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Japanese, British war veterans meet



Subject: Japanese, British war veterans meet in Myanmar

Japanese, British war veterans meet in Myanmar
08:07 a.m. Feb 08, 1999 Eastern
YANGON, Feb 8 (Reuters) - Japanese and British veterans of World War II held
a joint memorial service on Monday at a new Japanese war cemetery in a
Yangon suburb near areas where they fought fiercely against each other more
than 50 years ago.

About 350 Japanese war veterans, their families, and members of the Burma
Campaign Fellowship Group in Britain, attended the ceremony sponsored by the
All-Burma Veterans Association of Japan, Myanmar officials said.

British ambassador Robert Gordon and his Japanese counterpart Kazuo Asakai
also joined the gathering at the Yayway Japanese War Cemetery about 20 miles
(32 km) north of Yangon.

Myanmar officials said it was only the second joint ceremony between the two
former foes on the site of a battlefield in Myanmar. Their first meeting was
in February 1997 at an old Japanese cemetery at Kyandaw in Yangon.

Over 190,000 Japanese and 37,000 Allied soldiers, mainly from Britain,
Australia, New Zealand and India, died in battles in Myanmar during World
War II.