Emperor Naruhito, Empress Masako, and Princess Aiko Honor Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Victims

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Japan, Royal Family, Emperor Naruhito, Empress Masako, Princess Aiko


On Sep 12, Emperor Naruhito, Empress Masako and their daughter, Princess Aiko, offered prayers Friday for the victims of the U.S. atomic bombing of the city of Nagasaki in the closing days of World War II. 


Led by Nagasaki Mayor Shiro Suzuki, the royal family visited Nagasaki Peace Park. They offered white flowers and bowed deeply at a monument marking the epicenter of the Aug. 9, 1945, atomic bombing. The royal family arrived at Nagasaki Airport on a special flight from Tokyo's Haneda Airport earlier Friday. It is Princess Aiko's first visit to the prefecture and the first for the imperial couple since the emperor's ascension to the throne in May 2019.


The royal family was set to visit the Nagasaki Atomic Bomb Museum late Friday and then meet with four atomic bomb survivors, including a co-chair of the Japan Confederation of A- and H-Bomb Sufferers Organizations, or Nihon Hidankyo, which was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize last year. They were also set to meet two young people working to preserve memories of the bombing. The family is slated to meet with people living in a special elderly nursing home for atomic bomb survivors, located in the city, on Saturday.

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On Sunday, Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako will attend the opening ceremony for the National Cultural Festival and the National Arts and Culture Festival for Persons with Disabilities, both to be held in the city of Sasebo in the prefecture. They will return to Tokyo on Sunday night.


This year, which marks the 80th anniversary of the end of the war, Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako have made trips to several other locations in Japan to pray for the souls of victims of the war.


In April, they visited the remote Tokyo island of Iwo Jima in the Pacific, where Japan and the United States engaged in fierce battles in the late stage of the war.


In June, they traveled to Okinawa Prefecture, where more than 200,000 people died in the savage ground battles between Japan and the U.S.-led Allied powers toward the end of the war, and to Hiroshima, which was flattened by a U.S. atomic bomb on Aug. 6, 1945, three days before the devastation of Nagasaki.


Underscoring the importance of passing lessons of the war on to younger generations, Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako have taken their daughter to Nagasaki with them, as they did for their visit to Okinawa Prefecture. 

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