Japan will bring back those killed during World War II from Bangladesh

DHAKA: Japanese officials in Bangladesh are preparing the bodies of 23 soldiers who died during World War II to bring them home after more than 80 years, exhumation teams said on Monday (November 25).

The bodies were exhumed from the Maynamati war cemetery in Bangladesh, near Comilla, where more than 700 people from many nations killed during the war were buried.

“The Japanese soldiers were treated at the Maynamati field hospital before succumbing to their injuries,” said Hillol Sattar, country manager for Bangladesh at the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, which runs the cemetery.

The government-backed Japan Association for the Recovery and Repatriation of War Victims is organizing a rescue operation to return the dead to Tokyo, the Embassy of Japan said in a statement.

The organization says it is trying to return the remains of Japanese war dead, especially from regions that saw heavy fighting during the war – including the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, the Solomon Islands, Indonesia and Burma.

Japan fought in China and Burma – today Burma – against Allied forces and tried to invade British-ruled India, of which Bangladesh was then a part.

The war ended in August 1945 after the United States dropped two nuclear bombs on Japan.

Bangladesh was then part of India, which was partitioned after the end of British imperial rule in 1947.

Sajjad Ali Zahir, a retired Bangladesh Army colonel who was part of the eight-member excavation team, said the identity of the bodies would be checked first.

“The remains will be subjected to DNA testing and once this process is completed, the authorities will hand them over to their families,” Zahir told AFP, adding that the men were to be “buried with military honors.”

Eight decades later, the remains are in “exceptionally delicate condition,” he added, saying they range from full skeletons to “skull and bone fragments.”

Dhaka and Tokyo are close trading partners.

Tokyo has pledged its support for a “peaceful and democratic political transition,” backing interim leader Muhammad Yunus after he was overthrown in August The long-time autocratic leader of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina.