Tributes have been paid to a select group of British schoolboys who studied Japanese during World War II and later went on to build enduring ties between the two countries.
Dignitaries gathered at London's School of Oriental and African Studies on Monday to recall the efforts of the 30 boys who were chosen by the British government to study at the school from May 1942.
When Japan bombed Pearl Harbor in December 1941, Britain's War Office realized that many of its finest Japanese speakers were being held captive in Japan. It set up a scholarship for 30 boys aged between 17 and 18 to undergo an intensive 18-month period of training in Japanese at SOAS.