THE chief of Japan’s Army General Kiyofumi Iwata gently placed a photograph of Petty Officer Masao Tsuzuku inside the conning tower of the tiny Japanese submarine and bowed his head in silent tribute on Wendesday on the banks of Sydney Harbour.
More than 73 years after two midget submarines attacked the harbour and killed 21 Australian sailors asleep on board the support vessel HMAS Kuttabul, General Iwata and a dozen Japanese officers paid their respects with a wreath laying at the Memorial to the dead Australians and another on the remains of submarine M-22.
But it was the photograph of Petty Officer Tsuzuku, one of the four sailors lost after breaching Sydney Harbour’s defences on May 31, 1942 inside two tiny submarines to undertake one of the most daring missions of the war, that took pride of place at the RAN’s Garden Island Heritage Centre.
The young officer’s niece had asked the delegation, hosted by Commodore Lee Goddard and the CO of HMAS Kuttabul Commander Rebecca Jeffcoat, to place the photo of her uncle with the remains of the tiny vessel.
The post Japan’s army chief lays wreath and warns China over disputed islands in South China Sea appeared first on Trunews:.
from Trunews: http://ift.tt/1KbgY61
via IFTTT
No comments:
Post a Comment