Emperor Akihito has recalled his trip last year to Palau, the site of fierce fighting in World War II, in a poem recited Thursday at the annual New Year Poetry Reading Ceremony at the Imperial Palace.
The theme for the waka poems at this year's reading was hito (the person). Members of the Imperial family contributed poems, which were read out at the ceremony by an orator.
In his poem, the Emperor describes how he felt on Palau's Peleliu Island in April at the moment when he and Empress Michiko bowed toward nearby Angaur Island after laying flowers at a monument for the war dead.