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Japan soldier dies during visit to Iwo Jima tunnel
By Mari Yamaguchi
Associated Press
TOKYO -- A Japanese army major collapsed while visiting a wartime tunnel on Iwo Jima and later died, the first death on the island since World War II, officials said today.
The 45-year-old major was last seen fixing the crumbling entryway to the Senda Bunker while visiting on Thursday, said an official from the Ground Self-Defense Forces Fuji School, where the major was an instructor.
Other instructors, who had walked further into the tunnel, found him slumped on the ground when they returned to the entrance after about an hour, the official said on condition of anonymity, citing department policy.
The major was airlifted to a defense hospital in Tokyo where he was pronounced dead, he said.
He said an autopsy was under way to determine the cause of his death, but officials suspected heat stroke.
The group was inspecting the wartime facilities before an annual school trip next month to teach war history.
During the Battle of Iwo Jima in 1945, more than 20,000 Japanese and nearly 7,000 Americans died. Historians say many Japanese soldiers died of heat stroke hiding in the tunnels dug on the island to resist a U.S. invasion.
Iwo Jima was returned to Japan from U.S. occupation in 1968, and is currently used as a military base.
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By Mari Yamaguchi
Associated Press
TOKYO -- A Japanese army major collapsed while visiting a wartime tunnel on Iwo Jima and later died, the first death on the island since World War II, officials said today.
The 45-year-old major was last seen fixing the crumbling entryway to the Senda Bunker while visiting on Thursday, said an official from the Ground Self-Defense Forces Fuji School, where the major was an instructor.
Other instructors, who had walked further into the tunnel, found him slumped on the ground when they returned to the entrance after about an hour, the official said on condition of anonymity, citing department policy.
The major was airlifted to a defense hospital in Tokyo where he was pronounced dead, he said.
He said an autopsy was under way to determine the cause of his death, but officials suspected heat stroke.
The group was inspecting the wartime facilities before an annual school trip next month to teach war history.
During the Battle of Iwo Jima in 1945, more than 20,000 Japanese and nearly 7,000 Americans died. Historians say many Japanese soldiers died of heat stroke hiding in the tunnels dug on the island to resist a U.S. invasion.
Iwo Jima was returned to Japan from U.S. occupation in 1968, and is currently used as a military base.
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