Australia and Japan put aside their wartime past yesterday as the relatives of Japanese submariners who died attacking Sydney in 1942 remembered them in a ceremony at sea and at the naval base they targeted.
Relatives of four of six sailors, who are all war heroes in Japan, gathered at the Garden Island navy base in Sydney Harbor to honor the men who died 64 years ago in an audacious attack that brought World War II to Australia's biggest city.
"I was a little boy when my brother was lost," Kazutomo Ban said, holding close an aged photograph of his brother Lieutenant Katsuhisa Ban in his Imperial Japanese Navy uniform.
Three small submarines slipped in darkness past protective nets stretched across the harbor entrance on May 31, 1942, to attack the US battle cruiser USS Chicago.
Two of the 46-tonne subs were damaged and then scuttled by their crews. The third, named the M-24, fired two torpedoes, one of which sank the converted ferry HMAS Kuttabul, killing 19 Australian sailors and two Britons before vanishing under heavy fire. The other torpedo failed to explode.
Divers discovered the M-24 wreck last November in deep water off Sydney's northern beaches. The site has been declared a war grave and the bodies of Lieutenant Ban and Petty Officer Mamoru Ashibe were believed to be still inside.
"This memorial is a solemn reminder not to repeat the mistakes of the past," Japanese Ambassador to Australia Hideaki Ueda told the ceremony at the naval base.
Japanese relatives visited the site yesterday to remember lost family.
`I am very honored to know that the Australian people remember him even today,'' said Kazutomo Ban, 74, told reporters. "I am very happy that finally Australian divers found the submarine and we are here to commemorate."
Ashibe's niece, Hiromi Takemoto, was given sand from the wreck site to place on his empty grave in Japan.
At the ceremony an honor guard of 150 Japanese Maritime Self Defense Force sailors sang Umi Yukaba, the anthem of the Imperial Japanese Navy, as family members wiped away tears.
After a wreath-laying ceremony, relatives held a private viewing of relics from the three submarines, parts from which make up an almost complete submarine at the Australian War Memorial in Canberra. Families will lay wreaths at the Canberra memorial today.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of