In what has been seen as a rare action, a team of Japanese officials on Wednesday started exhuming a six-decade- old war cemetery to take away the remains of its 11 soldiers buried here during World War II.
Disclosing that the Japanese government had sought formal permission from New Delhi to take home the mortal remains of its war dead, the deputy commissioner of Kamrup (Metro) Ashutosh Agnihotri said that the government of India has agreed to allow the removal of the remains of the Japanese soldiers.
He said, “The exhumation, which started on Wednesday, will be carried out in the presence of a magistrate and the police, apart from officials of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, department of archaeology and forensic science laboratory.”
The Guwahati War Cemetery has 546 graves, of which 486 belong to Commonwealth servicemen, 24 Chinese, 25 unidentified and 11 Japanese soldiers. The Northeast has four cemeteries maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC) at Guwahati, Kohima, Digboi and Imphal. There is another World War II cemetery at Jairampur on the historic Stilwell Road in Changlang district of Arunachal Pradesh.
Several major battles of World War II were fought in the region, including the most important, the Battle of Kohima.
The Guwahati War Cemetery, maintained by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, was established during World War II for burials from various military hospitals in the area.
Earlier, a three-member team of Japanese officials identified the graves of its 11 soldiers at cemetery located on Nabagrah road of the capital city and started the process of exhuming the remains. However, due to inclement weather, it could not be completed.
a large number of residents of the area crowded the cemetery.