ハワイ 戦艦せんかんミズーリ記念きねん館かん 沖縄おきなわ戦せんさなかの特攻とっこう伝つたえる式典しきてん

In commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, a ceremony was held at the Battleship Missouri Memorial in Hawaii, USA, attended by representatives from both Japan and the United States, to pass down the historical facts of the attacks by Japanese kamikaze aircraft to future generations.

Currently, the battleship Missouri, which is utilized as a memorial in Hawaii, still bears the marks from a kamikaze attack by the former Japanese military that crashed into it on April 11, 1945, during the Battle of Okinawa.

In the attack, one special attack unit member died, and under the orders of the captain of the Missouri, the body was wrapped in a rising sun flag and buried at sea with a salute the following day.

To remember this historical fact and pass it on to future generations, a ceremony was held on the ship on the 11th, hosted by the Battleship Missouri Memorial Association.

Kagoshima Prefectures Minamikyushu City Mayor Hiroyuki Nuruki, where the kamikaze aircraft took off, attended the ceremony and said, We must view, consider, discuss, and convey the past war from multiple perspectives and from each others positions.

I would like to call on the world to ensure that inhumane events like kamikaze attacks never happen again, he said in his speech.

Additionally, Carrie Callahan, who is the granddaughter of the captain at the time, said, Both trade wars and actual wars harm us all and should not be entered into lightly.

The defeat of others does not necessarily mean our victory, he said.

Then, after the letters from the kamikaze pilots and the diary of the Missouri crew members were read aloud, the attendees offered prayers for peace by dropping petals into the sea from the starboard side of the battleship that had been struck by the kamikaze aircraft.