the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry, 47%, or 1,513, of the attendees were born after the war, the largest percentage in the history of the service. For the 14th year in a row, the attendees have included no parent of the war dead. Only two spouses of war dead were present. As family members with firsthand experience of losses in the war are all now very old, passing down memories of the war to generations who have been spared such suffering is becoming an imminent issue.
Japan’s war dead — people who died in the war from 1937 to 1945 and during the Siberian internment thereafter — include 2.3 million members of the military, in addition to more than 800,000 civilians who died in air raids and by the two atomic bombs.
About 33,000 people were expected to attend memorial services for the war dead held across the country on Thursday.
