Names Engraved On Okinawa Battle Monument
Work has begun to add the names of recently-identified victims of the 1945 Battle of Okinawa to a monument in Japan's southern prefecture.
The Cornerstone of Peace in a memorial park in Itoman City, Okinawa Prefecture, is inscribed with the names of more than 240,000 people who died in the fighting. The names of people newly recognized as victims are added every year.
The work began in the city of Nanjo on Tuesday, ahead of Okinawa's Memorial Day on June 23. The date marks the end of fierce ground battles on the islands in the closing days of World War Two.
Workers engraved the names on black stone plates about 1-meter high and 1.5-meters wide.
Forty-one people are being added this year. Thirty-eight of them were natives of Okinawa Prefecture, and three were from other prefectures. The monument will bear the names of 241,632 victims.
The stone plates will be installed in the park on Thursday.
An Okinawa prefectural official said the local government is preparing for the memorial day, as bereaved families are looking forward to seeing the names of their loved ones on the monument.