Shizuoka • Japan
Each June, Japanese and American participants, U.S. service members from Yokota Air Base, and guests from around the world gather in Shizuoka to remember those who lost their lives during the air raid of June 1945. The Memorial Service led for many years by Dr. Hiroya Sugano carries forward a tradition of remembrance and reconciliation .
MEMORIAL SERVICE
What began as one man’s act of compassion has grown into a tradition shared across generations. Itoh belived that people , whether friends or enemies , deserved to be treated with the same humanity. No one truly wins a war when we consider the lives it takes and the wounds it leaves behind. The Shizuoka Memorial Service shows that even after such loss, reconciliation is possible.
Joint memorial service for the Japanese victims of the air raid and the American B-29 crews.
THE PATH TO THE MEMORIALS
A JOURNEY UP MOUNT SHIZUHATA
Reaching the memorials is part of the experience.
From the foot of Mount Shizuhata, the path climbs for more than thirty minutes through the wooded slopes before reaching the monuments overlooking Shizuoka.
Today, participants make this climb for the annual Memorial Service. But decades ago, Fukumatsu Itoh made the journey regularly, climbing the mountain to tend the graves and pray for Japanese civilians and the American airmen who had lost their lives.
Knowing this gives the path a different meaning. What is a commemorative walk today was, for Itoh, a repeated and deeply personal act of compassion toward men who had once been considered the enemy.
BOURBON & INCENSE
Itho once said “We cannot honor only the spirits of the people of Shizuoka. We must also comfort the souls of those who died on the enemy side”.
He used his own funds to erect two memorials in 1970: a statue of Kannon, the Buddhist Goddess of Mercy, dedicated to Shizuoka’s air raid victims, and a stone monument honoring the 23 B-29 crewmen.
They stand on Mount Shizuhata, within the grounds of Shizuoka Sengen Shrine overlooking the city. It is here that two traditions come together in one ceremony.
In remembrance of the American airmen, Japanese and American representatives together pour bourbon from the Blackened Canteen over the B-29 monument — continuing the gesture that has become a symbol of reconciliation between former enemies.
At the second memorial, flowers are laid, incense is burned and prayers are offered in the Japanese tradition, to honor the civilians of Shizuoka who lost their lives.
Two nations, once separated by war, now share the same purpose — to remember, to honor, and to carry a message of peace forward.
The Blackened Canteen
The Canteen was found at the crash site of two B-29 bombers after they collided mid-air during a bombing raid over Shizuoka.
B-29 Monument
Lt. Col. James Hackbarth, 374th Operations Support Squadron commander, pours bourbon from the Canteen over an American monument on Mount Shizuhata, Shizuoka , Japan, June 16, 2012.
A Ceremony of Remembrance.
The Memorial Service is marked by simple, symbolic gestures. Prayers are offered, incense is burned, flowers are laid, and music accompanies moments of reflection.
Each gesture carries the same purpose : to honor the Japanese civilians who lost their lives in the air raid and the American airmen who never returned home.
From Generation to Generation
The people who experienced the war are becoming fewer with every passing year. Yet the meaning of this ceremony continues through those who choose to remember.
Each generation inherits more than a story. It inherits the responsibility to keep the message of reconciliation alive.
Remember together. Honor together. Carry it forward.