(15 Aug 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Tokyo – 15 August 2025
1. Wide of National Memorial Ceremony for the War Dead, attendees observing a minute of silence
2. Emperor Naruhito and Empress Masako observing a minute of silence
3. People observing a minute of silence
4. Wide of Naruhito reading speech
5. SOUNDBITE (Japanese) Naruhito, Japanese Emperor:
"Reflecting on and profoundly regretting the past, I desperately hope the devastation of war will not be repeated. I would like to offer my deepest condolences to those who lost their lives in the war, together with the people, and pray for this country’s further developments."
6. Wide of Naruhito and Masako bowing
7. Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba bowing to Naruhito and Masako, then the memorial tablet
8. SOUNDBITE (Japanese) Shigeru Ishiba, Japan’s Prime Minister:
"We will never repeat the tragedy of the war. We will never go the wrong way. Once again, we must deeply keep to our hearts the remorse and lesson from that war.”
9. Masako and Naruhito standing during the national anthem
10. Japan’s national flag and banner, reading (Japanese) "National Memorial Ceremony for the War Dead"
11. People singing the national anthem
12. 15-year-old Ami Tashiro from Hiroshima passing a yellow chrysanthemum to Ishiba
13. Ishiba offering the chrysanthemum
14. Tilt down of memorial tablet, reading (Japanese) "Souls of the war dead"
15. SOUNDBITE (Japanese) Ami Tashiro from Hiroshima, who lost her great-grandfather in the Battle of Iwo Jima:
"My great-grand father left a letter to the family before he died. From that letter, in which he thanked his family, I learned how much he cared about his family even moments before death."
16. Bereaved family representatives offering flowers
17. SOUNDBITE (Japanese) Ami Tashiro from Hiroshima, who lost her great-grandfather in the Battle of Iwo Jima:
"It is sad and cruel to see the world suffering from many wars and conflicts now. I truly hope peace comes to the world."
18. Flowers
STORYLINE:
Japan paid tribute to more than 3 million war dead on Friday as the country marks its surrender 80 years ago, ending the World War II, as concern grows about the rapidly fading memories of the tragedy of war and the bitter lessons from the era of Japanese militarism.
"I desperately hope the devastation of war will not be repeated," said Emperor Naruhito, who led the service with Empress Masako.
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba expressed "remorse" over the war, which he called a mistake, restoring the word in a Japanese leader’s Aug. 15 address for the first time since 2013, when former premier Shinzo Abe shunned it.
In a national ceremony at Tokyo’s Budokan hall, about 4,500 officials and bereaved families and their descendants from around the country observed a moment of silence at noon, the time when the then-emperor’s surrender speech began on Aug. 15, 1945.
A 15-year-old student from Hiroshima, Ami Tashiro, who passed the chrysanthemum to Ishiba during the ceremony, visited Iwo jima last year to attend the Japan-US joint memorial ceremony.
The 15-year-old said on Friday she strongly believes the world should not suffer from wars in which families are separated.
AP video by Mayuko Ono
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