In Mereyon Islands, even nowadays, remains of Japanese soldiers are found.  Just after the war, many remains were found when we visited the island.  We collect, burn the remains, and take the ashes to Japan. After consulting the Ministry of Welfare, the ashes are laid to rest at the Chidorigafuchi National Cemetery for the war dead.  Sad thing is that it is difficult to specify the remains.

We constructed The Memorial Bell of Mereyon, for calming souls of the dead at site.  At that time, there was no electric power, and no regular boat service to the island, so the construction work was extremely hard.

Mr. Orihara, Vice President of Hokkaido Mereyon Bereaved Family  Association, told me that he was impressed by my two paintings, “Colleting Bones” on the previous page and “Burning Bones” on this page.  He said:

“I would like to show these works to bereaved.”

So I printed the works on postcards and gave them to more than 1000 survivors and bereaved at the National Mereyon Association’s Tokyo Meeting in 2000.

Some of the bereaved said:

“Thank you, I was impressed.”

I myself was moved by their words.