Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said Friday that he will visit Ioto, widely known as Iwo Jima, on Saturday to attend an event to honor soldiers who died in a fierce battle on the Pacific island 80 years ago.
Ishiba will be the first sitting prime minister to visit the island since April 2013, when then-Prime Minister Shinzo Abe made a stopover.
“I want to think about what Japan and the United States, which both value freedom, democracy and the rule of law, can do for the peace and prosperity of the world, in order to strengthen the (Japan-U.S.) relationship further,” Ishiba told a parliamentary committee meeting.
The memorial event will be held jointly by both countries. Participants will include Defense Minister Gen Nakatani and his U.S. counterpart, Pete Hegseth.
Nearly 30,000 Japanese and U.S. troops were killed in the battle on Ioto between February and March 1945 in the last phase of the Pacific War, part of World War II.
“In spite of a brutal war, the United States-Japan alliance represents the cornerstone of peace and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific,” U.S. President Donald Trump said in a statement released last month to mark the 80th anniversary of the start of the battle on the island.
