From Our Correspondent
Guwahati: Japanese officials with help from the administration in Guwahati city and Assam’s forensic department have started exhuming eleven graves of Japanese soldiers from World War II who were buried in the war cemetery at Silphukhuri in the heart of the city.
A senior official of Kamrup Metropolitan district informed that three Japanese officials including a technical expert had started the process of exhuming graves of 11 Japanese soldiers from World War II in the war cemetery here. The work has been undertaken with due permission from the Government of India.
The officials said the Japanese government wanted to take home the mortal remains of their soldiers buried here. The Japanese officials on the job here are Koju Matsubaysal, First Secretary of Japanese Embassy, Ken Miyashita, deputy director of Foreign Affairs, Japan (planning division of war victims relief). The third official from Japan, Massahiro Takeda is a technical expert.
An official of forensic department of Assam and a senior official of the State Archaeological Department are helping Japanese officials who are supervising the grave digging up operation at the site. All the expenditure related to the operation has been provided by Japan government.
There are total nine World War II cemetery in the country, out of which five are in North East India – two in Imphal, one in Kohima, one in Guwahati and one in Digboi in upper Assam. The rest four such burial grounds are in Delhi, Pune, Chennai and Kolkata. All these are maintained by Commonwealth War Grave Commission (CWGC) which has it’s headquarter in London.
Kohima and Imphal in North East India were raging battle fields between the Allied Force and Japanese Army during World War II.
The regional manager (NE) of CWGC, Salew Pfotte, said it was for the first time graves in World War II burial ground in the country was being dug up. He informed that the war cemetery in Guwahati had 461 graves of soldiers from Commonwealth Countries – 334 from UK, 143 from India, four from Canada, four from South Africa and one from New Zealand. There are 35 graves of soldiers from non-Commonwealth Countries – 11 from Japan and 24 from China.
The graves of Japanese soldiers that are being dug up belonged to (as per the stone plaques attached) – Private Okamoto, Lance Corporal Miyata Kotsuo, Private Morata Doshu, Private Yamado Kesakti, Private Komatsutomoshige, Private Hachivets Uyoshi, Private Urata Yotaka, Private Ishiwara Hiroja, Private Shotasaburo, Private Ikdmiraisao and Private Kito Zwao.