Bid to repatriate Okinawa WWII victims' bodies

Trekking through mud and rocks in Japan's humid Okinawan jungle, Takamatsu Gushiken reached a slope of ground where human remains have lain forgotten since World War II.

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Itoman - Trekking through mud and rocks in Japan's humid Okinawan jungle, Takamatsu Gushiken reached a slope of ground where human remains have lain forgotten since World War II.

The 72-year-old said a brief prayer and lifted a makeshift protective covering, exposing half-buried bones believed to be those of a young Japanese soldier. "These remains have the right to be returned to their families," said Gushiken, a businessman who has voluntarily searched for the war dead for more than four decades.

The sun-kissed island in southern Japan on Monday marked the 80th anniversary of the Battle of Okinawa.

The three-month carnage, often dubbed the "Typhoon of Steel", killed about 200,000 people, almost half of them local civilians.