Crew Members of Sunken Battleship Yamato Remembered on 80th Anniv.

Kure, Hiroshima Pref., April 7 (Jiji Press)--A memorial service marking the 80th anniversary of the sinking of the now-defunct Imperial Japanese Navy's battleship Yamato was held in Kure, Hiroshima Prefecture, western Japan, on Monday.

Some 300 people, including bereaved families and Maritime Self-Defense Force members, attended the ceremony. Participants offered silent prayers to the crew members who died in the incident due to attacks by the U.S. military during World War II and laid flowers at the monument in the Nagasako Park in Kure.

The memorial was organized by the Senkanyamato-kai group comprising bereaved families and others. The group hosts a memorial service every year on April 7, when the Yamato sank off the coast of Kagoshima Prefecture, southwestern Japan.

Shinya Ogasawara, who heads the group, said that it is the group's "mission" to continue to console the souls of the victims and honor them down the generations.

"We hope to contribute to the prosperity of peaceful Japan as well as the maintenance of world peace by passing down (the memories)," he also said.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]