TOKYO (AFP) – Japan and the United States (US) called yesterday for a strengthening of their alliance as Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba and new US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth attended a ceremony marking the 80th anniversary of the Battle of Iwo Jima.
The tiny island of Iwo Jima in the Pacific Ocean lies around 1,250 kilometres from Tokyo and was the scene of five weeks of combat between Japanese and US forces in World War II.
“I’d like to pay my respects to the souls of those who fought for our country on Iwo Jima and renew our pledge to peace,” Ishiba said at the joint Japan-US memorial service on the island. “I’d also like to reiterate our determination to keep the preciousness of peace in our hearts and to raise the US-Japan alliance, which brings peace and prosperity to the world, to new heights. The US-Japan alliance shows those brave men of 1945 how yesterday’s enemy has become today’s friend.”
Hegseth said, “Our alliance has been and remains the cornerstone of freedom, prosperity, security, and peace in the Indo-Pacific, and it will continue.”
The ceremony was about “confirming post-war reconciliation between Japan and the United States and praying for further friendship through joint memorial and tribute activities for the war dead”, the Japanese government said.
Japan and the US are each other’s top foreign investors, and 54,000 US military personnel are stationed in Japan, mostly in Okinawa.
