80 Years On, Memorial Built for Victims of Fierce Battle in India

Kohima, India, May 8 (Jiji Press)--A ceremony was held Wednesday to celebrate the completion of a memorial in Kohima in the state of Nagaland, northeastern India, which was a bloody battlefield in the 1944 Battle of Imphal during World War II.

With this year marking the 80th anniversary of the Battle of Imphal, the Nagaland state government erected the memorial to console the souls of Japanese troops and troops of India under British rule who died in the battle as well as local residents who lost their lives as they were involved in the fighting.

Attendees at the ceremony included Japanese Ambassador to India Hiroshi Suzuki and high-ranking officials of the Nagaland state government.

Seiichi Suzuki, a 53-year-old participant, said, "I hope the memorial will help people remember what happened at the time."

Suzuki, an employee of a Japanese company operating in India, is a relative of the late Zenshiro Tsukada, who experienced the battle in Kohima as a member of a Japanese infantry regiment. Tsukada, from Niigata Prefecture, central Japan, survived the savage battle. He passed away in 2010.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]