By MIKA KUNIYOSHI/ Staff Writer
August 23, 2020 at 17:32 JST
Relatives attend a memorial service in Naha on Aug. 22 for the victims who died in the U.S. torpedo attack on the Tsushima Maru cargo ship in 1944. (Tsukasa Kimura)
NAHA--A scaled-back memorial service was held here on Aug. 22 on the 76th anniversary of the sinking of a Japanese cargo ship evacuating about 1,800 children, teachers and parents from Okinawa.
About 30 people, including relatives of the deceased, attended the ceremony to mark the sinking of the Tsushima Maru, which claimed about 1,500 lives. Attendance at this year's service was limited due to the novel coronavirus pandemic.
The ship to evacuate children and adults at the order of the central government left Naha Port on Aug. 21, 1944, for Nagasaki. The Tsushima Maru was sunk by a torpedo fired from a U.S. submarine the following day as it was sailing in waters off the Tokara islands in Kagoshima Prefecture.
As of Aug. 22, the names of 1,484 who were killed have been identified, including 784 schoolchildren, according to the Tsuhima-maru Memorial Museum in Naha.
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