Japan begins exhuming remains of World War II soldiers in Bangladesh

By SM Najmus Sakib

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AA) - A Japanese team has started exhuming work at Mainamati War Cemetery in eastern Bangladesh to take the remains of 24 World War II soldiers back home.

"We have received a letter from the Bangladesh Ministry of Foreign Affairs to support exhuming work," Md. Amirul Kyser, the deputy commissioner and Cumilla district magistrate, told Anadolu on Monday.

The mission started in September after Japanese authorities launched an effort to recover the remains of soldiers, he added, saying that the work began on Sunday after a seven-member forensic team from Japan arrived last week.

As the excavation work began at the cemetery, bones, including skulls, were unearthed. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission's Bangladesh unit is also supporting the work.

The work is expected to be completed by Nov. 25. Law enforcement agencies are providing security while the local administration is giving assistance to the work, the official added.

Japan has launched the first-ever project to take the remains of soldiers back home, some eight decades after the war. The soldiers had been taken there as prisoners by British forces during World War II, according to the Japanese national broadcaster NHK on Sept. 24.

There are 43 soldiers' graves in Cumilla and 24 of them are said to be buried in Cumilla's Mainamati War Cemetery, the NHK said.

The cemetery, known as a historical tourist attraction in the country, has the remains of 738 soldiers from 13 different countries who were killed during World War II. One soldier’s remains were taken to the US by relatives in 1962.