Japan's emperor to pray for WW2 dead on Saipan
(Agencies)
Updated: 2005-06-27 09:30

Japanese Emperor Akihito was to head for the U.S. territory of Saipan on Monday to mourn those who died in World War II, 60 years after the end of a conflict that still haunts his country's ties with its Asian neighbors.

The journey, the first by Akihito outside Japan to pray for war dead, coincides with a chill in Tokyo's relations with China and South Korea, where many feel Japan has not owned up to the misery caused by its past military aggression.

Japanese Emperor Akihito (R) and Empress Michiko smile as they are welcomed on arrival at the Saipan international airport June 27, 2005. Akihito flew in to the U.S. territory to mourn those who died in World War II, 60 years after the end of a conflict that still haunts his country's ties with its Asian neighbors. [Reuters]

Elderly Japanese veterans are pleased that Akihito, 71, son of the late Emperor Hirohito in whose name their comrades fought and died, is making the journey.

"Those who fought then were soldiers of the emperor, and they and we who remain are happy that he is coming to comfort their souls," said Seiichi Oike, 87, one of only about 2,000 Japanese who survived the bloody 24-day Battle of Saipan in 1944.

Saipan, considered vital to Japan's homeland defense at the time, was the site of fierce fighting from June 15 to July 9, 1944. U.S. forces wanted the island as a base from which its new B-29 bombers could strike Tokyo, about 2,000 km (1,200 miles) to the north.

About 43,000 Japanese soldiers and 12,000 Japanese civilians died in more than three weeks of fierce fighting.

Hundreds of Japanese soldiers and civilians -- men, women, and children -- committed suicide rather than surrender in shame.

Nearly 3,500 Americans died on Saipan, along with some 900 native islanders, including infants and elderly.

Japan's Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko, pictured in May 2005. [AFP/file]

Some residents of the island, where older people still recall the days of Japanese rule when they were taught to revere Hirohito as a god, were less than enthusiastic about the royal visit.

"I think I'm indifferent," said Margarita Wonenberg, a native of Saipan whose father worked for his keep -- but no pay -- in the sugarcane fields when the island was under Japan's control.

"I think they're coming for their own purpose."

Japanese officials have stressed that Akihito, 71, and Empress Michiko, 70, will mourn all those who lost their lives in the Pacific conflict, whatever their nationality.

JUDGING THE PAST

Whether that message will get across and ease the impression that Japan glosses over its own past atrocities remains in doubt.

In a sign that history still rankles, Korean residents of Saipan had asked that the emperor visit a memorial on the island to their compatriots who lost their lives in the war.

"I don't think that Japan has been really, from what I understand, accurate in their depiction of the war," said Wonenberg's husband, Barry, a 15-year resident of Saipan who teaches at the local Northern Marianas College.

"I think that's what angers a lot of people -- this notion that they pasteurise it for their own people," he said.

The royal couple will visit memorials dedicated to American and local war dead as well as Japanese.

Among the sites are two rocky heights, now known as Banzai Cliff and Suicide Cliff, where Japanese civilians and soldiers committed mass suicide.

Resigned to defeat after three weeks of fighting, the Japanese commander, Lt. General Yoshitsugu Saito, ordered his troops to make a final, suicidal attack on July 7.

He then commited ritual suicide himself.

Following the doomed Japanese assault, Japanese soldiers and civilians fled to Banzai Cliff and Suicide Cliff, where many leapt to their deaths, in some cases mothers clutching children.

Japanese before the war had been taught a nationalist ideology that made it a virtue to die for the sake of an emperor worshipped as a living god. Propaganda about certain rape and torture if taken prisoner by Americans was also common.

Veteran Oike, who was wounded and rescued by an American soldier, said one should not judge the actions of the past by the mores of the present.

"They were taught that it was better to die than be taken prisoner," he said. "If you think of it now, it seems a mistake, but you can't judge them by the way things are now."

The huge loss of life seen on Saipan was repeated on Iwo Jima and Okinawa the following year and helped persuade the United States to drop atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945, prompting Japan's unconditional surrender.

Both bombers took off from the nearby island of Tinian.

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