TOKYO, April 26 (UPI) -- Japan's Emperor Akihito will visit Saipan Island, one of the major battlefields in the Northern Pacific during World War II, it was announced Tuesday.
Following the Cabinet decision, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued a press release announcing the visit on June 27 and 28 to the island, which is one of the Northern Mariana Islands, now the territory of the United States.
The government advised the visit in order for the emperor and Empress Michiko "to mourn and pay tribute to those who died in the war and to pray for world peace," the announcement said. This will be the first imperial foreign trip for such a purpose.
Saipan Island was the scene of fierce battles in 1944, in which nearly 55,000 Japanese soldiers and civilians died. U.S. forces also lost several thousand lives in and around the island, which later was used for all-out air attacks against the Japanese mainland.
