NAGASAKI – Japan’s Emperor Naruhito, Empress Masako and their daughter Princess Aiko arrived Friday in Nagasaki Prefecture to pay their respects to victims of the 1945 U.S. atomic bombing, in their last trip to honor war dead in the year marking the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II.
The imperial couple is making their first visit to Nagasaki since the emperor acceded to the throne in 2019. The trip to the atomic-bombed city is the first-ever by the 23-year-old princess.
The family is expected to offer flowers at a cenotaph for atomic bomb victims at ground zero in the Nagasaki Peace Park and visit the adjacent Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum. Later in the day, they will also meet with survivors and those working to carry on memories of the bombing.
On Saturday, they will meet with residents of a nursing home for atomic bomb survivors, after which Princess Aiko will return to Tokyo.
The imperial couple will then travel from Nagasaki to Sasebo, also in Nagasaki Prefecture, to attend the opening ceremony of the National Cultural Festival the following day, according to the Imperial Household Agency.
Like his parents, former Emperor Akihito and former Empress Michiko, did when they marked the 50th anniversary of the end of the war, Emperor Naruhito and his wife in April visited Iwoto Island, formerly known as Iwojima and the site of a fierce battle between Japan and the United States in the Pacific.
They also paid their respects in June to the war dead on the island of Okinawa, accompanied by Princess Aiko, and to atomic bomb victims in Hiroshima.
In July, the imperial couple honored Japanese nationals who died in internment camps in Mongolia during the first state visit to the country by a Japanese emperor.
BY: The Times Union – KYODO
