Memorial Tours to Palau

Emergence of Contestation: 1968

In 1968, Hiroshi Funasaka (舩坂弘1920-2006), who survived the Battle of Angaur, organised one of the earliest non-governmental tours to Palau to hold memorial services and build war monuments. Subsequently, veterans, bereaved families, and former Japanese immigrants joined such tours to Palau. Numerous momuments monuments were erected across Palau’s islands, while the tours were presented as national efforts to foster memories of the war in both Japan and Palau, despite an absence of Palaun involvement.

Negotiating War Memories at the Edge of the Former Japanese Empire: Two Japanese Veterans' Projects in Palau, Micronesia - Shingo Iitaka