Remembrance Day in Japan

On Sunday I took part in the annual Remembrance Day commemorations at the Commonwealth War Cemetry in Hodagaya, Yokohama. I was conscious that many similar ceremonies in the UK had had to be scaled down this year because of COVID restrictions. So it was good to see that, in Japan at least, a large number of people were able to turn out to attend this moving occasion on a beautiful sunny Autumn day.

The Hodogaya Cemetery is a serenely peaceful setting, amidst the bustle of one of Japan’s largest cities. There are around 2,500 similar Commonwealth War Cemeteries in 150 countries around the world.

Much of the iconography around Remembrance Day comes from the First World War, including the poppies. It was the turn of the Indian Embassy to organise the event this year, and they invited me to read the poem “In Flanders fields” by  John McCrae. It is hard not to be stirred by the simple, but poignant words.

At Hodogaya are the graves of over 1700 servicemen and women, and several hundred more are remembered in cremations and memorials. They are mostly from the Second World War, and subsequent conflicts in Korea and Vietnam. As former allies and adversaries, all now friends, laid our wreaths together, I’m sure we were all thinking of the sacrifice of those individuals who lost their lives in these great global struggles – so many of them so young, as you see from the headstones – and of their grieving families.

I’m always reminded on these occasions of the words of King George V, visiting a War Grave in Flanders in 1922. Struck by what he saw, he was moved to comment that “I have many times asked myself whether there can be more potent advocates of peace upon earth.. than this massed multitude of silent witnesses to the desolation of war.”

This year felt particularly poignant for me. After twelve years of laying wreaths at these occasions on behalf of Britain, as Ambassador and High Commissioner in Japan, Australia and Singapore, this was the last time I would get the chance to do so. In the diverse calendar of an ambassador, these are always events where you most feel the weight of history, alongside a mix of humility in the face of what previous generations suffered, and pride in being part of your nation’s remembrance of them.