Belgian Crown Prince Philippe is greeted by Japanese Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko at the Imperial residence in Tokyo 17 June 2005. Crown Prince Philippe is here on a week-long visit to Japan.
Emperor meets survivors of Pacific islands battles before trip
(Kyodo) _ Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko on Tuesday met nine Japanese survivors of battles on Pacific islands during World War II, before the imperial couple visit Saipan, one of the islands, next week to pay homage to war victims of both sides.
The emperor and empress talked at the Imperial Palace with the survivors, including former Japanese soldiers and civilians who moved to those islands following Japan's occupation, the Imperial Household Agency said.
The emperor spoke words of appreciation, one of the nine said in a press conference after the meeting.
"When I talked about my experience, the emperor expressed his sympathy for my hardship," said Choken Ginoza, 74, a civilian who lost 10 members of his family in the battle on Tinian between Japanese and U.S. forces.
Former soldier Seiichi Oike, 87, said he was surprised that the emperor looked "quite like an ordinary person." The late Emperor Hirohito, posthumously known as Emperor Showa and the father of the present emperor, headed the Japanese military before and during the war.
Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko will make a two-day visit to Saipan in the Western Pacific starting from next Monday to express condolences for those who died on both sides in the battle on the island in 1944.
On the island, they will see the Monument for the Dead in the Mid-Pacific, built by the Japanese government in 1974, and two cliffs from which hundreds of Japanese soldiers and civilians jumped to their deaths rather than surrender. They will also visit the American Memorial Park.
Saipan, the capital of the U.S. Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, is the first foreign destination in a series of trips by the emperor and empress to commemorate victims of the war. They have previously visited Hiroshima, Nagasaki and Okinawa.
Some 43,000 Japanese troops, 12,000 civilians and 900 local islanders died on Saipan during the battle that lasted from June 15 to July 9, 1944, according to data compiled by the Japanese government. About 5,000 American soldiers were killed on Saipan and Tinian. After the U.S. forces won the battle, the Allies used Saipan and Tinian as bases to launch air raids on Japan's main islands. The B-29 bombers that took off from Tinian dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in the run-up to Japan's unconditional surrender on Aug. 15, 1945.
Japanese Princess Takamado and FIFA President Joseph S. Blatter attend the 2005 FIFA Confederations Cup football match Japan vs Brazil, 22 June 2005 at the Rhein-Energie stadion in Cologne.
Japan's Princess Takamado, left, talks to FIFA President Joseph Blatter prior to the Confederations Cup group B soccer match between Brazil and Japan in Cologne, Germany, Wednesday, June 22, 2005.
(Kyodo) _ Some 50 colleagues at the Yamashina Institute for Ornithology in Chiba Prefecture held a farewell party Wednesday evening for Princess Sayako, Emperor Akihito's only daughter, who will marry in November, as she will quit her work as a part-time researcher at the laboratory, according to sources familiar with the situation.
The 36-year-old princess has decided to quit because she has wrapped up her research at the facility, they said. She is scheduled to marry Tokyo metropolitan government employee Yoshiki Kuroda, 40, in a ceremony on Nov. 15.
Prince Akishino and his wife Princess Kiko receive a stuffed toy elephant as they arrive at a cinema at Roppongi Hills to watch the film "Shining Boy And Little Randy" on June 24, 2005 in Tokyo, Japan. The movie was filmed largely in Thailand and will open on July 16 in Japan.
(Kyodo) _ Some 50 colleagues at the Yamashina Institute for Ornithology in Chiba Prefecture held a farewell party Wednesday evening for Princess Sayako, Emperor Akihito's only daughter, who will marry in November, as she will quit her work as a part-time researcher at the laboratory, according to sources familiar with the situation.
The 36-year-old princess has decided to quit because she has wrapped up her research at the facility, they said. She is scheduled to marry Tokyo metropolitan government employee Yoshiki Kuroda, 40, in a ceremony on Nov. 15.
Princess Sayako prepares For married life by quitting work at bird laboratory Friday, 24 June 2005 Japan's Princess Sayako has quit her job in anticipation for married life.
The 36-year-old royal, who will wed commoner Yoshiki Kuroda later this year, joined a leaving party in her honour at the Yamashina Institute for Ornithology on Wednesday (22.06.05) evening.
The princess, who worked part-time at the centre, said she had decided to terminate her contract because she had completed her research before her wedding to 39-year-old Kuroda, who works in the capital's city planning department, takes place in November.
The smitten couple, who have shared a two-year romance, will marry at Tokyo's Imperial Hotel on November 16th, according to the Imperial Household agency, after announcing their engagement in December.
As well as resigning from working life, the princess will also relinquish her royal title after her wedding and be forced to move out of the royal palace.
Prince Akishino and his wife Princess Kiko arrive at a cinema at Roppongi Hills to watch the film "Shining Boy And Little Randy" on June 24, 2005 in Tokyo, Japan.
Japan's Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko head for their special flight to Saipan at Tokyo's Haneda airport June 27, 2005 Akihito headed for Saipan, the site of one of World War Two's most decisive battles, on Monday to pay tribute to those who died in a conflict that still haunts Tokyo's ties with Asian neighbours, 60 years after its end.
* Other old pictures *
1. Princess Tomiko Kita-shirakawa (1862-1936)
2. Princess Teiko Fushimi
3. Princess Kaneko Higashi-fushimi (1876-1955)
4. Emperor Taisyo, Empress Teimei and crown prince Hirohito
5. Princess Atsuko Fushimi (1907-1936) and her husband.
6. Prince Yoshimaro Yamashina (1900-1989) and his wife.
By ERIC TALMADGE, Associated Press Writer Mon Jun 27, 4:51 AM ET
SAIPAN, Northern Mariana Islands - Emperor Akihito arrived on this tiny U.S. territory Monday to pray for the thousands of Japanese and American combat deaths, in the first visit by a Japanese monarch to a World War II battlesite abroad.
The visit comes amid growing anger in China and the Koreas over what many there see as Japan's failure to make amends for wartime atrocities, and over repeated visits by Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi to a war shrine in Tokyo that is a powerful symbol of Japan's pre-1945 militarism.
Akihito and Empress Michiko were to spend two days on this semitropical island, where some of World War II's fiercest fighting marked the beginning of the end for Japan's war machine in the Pacific.
One scheduled stop was "Banzai Cliff," where Japanese fearing capture by American troops plunged to their deaths after shouting "banzai," which means long life, for Akihito's father, the late Emperor Hirohito.
"Our hearts ache when we think of those people who fought at a place where there was no food, no water, no medical treatment for the wounded," Akihito said in a statement at Tokyo's airport.
The royal couple also planned to place wreaths at monuments to the U.S. troops and the local islanders who were killed.
At least 30,000 Japanese troops — some Japanese estimates go as high as 43,000 — and 12,000 civilians died in the battle. More than 5,000 Americans, about half of them Marines, and 1,000 or so islanders also were killed on Saipan or nearby islands.
Akihito attends an annual ceremony in Tokyo marking Japan's 1945 defeat. He has been to China and has expressed remorse for the past during visits to Japan by South Korean leaders. But he has never made a trip to offer condolences at a former battlefield overseas.
"This time on soil beyond our shores, we will once again mourn and pay tribute to all those who lost their lives in the war and we will remember the difficult path the bereaved families had to follow," he said in the statement. "And we wish to pray for world peace."
But anger over Japan's militarist past still runs deep in Asia, where many believe Tokyo has failed to atone.
Though Akihito was expected to receive a warm welcome here — Saipan's economy relies heavily on Japanese tourism, and flag-waving crowds braved a downpour to line the path of his motorcade — such sensitivities hung over the visit.
A small minority of Koreans living here threatened to stage protests because the imperial couple was not expected to pay their respects at a memorial to the Koreans who died here. Korea was a Japanese colony from 1910 until 1945, and many Koreans were forced to fight for Japan.
Operation Forager, which began on June 15, 1944, has been called the D-Day of the Pacific. The fall of Saipan three weeks later allowed American B-29 bombers to pound Japan's cities, weakening the country's defenses and will to fight.
Atomic weapons were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in early August 1945, and Hirohito announced Japan's defeat on Aug. 15 that year.
Today, about 50,000 people live on Saipan, the capital of the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, a U.S. territory about 1,400 miles southeast of Tokyo.
Roughly 75 percent of the 500,000 tourists who come each year are Japanese. Signs in Japanese are almost as common as those in English, and the local economy depends on tourism.
Most here welcomed Akihito's visit, if only for the publicity.
Cab driver Javier Atalig has his horror stories of relatives who were brutalized or killed by the Japanese. But he said he is also realistic. Most of his fares are from Japan. "What's done is done," he said. "It's the past already. It was something my grandparents or great-grandparents had to go through."
Japan's Princess Sayako has quit her job in anticipation for married life. 
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