Mission to Mongolia to collect remains of Nomonhan soldiers

0 Comments | Asian Political News, July 8, 2002

TOKYO, July 5 Kyodo

A Japanese mission will visit Mongolia from July to August to pick up the remains of Japanese soldiers killed in the 1939 Nomonhan Incident, which involved fierce fighting between Japanese and Soviet and Mongolian troops, the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry said Friday.

Ministry officials said the mission is the first to retrieve the remains of Japanese soldiers and other Japanese who were killed in the hostilities near the village of Nomonhan on the border between northwestern Manchuria and Outer Mongolia between May and August in 1939.

A private Japanese group found the remains of five Japanese at the site in Mongolia last year and temporarily buried them there.

The ministry officials said the upcoming official mission will bring back those remains if it can work out details with Mongolia.

According to Japanese data, about 8,000 Japanese died in the Nomonhan clash between the Guangdong Army of Japan and Soviet and Mongolian troops.

The incident was a major blow to the Imperial Japanese Army and eventually plunged Japan into the Pacific War in World War II.