Okinawa on Tuesday marked the 75th anniversary of the end of a major World War II ground battle that claimed over 200,000 lives, including large numbers of local civilians as well as Japanese and U.S. combatants.
The annual memorial service was held on a scaled-down basis at the Peace Memorial Park in Itoman, the site of the final stage of the Battle of Okinawa, without the attendance of Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and other officials due to the coronavirus outbreak.
It also came amid the continued conflict between the Okinawa and central governments over the sizeable presence of the U.S. military in the island prefecture.