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Shinzo Abe pays tribute to Japanese war dead in Wewak

 
Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has visited a memorial in Papua New Guinea to pay tribute to Japanese soldiers killed in World War II.

Japan's Prime Minister Shinzo Abe has visited a memorial in Papua New Guinea to pay tribute to Japanese soldiers killed in World War II. Mr Abe and his wife Akie laid flowers and offered silent prayers at the memorial in Wewak on Papua New Guinea's northern coast.

Friday's visit was the first by an incumbent Japanese prime minister to the memorial, which was built by the Japanese Government in 1981. Japan wants to be a country that thinks about peace with its friends in Asia and around the world.

The Aitape-Wewak campaign was one of the final campaigns in the Pacific theatre of World War II. About 200,000 Japanese soldiers were killed in the New Guinea campaign.

"We must not repeat the horrors of the war," Mr Abe told reporters. "I pledged in front of the spirits of the war dead that Japan wants to be a country that thinks about world peace with its friends in Asia and around the world."

The Japanese premier also said he would strive to bring back the remains of Japanese soldiers who died in the Pacific or other areas during the war.
 
Courtesy of Radio Australia
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