Ten prefectures have decided that bereaved relatives from their area will not attend this year's government-sponsored memorial service for those died in World War II, due to fear of becoming infected with the novel coronavirus, the Yomiuri Shimbun has learned.
This will be the first time for prefectural representatives of bereaved families not to attend the annual service, except for cases in which they were unable to do so because flights were canceled due to stormy weather, the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry said.
The memorial service has been held each year on Aug. 15, the day marking the end of World War II, at the Nippon Budokan hall in Tokyo. Relatives of the war dead have been invited to attend from all 47 prefectures.
The Yomiuri Shimbun conducted a survey at the end of July inquiring at each prefectural government and prefectural association of relatives of the war dead as to whether they intended to attend the memorial service. From the survey, it was found that 10 prefectures -- Aomori, Akita, Osaka, Wakayama, Ehime, Nagasaki, Kumamoto, Oita, Miyazaki, and Okinawa -- had decided not to attend.
The ministry plans to take such infection-prevention measures as keeping two empty seats of space between attendees, but has "no consideration of canceling the service itself," according to an official in charge at the ministry.
The memorial service is held to mourn the deaths of the war dead and is attended by the Emperor and Empress. Every year, bereaved relatives, the prime minister and representatives of various sectors attend the service, offering a silent prayer for the war dead at noon.
In consideration of the impact of the new coronavirus, the ministry announced in June it would scale down the service. The number of attending relatives, about 5,000 every year, is to be held to a maximum of 940 in all, by having only 20 invitees attend from each prefecture.
Since July, however, the infections have markedly spread again in Tokyo, and among those who were scheduled to attend the service, many are of advanced age and likely to become seriously ill if infected. They have apparently decided not to attend the service one after another out of fear of becoming infected during their stay in Tokyo or their travel to and from Tokyo.
Among those prefectures that have decided not to attend the service, vice chairman of the Osaka prefectural association of bereaved families of the war dead said: "Being the 75th anniversary of the end of the war this year, we wanted, by all means, to attend the service. But, amid the spread of infections to such an extent in Osaka and Tokyo, we have to avoid the risk of having relatives of the war dead become infected."
Shoeki Taguchi, secretary general of the Akita prefectural association of bereaved families of the war dead, said: "Most of our attendees are 70 or older. Their movement to Tokyo is too risky."
Secretary general of the Wakayama prefectural association of bereaved families, said: "There are many of those relatives who strongly desire to attend the service, but there are also those cases in which they were stopped doing so by their families. We have decided to give up attending, with heartbreaking grief."
Besides these 10, there has been a succession of prefectures that declined to attend the service fully, with both Kochi and Saga prefectures planning to have only one relative each attend the service. There is a likelihood that more prefectures will eventually decide not to have relatives attend.
On the other hand, Tokyo and other prefectures that will have bereaved relatives attend the service said they would take thorough measures to avoid infections. As an official of the Hiroshima prefectural government put it, "We will conduct the checking of their temperatures and physical conditions, starting two weeks before their attendance."
According to the ministry, the government-sponsored memorial service on Aug. 15 has been held since 1963. And ever since, there have been no cases in which there was no attendance by a prefectural unit, except under such circumstances related to severe weather.
An official at the ministry said: "We understand their decision to not attend as one made with a bitter determination. We would like to consider whether there are other ways for those who cannot attend the memorial service to mourn for the war dead."
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