On March 13, Osaka held a memorial service to commemorate the victims of the Osaka air raids, marking 80 years since one of the most devastating bombings of World War II.
Among those remembered were many Korean victims, whose identities remain largely unknown.
A committee of local citizens has been working for five years to compile a list of their names.
Approximately 80 people participated in the gathering, reading aloud the names of 178 confirmed victims, including Chinese laborers and American prisoners of war who also perished in the attacks.
Attendees observed a moment of silence.
Osaka Prefecture suffered a total of eight large-scale air raids beginning on March 13, 1945. Smaller attacks throughout the war brought the estimated total casualties, including the missing, to approximately 15,000. The committee estimates that over 1,200 victims were of Korean descent, underscoring the need to further investigate the full extent of the tragedy.