World's Photos

Two mass graves that can store more than 2,000 dead Japanese soldiers have been found on the island of Iwo Jima, one of the bloodiest battles and the most iconic World War II. A team of Japanese researchers have found 51 bodies in two area locations listed by the U.S. military after the war as a grave enemy.
The tomb may contain as many as 2,000 corpses. to complete all this work would take many months. The fighting in the Pacific island of America resulted in 6821 casualties and 21,570 Japanese lives lost. Body of 12 000 Japanese soldiers have never been found. Officials at Japan's Health Ministry, which oversees the search efforts on a desert island, confirmed that 51 bodies had been found and two grave sites are believed to have been found.
But they could not immediately confirm the size of potential mass graves or other details of the Kyodo news report. The discovery of remains will be one of the biggest breakthroughs in recent decades toward the Japanese discovered the body about 12,000 are still missing and presumed dead after the battle of 1945 in the island which has been renamed Iwoto by the Japanese government.
The island is seen as the key United States because it has three airfields that can be used to launch attacks in Tokyo and Japan's main islands. Almost all than 22,000 Japanese soldiers in charge of defending the volcanic region killed in the fighting, which has become a symbol and rallying point for the United States in the Pacific war after the state flag flown at the highest plateau, Mount Suribachi. 6821 Battle of claims involving the Americans and 21,750 Japanese.
Dozens of finding corpses each year, but about 12,000 Japanese are still classified as missing in action and presumed dead on the island, along with 218 Americans. The fighting began on February 19, 1945, but Iwo Jima was not declared independence until March 26. Japan surrendered in August of that year, after Hiroshima and Nagasaki atomic bomb.
According to the Kyodo report, searchers dig near the runway at a military base used by the Japanese - just a lot of island residents and at the foot of Suribachi. It said the operation began earlier this month based on information from U.S. National Archives and Records Administration. The report said the main site is estimated to have about 2,000 corpses and corpse 70-200 Suribachi site. It said the recovery effort is expected to take several months.