US Tells Japan Where 12,000 Iwo Jima Soldiers Are Buried

From My Fox NY: US Tells Japan Where 12,000 Iwo Jima Soldiers Are Buried
(NewsCore) - Japanese search teams hope to discover the remains of 12,000 soldiers killed during the Battle of Iwo Jima after the US revealed where it buried enemy casualties during the famous World War II clash, The (London) Daily Telegraph reported Monday.

The US National Archives and Records Administration handed over documents that identify four locations on the island where Japanese dead were thought to have been buried.

One site is said to be at the foot of Mount Suribachi, another close to where a field hospital was located. A third is within a bunker where US troops reported seeing the remains of about 200 Japanese soldiers.

A photograph of US troops hoisting the Stars and Stripes atop Mount Suribachi is one of the defining images of the war. The US won control of the tiny eight-square-mile (21sq/km) Pacific island -- 760 miles (1,224km) south of Tokyo -- in March 1945 after a savage five-week battle.

The US controlled the island until 1968 when it was handed back to Japan, but 66 years on from the battle the remains of many Japanese -- including their commander, Lieutenant-General Tadamichi Kuribayashi -- have not been found.

It is believed that 22,000 Japanese soldiers died defending the island -- 629 per day -- while 6,800 US soldiers were killed and another 20,000 were injured.