Japan finds mass graves on Iwo Jima

October 23, 2010|Associated Press

TOKYO — Two mass graves that may hold the remains of up to 2,000 Japanese soldiers have been discovered on Iwo Jima, one of the bloodiest and most iconic battlesites of World War II, a report said yesterday.

A team of Japanese searchers has already discovered the remains of about 50 soldiers in two areas listed by the US military after the war as enemy cemeteries, one of which could contain as many as 2,000 bodies, Japan’s Kyodo news agency reported.

The discovery of the remains would be one of the biggest breakthroughs in decades toward finding the bodies of roughly 12,000 Japanese who remain missing and presumed dead after the 1945 battle on the island.

Virtually all of the 22,000 Japanese soldiers defending Iwo Jima were killed in the battle.