Japan’s Imperial Couple, Princess Aiko Visit Nagasaki as Part of Activities on 80th Anniversary of WWII End (Update 2)

The Yomiuri Shimbun

12:41 JST, September 12, 2025 (updated at 17:00 JST, Sep. 12)

NAGASAKI — The Emperor, the Empress and their eldest daughter Princess Aiko visited Nagasaki on Friday to pay tribute to the war dead, with this year marking 80 years since the end of World War II.

It is the first visit the Imperial couple has made to Nagasaki since the Emperor’s accession to the throne, and Princess Aiko’s first visit to the prefecture.

The family departed Haneda Airport aboard a special aircraft in the morning and arrived in the prefecture shortly after noon. They offered flowers at the Hypocenter Monument in Nagasaki Peace Park on the day.

It was the Emperor’s sixth time offering flowers at the Nagasaki park and the first time in 29 years for the couple to visit the park together. According to aides, the couple, who feel strongly about passing on memories of war, told Princess Aiko that they wanted her to visit the city with them on this occasion.

This year, the couple also visited Okinawa — along with Princess Aiko — and Hiroshima, and paid tribute in Mongolia to Japanese detainees who died in internment. With atomic bomb survivors and other war survivors growing older, the couple has taken several trips to commemorate the war dead, with the Nagasaki trip the last in a series.

“Many precious lives were lost in the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, in the air raids on various cities, in the ground battles in Okinawa and on Iwoto Island and elsewhere,” the Emperor said at a press conference in February. He expressed his desire to extend heartfelt sympathy once again to those who experienced the hardships of the war and its aftermath.

“We shall continue to pass down memories of the suffering endured during and after the war,” the Emperor said in his address at the Memorial Ceremony for the War Dead on Aug. 15, demonstrating his strong commitment to preserving the memory of wartime suffering.

“I hope Aiko will also keep in her heart those who walked the path of hardship,” he said during the February press conference.

The Imperial couple and Princess Aiko will talk with A-bomb survivors at a nursing home on Saturday. Princess Aiko will return to Tokyo that same afternoon, while the Emperor and the Empress will visit an exhibition of paintings and paper cutout artwork created by people with disabilities.

On Sunday, the imperial couple will attend the opening ceremonies of the 40th National Cultural Festival and the 25th arts and culture festival for people with disabilities in Sasebo in the prefecture before returning to Tokyo.