Photo/Illutration Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako arrive at the Maritime Self-Defense Force's Iwoto Air Base in Tokyo’s Ogasawara village on April 7. (Pool)

Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako on April 7 visited Iwoto island, formerly known as Iwojima, for the first time to pay their respects to the war dead.

This is the second instance of a Japanese emperor visiting the island that witnessed some of the fiercest fighting in the Pacific theater during World War II.

Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko were the first imperial couple who preceded them in 1994 during their journey marking the 50th anniversary of the war's end.

The following year, the couple went on to visit Nagasaki, Hiroshima and Okinawa, among other places of significance.

Naruhito and Masako are also making arrangements to head to those locations for the 80th anniversary this year, with Iwoto being the first stop.

The couple boarded a government plane departing from Haneda Airport and touched down at the Iwoto Air Base of the Maritime Self-Defense Force.

Shortly after 3:20 p.m., they arrived at the cenotaph dedicated to the war dead, honoring Imperial Japanese Army officers and soldiers.

Both bowed, offered bouquets of white flowers and again bowed deeply.

They also scooped water with a ladle as an offering before bowing once more. Water was scarce on the island during the war, which forced those on Iwoto to be locked in an enduring struggle against thirst.

The families of the war dead were also present.

Next they visited the memorial cemetery park, where they offered flowers at the stand and bowed. They also visited a facility called Chinkon-no-oka (requiem hill) and offered flowers and bowed.

Both Naruhito and Masako looked solemn and poured water into a basin with a ladle.

Near the requiem hill is a shelter where former Imperial Japanese Army troops holed up during the war. The couple listened to the explanation of the officials about the shelter.

Iwoto is a remote island in the Pacific Ocean about 1,250 kilometers south of central Tokyo.

Toward the end of the war, between February and March 1945, Japan and the United States clashed in intense fighting here, resulting in about 22,000 Japanese and 6,800 U.S. casualties.

The previous year, about 1,000 islanders were forcibly evacuated from the island, many of whom lost their homes forever.

Most of the islanders who remained on the island as military personnel were killed.

It is believed that the remains of more than 10,000 people still lie on the island.

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