Japanese emperor visits Iwo Jima to honor war dead 80 years after one of WWII’s fiercest battles

IWO-TO, Japan (AP) - Japan's Emperor Naruhito on Monday visited Iwo Jima to pay tribute to those who died on the island where one of World War II’s harshest battles was fought 80 years ago.

The visit by Naruhito and his wife, Emperor Masako, both born after the war, is their first to the island. The Imperial couple was to pray at three memorial sites and meet with representatives of bereaved families and descendants of former island residents.

Naruhito, in his 65th birthday remarks in February noting the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II, stressed the importance of remembering the wartime history and telling younger generations about the tragedy. Japan fought in the war and invaded large areas of Asia in the name of his grandfather, then-Emperor Hirohito.

The island, whose official name today is Iwo-to, was the site where Japanese and American soldiers faced off in one of the war's fiercest battles.

The battle of Iwo Jima lasted from Feb. 19 to March 26, 1945, as the United States tried to take control of a key strategic point to advance to mainland Japan. Despite expectations by the U.S. they would overwhelm the Japanese within days, Japanese soldiers used underground tunnels and resisted for five weeks, in a part of war history that has inspired many novels and movies.

Nearly all of the more than 21,000 Japanese and nearly 7,000 U.S. troops were killed. More than half of the remains of the Japanese are still unaccounted for. All 1,100 residents of Iwo Jima except for 103 men drafted as military employees were forcibly evacuated to mainland Japan. Former residents and their descendants have been allowed to visit the island for memorial events but not to live.

The emperor's Iwo Jima visit comes about 10 days after Japan and the U.S. held a joint memorial service to mark the end of the battle of Iwo Jima in late March, when Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and Defense Minister Gen Nakatani joined U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, as well as other officials and several veterans who survived the battle, to honor the war dead from both sides.