Despite intermittent rain, thousands of war veterans and relatives of Japan's war dead visited Tokyo's Yasukuni Shrine on Friday, the 52nd anniversary of Japan's surrender at the end of World War II, to pay tribute to those who lost their lives in war.
"Many of my friends were killed. So I come here every year," said 77-year-old Minoru Nakamura, of Itabashi Ward, Tokyo. "We fought fierce battles together on the Bataan Peninsula (in the Philippines)."
Touching his left leg, he recalled the bullet that pierced his knee and the malaria that plagued every member of his unit.