Memorial Service Held in Fukuoka for Executed U.S. POWs

   Fukuoka, June 20 (Jiji Press)--A memorial service was held in Fukuoka on Friday for U.S. prisoners of war who were executed without trial by the western command of the now-defunct Imperial Japanese Army in the closing days of World War II.
   The event was attended by people related to the POW executions from Japan and the United States, including a consul of the U.S. Consulate in Fukuoka and a U.S. Forces Japan chaplain.
   "We must do our part to ensure that the friendship between our two nations continues and leads to lasting peace," Katsuya Toji, 71, the third son of a former paymaster captain of the army who was judged a war criminal, said in his address at the ceremony, held at the Aburayama Kannon temple in the southwestern Japan city.
   Toji's father, Kentaro, executed four captured B-29 bomber crew members soon after Kentaro lost his mother in a U.S. air strike.
   "War leaves deep scars, not only on the defeated but also the victors," Toji stressed.

(2025/06/20-20:55)