President Tommy Remengesau expressed gratitude for the decision by Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko to visit the Pacific island nation next month on the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II.

"We are very much honored and grateful for this historical opportunity for the Emperor and the Empress to visit Palau," Remengesau said in an interview Friday.

The Imperial Couple will make a two-day trip to Palau from April 8. During their visit to the island chain, one of the major battlegrounds of the Pacific War, they will meet Remengesau and visit Japanese and U.S. cenotaphs to pay their respects to the war dead.