June 23 (UPI) -- Japan mourned the 78th anniversary of the Battle of Okinawa, one of the fiercest conflicts in World War II, on Friday while addressing tensions over a more aggressive China.
The Okinawa prefecture government held a minute of silence for the more than 200,000 people killed in the battle, which ended on June 23, 1945, with the suicide of the local commander of the old Japanese Imperial Army.