JAL Jet Crash Victims Remembered on 41st Anniversary

Ueno, Gunma Pref., Aug. 12 (Jiji Press)--Victims of the 1985 crash of a Japan Airlines jumbo jet were remembered at the mountainous accident site in eastern Japan on Wednesday, the 41st anniversary of the tragedy.

From early in the morning, bereaved family members and others went on a memorial hike, climbing to the 1,565-meter-high Osutaka Ridge, the crash site in the village of Ueno, Gunma Prefecture, north of Tokyo.

They prayed for the deceased in front of memorial markers scattered along the trail where the aircraft crashed after leaving Tokyo's Haneda Airport for Osaka International Airport, killing 520 people on board.

Toru Izutani, a 67-year-old self-employed man from the western city of Osaka, walked up the trail step by step in heavy rain to remember his sister, Junko, who was 20 at the time of the accident.

Placing a picture of his father, who died last year, at her marker, Izutani said with a smile, "I wonder if (my sister and father) were able to meet in the afterlife."

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]