Japan’s Emperor and Empress, who are on a state visit to Mongolia, have paid their respects to Japanese nationals who died while detained there after World War Two.
Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako attended a welcome ceremony and other events in the capital Ulaanbaatar on Tuesday morning.
In the afternoon, they traveled to a memorial for Japanese nationals in the suburbs.
About 14,000 Imperial Japanese military personnel and Japanese civilians were detained by the former Soviet Union after the end of World War Two, and sent to Mongolia through Siberia.
About 1,700 of them died from cold, hunger, hard labor and other causes.
The Emperor had visited the memorial in 2007, when he was Crown Prince.
The couple laid flowers at the memorial and observed a moment of silence, amid pouring rain.
They then exchanged words with the head of the group of bereaved families, and relatives of those who were detained.
The couple later returned to their hotel to attend a banquet hosted by Mongolia’s president and first lady.
AloJapan.com