Sapporo – Former residents of Russian-held islands called the Northern Territories in Japan took a chartered flight Saturday to fly near the islands so that they can pay respects to their ancestors from above. The aerial memorial service was held mainly because the two countries have suspended exchange programs, including one to allow former residents to visit graves of their relatives and ancestors on the islands claimed by Japan, due to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. This was the second such memorial service.
The first one took place in 2020 during the COVID-19 pandemic. On Nov. 7 this year, a similar event is slated to be held. Saturday’s service was attended by 34 people, including former islanders and their families.
The chartered plane left Nemuro Nakashibetsu Airport in Hokkaido around 10:45 a.m., and participants put their hands together in the sky around 11 a.m. Kuni Tabata, 90, from the same island, participated along with her daughter, Hitomi Hoshi, 66, and talked about the school she attended. Hoshi said: “It’s close and yet far away.
I looked at it thinking that there was a time when she lived there.” The islands, which are at the center of the two countries’ territorial dispute, were seized from Japan by Soviet troops in the closing days of World War II.
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