UK veteran who fought against Japan in World War II visits Tokyo’s national cemetery

By MARI YAMAGUCHI
Associated Press

TOKYO (AP) — A British army veteran who fought and survived one of his country’s harshest battles known as the Burma Campaign against the Japanese during World War II has traveled to Japan to lay flowers at the tomb of the Unknown Soldier at a memorial ceremony on Monday to stress the importance of reconciliation. Richard Day, 97, who survived the 1944 Battle of Kohima in northeast India stood up from a wheelchair, placed a wreath of red flowers on a table and saluted the souls of the unknown Japanese soldiers at Tokyo’s Cihdorigafuchi National Cemetery. “You can’t carry hate,” Day said. Military officials from the embassies in Tokyo of former allied countries attended the ceremony.