Naoki Mizuno, a Kyoto University professor, is hoping to shed light on the Japanese who died in the northern part of the Korean Peninsula around the end of World War II and remain buried there.
"The issue is a result of Japan's (colonial rule of the Korean Peninsula) and wars of aggression," he said. "It is one of the important postwar issues that Japan should deal with."
Regarding the many soldiers believed to be among the dead, Mizuno said, "the Japanese government has a clear responsibility and duty to investigate their whereabouts."