Hisao Ito, once a resident of Tinian in the Mariana Islands, witnessed the killing of his two younger sisters by their father during a mass suicide following the landing of U.S. forces in World War II.
About eight decades later, memories of the catastrophe on Tinian — often cited as an island of gyokusai, or "honorable deaths," due to the vast loss of life — remain indelibly imprinted on Ito's memory.
"This is a cruel fact, but I want to pass it on to future generations to help ensure that war never happens again," says Ito, now 90 and living in the town of Aizubange, Fukushima Prefecture.
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