Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi vowed yesterday that Japan would never again go to war as he prayed at a World War II memorial service on the tiny Pacific island of Iwo Jima.
"Our country has never taken part or been involved in war after the end of the [world] war and has maintained peace," he said at a ceremony on the volcanic island, some 1,250km south of Tokyo, according to Japanese media reports.
Koizumi was the first Japanese premier to attend a memorial service on the island since the Pacific war ended 60 years ago.
"We will actively contribute to eternal world peace by preventing the lessons of the cruel war from being eroded," the premier said, in front of a cenotaph built in 1971 to commemorate nearly 29,000 people who died in the battle.
Koizumi has deployed Japanese troops on a non-combat humanitarian mission in Iraq, the first Japanese postwar military deployment in a country at war.
Some 21,900 Japanese and 6,800 Americans died in the battle of Iwo Jima which ended on March 26, 1945, when the last batch of Japanese troops launched an attack and their commander General Tadamichi Kuribayashi killed himself.
The battle has been immortalized by a photograph of the raising of the Stars and Stripes by six US marines on Mount Suribachi.
It was followed by the battle of Okinawa, the bloodiest campaign in the Pacific war, which lasted some 80 days and resulted in the death of some 200,000 Japanese and US soldiers and civilians.
The heavy casualties they suffered were a factor in the US decision to drop atom bombs in August 1945 to end the war.
Iwo Jima, located at the midpoint between Tokyo and Guam, was inhabited by 1,100 Japanese before the war but they were forcibly evacuated as the conflict raged. A Japanese defense force base is located on the island at present.
The memorial service was attended by some 50 people, including the premier and Hidehisa Otsuji, the minister of health, welfare and labor.
Koizumi's presence was believed aimed at emphasizing his wish for peace at a time when his repeated visits to Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine, which honors Japanese war dead including war criminals, are angering China and South Korea.
The shrine issue is expected to figure prominently when Koizumi meets South Korean President Roh Moo-hyun in Seoul today.
After the ceremony, Koizumi and US military officers paid tribute at a cenotaph for the US soldiers who died there.
"I have read about the battle in books and documents but my visit made me realize that it was really a fierce battlefield," the premier told reporters.
"When I think about the soldiers who fought with extraordinary courage and devotion, I strongly feel that we shall never again go to war."
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