Bereaved families and others held a memorial ceremony in Tokyo on Thursday to read out the names of victims of U.S. air raids on the Japanese capital during World War II 80 years ago.
Some 80 people spent about five hours reading out the names of 4,138 victims, including Koreans and U.S. soldiers. The annual ceremony started in 2021.
Tokyo suffered from more than 100 U.S. air raids during the war, with about 100,000 people said to have been killed in the early hours of March 10, 1945.
"Each victim had a name, a family and a future to live in," Setsuko Kawai, 86, chair of the event's organizing committee who lost her mother and two younger brothers in the massive raid, said in a speech.
"The names read out will be a signpost for peace," she said.
"This effort, if it continues, will lead to passing down the horrors of war," said Kenta Iida, a 21-year-old college student and one of the people who read out the victims' names.
The event was an example of efforts to preserve the names of air raid victims.
On March 8, tapestries printed with the names of 441 victims were unveiled by a group of bereaved families and a civic group.
The tapestries "made it possible to keep the names (of my beloved ones)," said Haruko Toshimitsu, 97, who lost her mother and younger brother in the massive raid.
The groups said they plan to increase the number of victims' names printed.
The Tokyo Metropolitan Government has a list of 81,583 air raid victims, counted as of the end of last year, but it is not available for viewing.
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