TOKYO — A photograph of a mass grave for Japanese soldiers who died on Iwoto island, formerly known as Iwo Jima, was found at the U.S. National Archives, along with a record of 12 soldiers who died while they were held as prisoners of war, it has been learned.
This is the first time that a picture of a burial place on Iwoto for members of the Japanese Imperial Army has been confirmed. The island was one of the fiercest battlegrounds of World War II.
The record of the 12 Japanese POWs was created by U.S. forces in 1951. It contains each man’s name, military rank, POW number, date and cause of death, and burial place.
The remains of about 12,000 Japanese soldiers have yet to be found on the island.“The records are valuable materials that could contribute greatly to ongoing efforts to recover soldiers’ remains,” a Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry official said.
The new historical data were discovered by Tokyo-based private research firm Nichimy Corp.
According to a written description kept with the picture, the photo was taken by the U.S. Army in November 1946. The description reads “Japanese ... are buried on (sic) this well-kept plot of ground on the island of Iwo Jima.”
According to the ministry, previously discovered records indicate that the area is a mass grave located on the western side of a runway belonging to the Maritime Self-Defense Forces’ Iwoto Air Station.
U.S. military documents found in 2010 at the archives say about 2,000 bodies were buried at the site. Subsequent efforts by the ministry turned up the remains of 1,143 soldiers.
The ministry hopes to speed up its work to recover the still-undiscovered remains, using the landscape and the road in the picture as clues to identify the location of the mass grave, a ministry official said.
The U.S. military landed on the island in February 1945 and fought a fierce ground battle with Japanese forces for more than a month through March. About 22,000 Japanese soldiers died.