Okinawa marked on Thursday the 77th anniversary of the end of a major World War II ground battle between Japanese and U.S. troops, with Prime Minister Fumio Kishida the first Japanese leader in three years to attend the memorial service due to coronavirus pandemic restrictions.
In a peace declaration, Okinawa Gov. Denny Tamaki said Russia's invasion of Ukraine evoked memories of the conflict in the prefecture while pledging to "continue efforts to abolish nuclear weapons and renounce war, so that Okinawa will never become a battlefield again."
The 1945 battle, during the final phase of World War II, claimed the lives of over 200,000 civilians and soldiers from the ranks of Japanese and American troops. Fighting took place from March through June of that year.